US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran leaked false information regarding the potential terms of a Washington-Tehran deal and stated that “there is no such thing as dealing in good faith” with Iranian leadership in a post on Truth Social on Friday.

“The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” Trump asserted. “Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith.”

He also stated that Iran’s Thursday night drone attack on ships in the Strait of Hormuz was “totally unacceptable” and encouraged Iranian leadership to “get their act together.”

According to Reuters, a senior Trump administration official stated that under the emerging deal, Iran’s nuclear program would be dismantled, all nuclear materials would be destroyed and removed, and Iran would not be able to continue funding terrorist proxies in the region.

The official added that the deal would be “performance-based” and none of Tehran’s frozen assets would be released until Iran fulfills its part in the agreement.

Iranian state media claims deal would unfreeze assets, end fighting in Lebanon

Earlier on Friday, Iranian state media site Mehr claimed that a full ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran will include an end to fighting in Lebanon, as well as the initial unfreezing of 12 billion dollars in funds for Iran.

US-based media outlet Bloomberg also reported that the US and Iran are edging closer to signing an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the Group of Seven world leaders are set to meet next week, according to senior officials. 

A draft of the deal is still waiting for Iranian officials’ approval, Mehr reported, and the final agreement will be approved by the United Nations Security Council.

As part of the deal, the US would allegedly remove sanctions on Iranian oil and petrochemical products, allowing Iran full access to its frozen assets. Mehr reported that the total amount of funds is 24 billion dollars, with half of that amount being released to Iran before further talks may begin.

Among other concessions claimed to be part of the deal, the US would agree to not intervene in internal Iranian affairs and remove its forces from areas near Iran.

Mehr also claimed that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be lifted and that the strait would be fully reopened within 30 days of the deal’s signing.

When it comes to the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the deal only specifies that there will be a 60-day negotiation period to establish a final nuclear agreement.

Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as its support for proxy groups across the Middle East such as Hezbollah, will not be included in the negotiations, according to Mehr.

Trump cancels Iran strikes, announces deal

On Thursday night, US President Donald Trump announced that he had canceled scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran, after a deal with Iran had been agreed upon.

The deal, also known as a memorandum of understanding (MOU), was approved “both in concept and great detail” by all involved parties, including the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and multiple other Middle Eastern countries, Trump wrote.

No date was given for the signing, but Trump said it could happen over the weekend in Europe, with US Vice President JD Vance set to attend.

Danya Saperstein, Amichai Stein, and Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here.

Today, June 12, would have been Anne Frank’s 97th birthday.

Anne was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. She quickly became one of the most lasting voices of the Holocaust. Despite dying at the early age of 15, Anne’s writings have reached millions of people all around the world and educated countless generations of the horrors of hatred, antisemitism, and discrimination.

Facing increasing persecution from the Nazi regime, Anne’s family moved to Amsterdam in search of safety. However, when the Nazis took over Holland, they were forced into hiding. Thus, for over two years, the Franks along with four other people lived in hiding inside an annex located above the building where Otto Frank had his business.

Throughout this period, Anne wrote in a diary, describing her experiences, worries, problems, and even hopes and aspirations. With the help of her writing, Anne left behind an insightful first-hand account of what it is like to be in hiding in some of the darkest times of human history. Although she faced unimaginable hardships, Anne showed an incredible amount of wisdom and resilience through her writings.

The Secret Annex was raided in August 1944, and its inhabitants were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. Both Anne and her sister Margot ended up in Bergen-Belsen, where they both died early in 1945, a few weeks before their liberation. Anne was only fifteen. Anne Frank’s father was the only member of the direct family who survived the war.

Otto Frank went back to Amsterdam following the war and got back his daughter’s diary that had been kept safely by Miep Gies, one of the brave people who assisted in hiding the Franks and other Jews. Realizing how important his daughter’s words were, Otto went ahead to ensure the publication of the diary. Anne Frank’s Diary is among the best-selling books of all time since its publication in 1947. It has been translated to more than seventy languages around the world.

Anne Frank’s influence in the world remains undiminished over seven decades after her death. Apart from being evidence of the atrocities during World War II, her diary is a testimony of hope and bravery in times of despair.

Perhaps no quote better captures Anne’s spirit than her famous words:

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Today is Anne Frank Day which occurs annually to celebrate Anne’s birthday and remember the six million Jewish people who were killed during the Holocaust. Though Anne’s life ended early through terrorism, her message lives on inspiring hope in even the darkest of times.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) THE QUESTION: A career scammer, who has taken the life-savings of several people is sitting in prison. He declares with perfect calm that Hashem will surely engineer his acquittal. Deep down he looks at his incarceration as a mere setback and he has not done Teshuvah. Is this bitachon? Should he, in fact, even have bitachon? In short, may a rasha have bitachon?

And if the answer is “no” – then who is bitachon for? Don’t all of us do something wrong?

THE ANSWER: This is a preliminary answer and it could be subject to several revisions. There are, of course, numerous sources and different girsaos (versions) of the sources. As far as end-conclusions – there seems to be six possible views on the topic. They are quite far-ranging and we may be tempted to vehemently disagree with at least one of them.

1. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – and it will be effective but he must first do Teshuvah.
2. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – and it will be effective but he must change for the future, but not necessarily do Teshuvah.
3. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – even if he does not do Teshuvah nor even change in the future.
4. No, a rasha should not have bitachon.
5. No, a rasha should not have bitachon and it is an aveira – for him to have it!
6. The way it works is that bitachon is a power in and of itself – and it can even work for a bank-robber to rob successfully.

The pasuk in Tehillim (32:10) states, “Many are the pains of the wicked, but as for him who trusts in the Hashem- kindness will encompass him.” The Medrash on Aicha Rabba 4:23 cites the pasuk in Tehillim and states that “even a Rasha – Hashem accepts him.” The Matnas Kehunah – the commentary of Rav Yissachar Ber HaKohen of Szczebrzeszyn, Poland (d. after 1608), a talmid of the Rema, completed in 1584 and printed in Cracow in 1587-88 – explains that when the Midrash refers to a rasha, it adds the words “vechazar bo” – as a caveat. The rasha being “accepted” is not the rasha of the first half of the pasuk; he is a rasha who has already turned back. On this reading the second clause of the pasuk is not describing the wicked man at all, but the former-wicked man, and the chessed is the reward for his return. This would seem to indicate position #1 – bitachon works for a rasha, but only after Teshuvah unlocks it.

The Yefei Toar – the commentary of Rav Shmuel Yafeh Ashkenazi of Constantinople (c. 1525–1595), first printed in Venice in 1597 – on Aicha Rabbah 4:23 does not add the words “vechazar bo” but states that he took it upon himself not to go that way in the future. The RaShaSh – Rav Shmuel Strashun of Vilna (1794–1872), whose glosses appear on nearly every daf of the Vilna Shas – on Vayikrah Rabba 15:4 understands it this way as well. The line of reasoning that separates this from the Matnas Kehunah is subtle but real. The Matnas Kehunah requires a completed act of return, a “vechazar bo” that addresses the past. The Yefei Toar asks for something forward-looking instead: a kabbalah, a firm resolve regarding the future, without insisting that the slate of the past has yet been wiped clean. A man may be unable to undo what he has done, and may not yet have reached full charatah on it, yet still resolve with sincerity that he will not continue down this road. That resolve, on this reading, is enough to make his bitachon valid. This forward-facing condition – change without full Teshuvah – is precisely position #2. [Note: the original draft labeled this source as position #4; on the description given, it maps more naturally to #2, and is placed there here.]

On the other hand, the simple reading of the pasuk is that the beginning seems to inform the context of the last part of the pasuk – that the pasuk refers to a Rasha who has neither done teshuvah nor changed his plans for the future – and his act of bitachon will cause Hashem to act in the manner of Chessed with him. The strength of this reading is that it takes the pasuk exactly as written: it is the boteach, the one who trusts, who is surrounded by chessed, and the pasuk attaches no further qualification to him. To insert a “vechazar bo” or a kabbalah for the future is to add words the pasuk itself does not supply. On the plain meaning, the very act of trusting is what draws down the chessed, and it does so on its own terms. This seems to be the approach of the Yalkut Tehillim #719. The Midrash Tehillim #25 relates a moshol of a thief who got caught and claimed he was a relative of the king. When the king asked him, “You are my relative??” He answered, “I trusted you would save me.” The king said, “Since you had faith in me, I will save you.” The moshol is striking precisely because the thief is still a thief – he offers no repentance and promises no reform – and yet the act of casting himself upon the king is itself what earns him rescue. The trust, not the worthiness of the one who trusts, is the operative cause. These would be possible sources for position #3.

The Chovas HaLevavos Shaar HaBitachon Chapter III, in the fourth requirement for Bitachon, specifically writes that it is ineffective for someone who rebels against Hashem. The reasoning here flows from the Chovas HaLevavos’s entire framework of what bitachon is. For Rabbeinu Bachya, bitachon is not a standalone technique that produces results; it is the natural fruit of a relationship of loyalty between a person and his Creator. One reasonably relies on another only where there is a basis for that reliance – and the rebel has severed the very basis. A man who is actively defying the One in whom he claims to trust has placed himself outside the relationship that bitachon presupposes. His “trust” is therefore hollow at the root; there is nothing for it to rest upon. This is in line with position #4 – not that Hashem refuses him out of anger, but that the rasha’s bitachon simply lacks the foundation that would make it bitachon at all.

The Chsam Sofer writes in his Drashos Vol. II page 236 that not only is there no Bitachon for a rasha – but it is even a sin for him to do so. The reasoning moves one step beyond the Chovas HaLevavos. For the Chovas HaLevavos the rasha’s bitachon is merely empty; for the Chsam Sofer it is affirmatively harmful, and the harm is spiritual. A rasha who tells himself that Hashem will rescue him has handed himself the perfect excuse never to change. His “bitachon” becomes a cushion for his wickedness – a way of converting the comfort of faith into a license to keep sinning. Far from drawing him closer, it anesthetizes him against the very discomfort that might have prompted Teshuvah. Because it actively entrenches him in his sin, the act is not neutral but itself an aveira. This would fit with position #5.

Finally, this author had heard in the name of Roshei Yeshiva in the Telze Yeshiva that Bitachon acts as a power in and of itself. The reasoning runs parallel to the way Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains the power of Mida Kneged Mida in the case of Penina and Chana. Penina did nothing wrong – she acted 100 percent leshaim shamayim, prodding Chana only so that Chana would daven with greater intensity. She was nonetheless punished, because she was in fact the source of pain to Chana. The lesson Rav Chaim draws is that certain spiritual realities operate mechanically, by their own internal logic, independent of the intentions or the merit of the person who sets them in motion. Pain caused produces consequence, regardless of motive.

On this model bitachon is the same kind of force: a real spiritual power that, once activated, exerts its effect on its own, without first weighing the righteousness of the one who wields it. Just as Penina’s pure intentions did not exempt her from the mechanism, the rasha’s wickedness would not exempt him from this one. Carried to its logical end, this means the koach of bitachon could in principle “work” even for a bank-robber bent on a successful heist. This would fit with position #6, although most people vehemently disagree with it.

The author is indepted to Sefer Sha’ar Elchonon for much of the source material. The author can be reached at [email protected]

The world of dayanus was plunged into mourning Thursday with the passing of Harav Nachum Sheinin zt”l, a longtime member of the Beis Din HaRabani HaGadol and former Av Beis Din of Tel Aviv. He was 89 years old.

Widely regarded as one of the leading and most respected dayanim of his generation, Rav Sheinin devoted decades to Torah, hora’ah, and public service, leaving an enduring impact on countless talmidim, colleagues, and members of the broader Torah community.

A distinguished alumnus of Yeshivas Ponevezh, Rav Sheinin developed into a prominent talmid chacham under the guidance of the yeshiva’s revered roshei yeshiva. His years in Ponevezh laid the foundation for a lifetime dedicated to Torah scholarship, judicial leadership, and communal responsibility.

For many years, he served as Av Beis Din of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court, where he became known for his mastery of complex halachic issues, particularly in difficult family law matters. He handled sensitive and challenging cases with exceptional wisdom, helping resolve numerous agunah situations and adjudicating intricate disputes with both precision and compassion.

In 2008, Rav Sheinin was appointed to the Beis Din HaRabani HaGadol, Israel’s highest rabbinical court, where he continued to serve with distinction until his passing.

Alongside his judicial responsibilities, Rav Sheinin served as Rav of the Heichal Moshe Yitzchak beis medrash in Bnei Brak and headed Kollel Tov HaTorah. Over the years, he taught thousands, delivered countless shiurim, and became a respected address for Torah guidance and halachic counsel.

He maintained close relationships with many of the leading Torah figures of the generation, including Maran Harav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, from whom he drew inspiration and guidance throughout much of his public career.

His levayah took place Thursday afternoon, departing from his beis medrash on Baal Shem Tov Street in Bnei Brak. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of Yeshivas Ponevezh.

The family is sitting shivah at their home on Rashi Street in Bnei Brak.

Yehi zichro baruch.

All of Ocean County remains under Severe Drought drought conditions, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor data, as a prolonged precipitation deficit continues to affect water supplies, vegetation, and environmental conditions across the state and the region.

The latest federal drought assessment shows 100% of Ocean County experiencing drought conditions, with more than 576,000 residents affected. Conditions have remained unchanged in recent weeks despite occasional rainfall, reflecting a longer-term moisture deficit that has persisted across much of New Jersey.

Some areas of the state, in Cape May and Cumberland counties, are now designated as “Extreme Drought.”

The state has now experienced 10 consecutive months of below-normal rainfall and below normal precipitation for 20 of the last 24 months since September 2024.

State or Ocean County officials have not announced mandatory water restrictions, but drought monitoring agencies continue to urge residents and businesses to use water efficiently as the summer season approaches. Drought conditions can increase stress on water systems, reduce streamflows, affect agriculture and landscaping, and heighten wildfire risk in wooded areas.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, which is updated once a week to show the location and intensity of drought conditions across the country, show experts’ assessments of conditions related to dryness and drought including observations of how much water is available in streams, lakes, and soils compared to usual for the same time of year.

It should be noted that in New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection makes the official calls on drought status in the state.

Earlier this year, the DEP issued a statewide Drought Watch, strongly urging residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve water, as the state experienced below-average rainfall in recent months, contributing to diminished streamflow, reservoir, and groundwater levels, as well as an increase in wildfire activity.

The declaration of a Drought Watch is intended to increase public awareness and appreciation of the stress water supply sources are facing and encourages the public to practice voluntary water conservation measures. If conditions do not improve, declaration of a Drought Warning or a Drought Emergency with mandatory water use restrictions may become necessary.

The last drought emergency lasted almost a year, between March 2002 and January 2003.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta’s biggest apps stopped working for huge numbers of people on Friday, June 12, as a widespread outage knocked Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger offline and locked users out of their accounts.

The company confirmed the trouble through spokesperson Andy Stone, who posted on X on Friday: “We’re aware people are currently having trouble accessing our services. We’re working on it.”

The scale was significant.

The outage-tracking site Downdetector logged more than 100,000 user reports by 10 a.m. Eastern time as a server-side failure logged people out of Facebook and partly disrupted Instagram.

Reports came in from across the United States, with heavy concentrations in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Users described a similar pattern.

They were suddenly logged out and then unable to sign back in.

Feeds went blank.

Error messages appeared reading “unexpected error” or “query error.”

Messenger was among the hardest-hit services, with users appearing offline to friends and messages failing to send.

The disruptions affected both desktop and mobile applications.

For everyday users, an hour without Instagram is an inconvenience.

For businesses, it can mean lost revenue.

That is the part of the story that does not appear in the error messages.

Millions of small businesses rely on Meta’s platforms for customer service, advertising, and online sales.

When those platforms go dark, transactions stop.

On Friday, Meta Ads Manager, the company’s advertising platform, experienced major disruptions. Advertisers were advised to pause campaigns to avoid spending money on ads that users could not properly access.

The financial exposure can be substantial.

Meta generally does not provide automatic credits or refunds when outages occur.

A small business spending hundreds of dollars per day on advertising can lose valuable campaign time with little opportunity to recover those costs.

Restaurants accepting orders through Instagram, retailers selling through Facebook, and content creators who depend on the platforms for income can all feel the impact immediately.

Meta did not immediately identify the cause of the outage.

However, the symptoms point to a familiar type of failure.

When Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger all experience problems simultaneously, the issue is often tied to backend authentication systems that verify user identities across Meta’s network.

If that shared login infrastructure encounters problems, multiple platforms can fail at once even though the broader internet remains fully operational.

That helps explain why users were being logged out and unable to sign back in rather than simply experiencing slow loading times.

Meta has experienced similar outages in previous years linked to authentication and backend service failures.

In many cases, services have been restored gradually over several hours, with some regions returning online before others.

The timing is notable.

Meta continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies while relying on Facebook and Instagram as the core drivers of its advertising business.

Those platforms generate the revenue that funds much of the company’s broader strategy.

An outage affecting all major services at once highlights how dependent both users and businesses remain on infrastructure that typically operates unnoticed in the background.

As of Friday afternoon, Meta had not provided a timeline for full restoration of services and had not posted detailed updates regarding recovery efforts.

For users, there is little that can be done when the problem originates on Meta’s systems rather than their own devices.

For businesses relying on constant connectivity, the most expensive part of the outage may simply be the time spent waiting.

JBizNews Desk — Technology

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A video posted to social media by Casey Babb, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and policy adviser to Canada’s former minister of defense, shows a young man identified only as Omar saying he will kill as many Zionists as he can.

The video appears to have been shot in midtown Manhattan.

“Omar, are you going to go kill Jews?” the man taking the video asks the masked, keffiyeh-clad youngster, who also sports a Hamas headband.

“I’m going to kill Zionists,” the youth says.

“You’re going to kill Zionists?” the man asks. When Omar replies in the affirmative, the man asks, “How many Zionists do you want to kill?”

“As many as I can,” Omar replies.

After some back and forth in which the man twists Omar’s brain into knots by telling him he is an Arab, a Jew and a Zionist all rolled into one, he warns the young man that he will get into a lot of trouble for threatening to kill Jews, because despite his mask he can still be identified.

“What you just did now on video is one of the dumbest things you ever did, because I’m going to post it,” the man says. “It’s going to go viral; it’s going to get ID’d; and then you’re going to get arrested for what you just did.”

Babb warned that the development of young people threatening violence will exact a high price if left unchecked.

“A young man in New York City casually looks into the camera and states that he’s going to kill as many Zionists as he can,” Babb wrote in his social media post. “We can’t allow this to be a normal, acceptable occurrence. If we do — we’ll end up paying a very, very high price.”

A fierce dispute erupted Thursday between chareidi parties and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich after he decided at the last minute not to bring a funding package worth more than one billion shekels for new communities in Judea and Samaria to the cabinet for approval. Instead, the proposal will now be discussed at Sunday’s Security Cabinet meeting.

Associates of the finance minister said the decision stemmed from diplomatic concerns and international sensitivity surrounding settlement development. Chareidi political sources, however, argue that moving the matter from the government table to the Security Cabinet was also intended to reduce public scrutiny over both the source of the funds and their distribution.

The controversy follows a letter sent by United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf, who urged Smotrich to include the chareidi cities of Immanuel and Modiin Illit in the funding package. Goldknopf argued that there was no justification for excluding chareidi communities located in Judea and Samaria from the program. According to party sources, Smotrich declined the request.

A senior chareidi official sharply criticized the move, telling local media, “You killed and then inherited. Smotrich took more than a billion shekels for Judea and Samaria, including funds that had been frozen from the chareidi public, and instead of bringing the decision to a government meeting and facing criticism, he transferred it to the Security Cabinet under the pretext of diplomatic pressure.”

The official claimed that the move was designed to avoid a public debate over how the money is being allocated, why chareidi communities were left out, and why funds that had previously been removed from the Torah world and chareidi institutions are now being redirected elsewhere.

“This is an attempt to avoid a public discussion about how the money is being distributed, why the chareidi cities were excluded, and why funds taken away from the Torah world and chareidi institutions are now being directed to other purposes,” the source said.

The anger within the chareidi camp has also focused on a recent increase in funding for hesder yeshivos. According to sources in United Torah Judaism, Smotrich approved an increase in the funding formula for hesder institutions worth approximately 30 million shekels, even as chareidi yeshivos continue to contend with budget freezes and reductions.

Party officials argue that the decision reflects a pattern of favoritism toward institutions associated with Smotrich’s constituency while the chareidi educational system faces growing financial challenges.

“At a time when Gedolei Yisroel are traveling across the globe to raise money to sustain the Torah world, the finance minister is making sure to increase funding for the yeshivos identified with his own community,” the official said. “You cannot demand political partnership from the chareidim while systematically favoring the institutions and communities of one sector over another.”

{Matzav.com}

Elon Musk crossed a line no person in history has reached. When SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 a share, Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. The milestone was locked in before the stock ever traded, built on numbers from the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and confirmed by wealth trackers at Forbes and Reuters. The shares then opened on the Nasdaq on Friday, June 12, above that price, adding even more to his fortune.

The math is simple, even if the figure is hard to picture. In its IPO prospectus, SpaceX said Musk owns about 4.8 billion shares, roughly 42% of the company, plus 350 million stock options. The $135 offering price valued the company at $1.77 trillion. At that price, Musk’s SpaceX stake alone was worth roughly $690 billion. Add his stake in Tesla, worth about $279 billion, along with his other holdings, and his total fortune cleared $1 trillion.

Then the stock climbed higher. Shares opened at $150, about 11% above the offering price. Within minutes they topped $160, up roughly 19%, lifting the company’s market value above $2 trillion.

To put the number in perspective, one trillion dollars equals one thousand billion dollars. Before Friday, Musk was already the richest person alive, worth an estimated $813 billion, more than twice the fortune of the second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page. No one else is close.

The deal itself broke records. SpaceX raised $75 billion by selling 555.6 million shares, making it the largest initial public offering in history. It surpassed the previous record held by Saudi Aramco. The company also broke from standard practice by setting a fixed offering price of $135 rather than offering a range, a move with few precedents among major U.S. listings.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase led the offering, joined by 18 additional banks.

Musk rang the opening bell from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president and chief operating officer, rang the bell at Nasdaq’s Times Square location, surrounded by employees. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and kept it private for 24 years. What ultimately pushed the company to go public was Starlink, the satellite internet service that now generates most of its revenue.

Musk cannot access most of this wealth anytime soon. More than 90% of his fortune remains tied up in company stock. He also faces a 366-day lockup period on his SpaceX shares, longer than the standard 180-day restriction, meaning he cannot sell shares for more than a year.

The company is also still losing money. SpaceX reported $18.67 billion in revenue for 2025, up 33% from the previous year, but posted a net loss of nearly $5 billion. Critics argue the $1.77 trillion valuation is far too high for a company that remains unprofitable.

Wall Street is divided. Oppenheimer initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $190 price target. Morningstar took the opposite view, with analyst Nicolas Owens assigning a fair value estimate of $63 per share, less than half the IPO price.

The offering is expected to create thousands of new fortunes. About 4,400 SpaceX employees could become millionaires now that the stock is publicly traded, according to estimates cited in early coverage. Retail investors also received their first opportunity to own a stake in the company. The stock trades under the ticker SPCX and is available through brokers including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi, and E*Trade.

For now, Musk sits alone at the top — the first member of a club that has never had anyone in it.

JBizNews Desk

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GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Republican political candidates routinely highlight their devotion to President Donald Trump. But in upstate New York, Anthony Constantino is taking it to another level.

Constantino, a political newcomer and candidate in the June 23 Republican primary to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik, boasts a giant “Vote for Trump” sign atop his successful sticker business in the city of Amsterdam. He recorded a hip-hop album titled “Thank you President Trump.” He even gifted Trump a big bronze statue of Trump himself last year at his West Palm Beach golf course.

Constantino’s antics have not earned him fans among local party officials, who overwhelmingly support his opponent, state Assembly Member Robert Smullen, in the 21st Congressional District race. But Constantino has won over one powerful Republican who still has the power to sway primaries: Trump.

“Anthony is strongly supported by many of the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in our Movement, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone!” Trump wrote in an endorsement of Constantino.

The president added: “The sign is still there!”

Constantino’s battle against Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel, is shaping up to be another test of Trump’s pull at the ballot box, pitting the brash MAGA disciple against a more traditional conservative in the solid-red district.

Constantino has relentlessly attacked Smullen, calling him a “Trump hater” and giving him a derisive nickname out of the Trump playbook — “Slimebob.” He also doesn’t miss a chance to feud with the state’s Republican leadership.

“The New York GOP is a failing establishment, it’s a losing establishment,” Constantino said in an interview. “They reject outsiders. This happened with Donald Trump. The Republican Party tried to keep Donald Trump out, as well, because they knew he was going to reform things.”

Smullen has cast himself as the adult in the room, stressing his experience in the state Legislature, his military service, and his own ties to Trump.

“I think I directly represent the vast majority of the people in this district, their values, what they think about issues,” he said.

The district is ‘not your country club Republican party’
The largely rural district sprawls across most of New York’s northern tip and includes the Adirondack Mountains, the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum, dairy farms and dozens of small cities, towns and villages.

It’s solid GOP territory — Stefanik won her last race by 24 points — with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats 215,000 to 134,000. Voters there skew older and white, with many prison guards, police officers, farmers and devoutly religious people, according to Jack McGuire, an associate professor of politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

“It’s not your country club Republican party,” he said.

Stefanik shocked the New York political world when she announced late last year that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would not seek reelection to the House.

Her decision came after she didn’t get full-throated support from Trump in the governor’s race, and it followed an episode where Trump withdrew her nomination to be his ambassador to the United Nations over concerns about Republicans’ threadbare majority in the House.

Local Republicans first began angling for the seat after she was tapped to head to the United Nations, only to begin circling again when she launched her run for governor.

A clash of candidates and styles
Smullen, who represents parts of the district in the state Assembly, is running a traditional campaign, chatting up voters at volunteer firehouses and community events.

He highlights a 24-year military career that included three tours of Afghanistan and combat experience, along with his more than seven years in the state Legislature. His 2018 appointment by Trump to serve in the White House Fellows program, along with attending both of Trump’s inaugurations, was a go-to line when Constantino moved to cast himself as the Trump candidate during a recent debate.

“The idea that I have never been a supporter of President Donald Trump is a lie, it really is,” Smullen said during the debate. “And what’s happening here is that if you say it long enough and if you say it hard enough then it’s going to be true. But it’s not true.”

Local GOP officials and committees are backing Smullen, as is the chair of the state Republicans. He also has the support of the state Conservative Party, which guarantees him a line in the general election even if he loses the GOP primary.

Matt Capano, who owns a hardware store in Gloversville, a small city in the district, said he knew Smullen as his local state lawmaker and had to “give him a lot of credit” because of his experience.

Constantino — who found success with his company Sticker Mule — is more of a showman. His style has forced his buttoned-up opponent to let loose. Smullen’s campaign launched an anti-Constantino website that excoriates him for, among many other things, his past registration as a Democrat.

“I am the conservative Republican in this race,” Smullen said at the debate.

Constantino responded that he registered as a Democrat to vote for a childhood friend who was running for political office while calling himself a “lifelong conservative.”

It didn’t take long for him to steer the conversation back toward the president.

“I’ve always had his back through the whole thing,” he said of Trump. “In fact, in 2020, when he nicely exited the White House and a terrible person named Joe Biden entered, I went and I supported the president quietly by buying a Mar-a-Lago membership.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Catapulted by the market debut of his rocket company SpaceX, Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire by the end of the day.

That level of wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable. Before Friday, the trillion dollar mark was reserved for measures like the GDP (or staggering debt ) of a handful of major economies — and, in the last decade alone, the value of some of the biggest companies to ever trade on the stock market.

Musk’s new title arrives amid a wider acceleration for the richest of the rich. Year after year, his former (although now very distant) billionaires club has reaped a growing number of members — from tech titans to celebrities. All the while, more and more people worldwide are struggling to pay their everyday bills. Many have decried the arrival of the first trillionaire as the latest and most alarming example of that wealth gap.

The number “one trillion” is hard in itself for the human mind to comprehend. One trillion dollars is a thousand times greater than $1 billion. And a million times more than $1 million.

Still, here are some ways to think about how far that amount of money could go.

To the moon and back, over 200 times
Thinking about what $1 trillion looks like is almost as astronomical as the interplanetary — and at this point, still far from realized — goals SpaceX has laid out for itself.

In terms of physical cash, one trillion U.S. dollar bills laid end to end would stretch nearly 97 million miles (or almost 156 million kilometers). That would account for the distance of more than 200 round trip journeys to the moon — which NASA says sits an average of 238,855 miles (nearly 384,400 kilometers) away from Earth. It would also surpass the roughly 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) between Earth and the sun.

$122 for every person on Earth
There are nearly 8.2 billion people living on Earth today, per the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. If $1 trillion was divided among the entire population, each person would receive almost $122.

Double the GDP of South Africa
One trillion dollars is more than double the annual GDP of South Africa, the country where Musk was born. According 2026 numbers from International Monetary Fund, the nation’s output of goods and services stands at nearly $480 billion.

Only about 21 countries in the world have a GDP over the trillion dollar mark today. The U.S. and China lead the pack at more than $32.38 trillion and $20.85 trillion, respectively, but that’s far ahead most other economies.

2.5 million homes in the US
Houses sold in the U.S. have a median sales price of about $403,200, per the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. With $1 trillion, you could buy nearly 2.5 million homes at that cost.

243 billion gallons of gas
At current U.S. gas prices — which averaged at nearly $4.11 a gallon Friday per AAA — $1 trillion could buy more than 243 billion gallons of regular fuel.

To help put that in context, that far surpasses the nearly 137 billion gallons Americans used on finished motor gasoline all last year. And prices at the pump were much less expensive in 2025. Steep oil prices, spanning from the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war against Iran, propelled the national average above $4 a gallon for the first time in four years.

Over $700 billion ahead the world’s second richest person
According to Forbes, the second richest person in the world today is Google co-founder Larry Page — who carried a net worth of nearly $293 billion as of Friday morning. That’s $707 billion under the trillion dollar mark.

In fact, the combined net worth, as of Friday, of the four men following Musk on Forbes’ richest list — which, beyond Page, includes fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($270 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($251 billion) and Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($230 billion) — amounted to just over $1.04 trillion.

Those fortunes can oscillate by tens of billions of dollars by the day, or sometimes a matter of hours. Musk’s own net worth has rapidly ballooned in value. Just last year, his net worth sat at $342 billion per Forbes — up from $195 billion in 2024.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the United States is advancing an agreement with Iran centered on American interests, including preventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, while Israel expects the deal to also address missiles and Tehran’s terror proxies.

Katz noted that joint actions by Israel and the U.S. have significantly degraded Iran’s capabilities, setting them back by many years. He stressed that Israel must preserve its independent ability to act against any Iranian nuclear threat.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to prepare accordingly,” Katz said in a statement Friday.

Israel will not withdraw from security zones it established in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, Katz said. The Israel Defense Forces will continue defending Israel’s borders and citizens from the peak of Mount Hermon through the mountains of Lebanon, areas in the Samaria region and most of the territory of Gaza against threats from jihadist forces.

“The IDF will not withdraw from the terrorist camps in northern Samaria, which have been evacuated of residents, and if necessary, the operation will be expanded to additional terrorist camps,” he added.

Katz outlined Israel’s security doctrine as one that confronts both near and distant threats and seeks decisive outcomes rather than compromises.

“Much is at stake in this period, and we are determined to continue leading a firm security policy that will prevent harm to our security achievements and will not endanger our ability to fight against the Shiite axis of evil led by Iran and the Sunni axis of evil led by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Katz said.

He expressed appreciation to the IDF command, soldiers in the regular forces, standing army and reserves for their achievements, and to residents of the north for their steadfastness.

Katz also sent condolences to bereaved families and wishes for recovery to the wounded.

The comments come amid ongoing regional tensions following Israeli military operations against Iranian-backed groups and efforts to shape post-conflict arrangements in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Shikma Bresler, one of the most prominent leaders of the protests against judicial reform, ignited a fierce backlash on social media Thursday night after sharply criticizing demonstrations by Peleg Yerushalmi activists that brought major roads across central Israel to a standstill.

Bresler took aim at the protests in a post on X, comparing the demonstrators to other groups she views as disregarding the rule of law.

“There is no difference between the chareidi factions of the government on the roads, for whom the law has no meaning, and the factions of the government in Judea and Samaria,” Bresler wrote.

She continued, “There’s no need to get angry. We need to understand who they are, what they want (a dark religious state), and then understand that we are fighting for the soul of the state.”

Her comments quickly drew criticism online, with many users pointing to her own role in organizing and supporting the anti-judicial reform protests, which frequently included major highway blockades, transportation disruptions, and demonstrations that paralyzed key traffic arteries throughout the country.

One commenter responded, “No, can you be any more lacking in self-awareness? You can be foolish, but to this extent? Did you forget Kaplan and what you did here?”

Another social media user wrote sarcastically, “Oh, so the left suddenly discovered the law? The same people who set the country on fire in Balfour and Kaplan are now preaching against blocking roads.”

A third response that gained significant traction online stated: “It’s unbelievable how much chutzpah this takes. Aren’t you the one who personally called for disrupting roads?”

Bresler’s remarks came amid a wave of Peleg Yerushalmi demonstrations held Thursday evening at several major locations throughout Israel. The protests were organized in response to the arrest of yeshiva students and their transfer to military authorities, leading to severe traffic congestion and road closures across the Gush Dan region and other parts of central Israel.

{Matzav.com}

A massive fire broke out at a Jewish-owned events warehouse Thursday night near Golders Green, London, consuming most of the building and inflicting about £3 million in damage.

The incident is being investigated but is not deemed suspicious.

The London Fire Brigade deployed 25 engines and 150 firefighters to fight the blaze and evacuate about 70 residents due to heavy smoke.

Uzziel Sassoon, the owner of the events business SVS Productions, said that most of the warehouse was destroyed, but thanked the community for the messages of support he received.

The fire follows a frightening wave of arson attacks on London’s Jewish community, including one in which four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer ambulance group Hatzola were torched. Nevertheless, a fire at a London grocery store recently was also not due to arson.

Here’s a word that trips people up: when a company “backstops” a deal, it is not backing out. It is doing the opposite — standing behind it and promising to pay if something goes wrong.

And that is exactly what Google has now done for Anthropic, the maker of the Claude artificial intelligence assistant.

According to people familiar with the financing, in details that came to light Tuesday, June 9, Google agreed to guarantee the lease payments behind a roughly $35 billion deal that gives Anthropic the computer chips it needs to run its AI systems. Google agreed to backstop those payments at five data centers, helping Anthropic obtain what amounts to a $35 billion loan, and Anthropic’s role in these specific data centers had not previously been reported.

Why Anthropic Needs Outside Financing

Running advanced artificial intelligence requires enormous amounts of computing power, and the chips that make it possible cost a fortune.

Buying tens of billions of dollars of hardware outright would strain even the best-funded technology companies.

So Anthropic and its partners structured the deal differently.

A separate company was created to purchase the chips and lease them back to Anthropic, allowing the company to spread the cost over time instead of paying everything upfront. Apollo Global Management and Blackstone arranged approximately $35 billion in debt financing for the transaction, making it one of the largest private-credit deals ever assembled.

The money is being used to acquire Google’s custom-designed AI processors known as Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs. Anthropic then leases those chips, and the lease payments are used to repay the debt.

[AP pic: Rows of servers and processors inside a modern data center used for artificial intelligence computing.]

How Google Became the Safety Net

This is where the story becomes unusual.

Lenders providing $35 billion want protection in case something goes wrong.

Two major companies are providing that protection.

Broadcom, which helps manufacture the chips, guarantees that the processors will retain a minimum resale value, reducing risk for lenders.

Google is providing another layer of security by guaranteeing the lease payments tied to five data-center locations.

In practical terms, if Anthropic were unable to make certain payments, Google’s commitment helps cover the obligation.

That guarantee is a major reason financing on this scale became possible.

Why Would Google Help a Competitor?

At first glance, the arrangement seems strange.

Anthropic’s Claude competes directly with Google’s Gemini AI assistant.

Yet the two companies are connected in several important ways.

Google was one of Anthropic’s earliest investors and has repeatedly increased its stake in the company. Google also supplies the chips that sit at the center of this transaction.

That means Google is simultaneously:

• An investor in Anthropic
• A supplier of the hardware
• A beneficiary of the chip purchases
• A guarantor behind part of the financing

In short, Google invests in Anthropic, sells it chips, and now helps secure the financing that allows Anthropic to buy even more of those chips.

The Concern About “Circular Deals”

That complexity has raised concerns among some industry observers.

Critics point to what are sometimes called circular financing arrangements, where a small group of technology companies become increasingly dependent on one another.

The concern is that money can appear to move in a loop:

• Google invests in Anthropic.
• Anthropic uses financing to buy Google’s chips.
• Google helps secure the financing.
• The financing supports further growth at Anthropic.

Supporters argue that such partnerships accelerate innovation and help fund the massive infrastructure required for AI.

Critics worry that the growing web of financial connections could create broader risks if one major player encounters trouble.

Why the Stakes Are So High

The deal comes at a pivotal moment for Anthropic.

The financing surfaced only days after the company reportedly filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering and completed a $65 billion fundraising round that valued the company at approximately $965 billion.

Anthropic has also committed substantial resources to expanding its computing capacity, including participation in a data-center partnership valued at approximately $50 billion.

The company is spending aggressively to secure the infrastructure needed to compete with rivals including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and xAI.

What This Says About the AI Boom

For everyday readers, the story offers a glimpse into how the artificial intelligence boom is actually being financed.

Most headlines focus on new AI models, chatbot features, and flashy product demonstrations.

Behind the scenes, however, the industry increasingly relies on:

• Multi-billion-dollar debt financings
• Complex leasing arrangements
• Massive data-center construction projects
• Long-term chip supply agreements
• Financial guarantees from major technology companies

The infrastructure required to power advanced AI is becoming almost as important as the software itself.

The Bottom Line

For now, the arrangement reflects confidence.

Lenders are willing to commit tens of billions of dollars, Google is willing to stand behind part of the financing, and Anthropic gains access to the computing power it needs without paying the full cost upfront.

The larger question is what happens as these relationships grow more intertwined.

The same partnerships helping fuel the AI boom today could also make the industry’s biggest players increasingly dependent on one another tomorrow.

That is the hidden meaning behind the word “backstop.” A safety net works only as long as the company holding it remains strong enough to catch everyone else.

JBizNews Desk — Technology

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

Multiple vaccinated children attending a local playgroup recently contracted chickenpox after an unvaccinated child became infected and apparently spread the virus to others, TLS has exclusively learned.

At least three additional children subsequently developed symptoms after being exposed to the initial case, the sources told TLS.

Sources indicate that the other affected children had previously received the recommended chickenpox vaccinations, though health experts note that breakthrough infections can occasionally occur in vaccinated individuals. In such cases, symptoms are generally milder than those experienced by unvaccinated patients.

Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious viral illness that spreads through coughing, sneezing, and direct contact with the rash or blisters of an infected individual. Common symptoms include an itchy blister-like rash, fever, fatigue, headache, and loss of appetite. The illness typically lasts between four and seven days.

There is no specific cure for chickenpox. Treatment generally focuses on relieving symptoms through rest, hydration, fever reduction, and anti-itch measures. In certain cases, particularly for those at higher risk of complications, antiviral medications may be prescribed by a healthcare provider.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive two doses of the chickenpox vaccine. The first dose is typically administered between 12 and 15 months of age, with a second dose given between ages 4 and 6. Two doses are approximately 90% effective at preventing chickenpox, and vaccinated individuals who do contract the illness generally experience a much milder case.

According to federal health data, the vast majority of American children receive the recommended chickenpox vaccinations as part of the routine childhood immunization schedule. Since the vaccine’s introduction, chickenpox cases in the United States have declined dramatically, with hospitalizations and deaths becoming far less common.

Interestingly, this playgroup – like many others – has a policy which only allows vaccinated children, but somehow this particular unvaccinated child’s data slipped through.

Parents whose children may have been exposed are encouraged to monitor for symptoms and consult their pediatrician with any concerns.

Billionaire hedge fund CEO and owner Ken Griffin is making good on his promise to “double down” on Miami after publicly feuding with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over New York’s new tax on expensive second homes.

Griffin, who runs hedge fund Citadel, plans to add a 300-unit apartment building and a 1,400+ space parking garage to the site of Citadel’s future headquarters in Miami’s financial district Brickell, recent filings show.

Citadel also acquired every unit in a 22-story condominium tower across the street from the Brickell building with plans to demolish it to expand the Miami campus.

“We are focusing this part of our development at 1201 Brickell solely on commercial office space. Miami is open for business, and the unparalleled quality of our development will drive the tenancy of leading global firms, including Citadel and Citadel Securities,” a Citadel spokesperson told FOX Business.

The Miami push follows a protracted feud between Griffin and Mamdani, stemming from a video Mamdani made specifically targeting Griffin’s Park Avenue penthouse in an explainer for his new city tax on expensive second homes. 

DESANTIS BLASTS NYC’S ‘BALLISTIC PODIATRY’ AFTER ZOHRAN MAMDANI WINS MAYOR’S RACE AND FLORIDA EXPECTS EXODUS

“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we’re taxing the rich… This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city — like this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million,” Mamdani said in his April 15 video while standing in front of Griffin’s penthouse. 

Griffin responded, calling the personal attack “creepy and weird,” worrying that it put him in harm’s way and demonstrated “a profound lack of judgment,” on Mamdani’s part. 

Griffin’s Citadel executives then suggested that a new Citadel office space in Midtown could become a casualty of Mamdani’s not-so-business-friendly policies.

MAMDANI’S CLASH WITH BILLIONAIRE PUTS NYC STREET FOOD VENDORS IN THE CROSSHAIRS

“We are about to commence the redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, creating 6,000 highly paid construction jobs and supporting the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in Midtown New York,” Citadel COO Gerald Beeson wrote in an April 23 memo to employees. 

“The project – if we move forward – will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending,” he also wrote.

Mamdani eventually softened his rhetoric, thanking Griffin for his contributions to the city.

Citadel already moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and the Brickell acquisitions further grow the hedge fund’s South Florida footprint.

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FOX Business contacted Mayor Mamdani’s office for additional comment. 

FOX Business’ Madison Alworth and Matthew Kazin contributed to this report.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge agreed on Friday to extend a court-ordered block on the Trump administration’s creation and operation of a $1.8 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.

Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund in the face of a fierce bipartisan backlash. Government attorneys have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot, but plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the fund won’t move forward.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly and unequivocally endorsed its cancellation.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will remain blocked until further notice from the court. She gave the parties a week to negotiate an agreement for Blanche to submit a sworn declaration that the administration won’t revive the fund.

Brinkema previously agreed to temporarily block the administration from proceeding with the fund for at least two weeks. Her May 29 order was due to expire on Friday.

Trump’s Republican administration created the fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Plaintiffs who sued to block fund payouts argue that the government can’t legally divert taxpayer money into what they argue is a slush fund for compensating Trump’s allies.

China’s factory-gate prices rose at their fastest pace in nearly four years in May, climbing 3.9% from a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The increase in the Producer Price Index (PPI) was the strongest since July 2022, exceeded economists’ expectations of 3.8%, and accelerated from 2.8% in April.

The report highlights a growing divide inside the world’s second-largest economy: factory costs are rising rapidly while consumer inflation remains subdued.

The Producer Price Index measures prices businesses receive for goods before they reach consumers, including raw materials, industrial products, machinery, and fuel. The Consumer Price Index, by contrast, measures what shoppers pay in stores. In May, factory inflation accelerated sharply while consumer inflation remained modest.

Two major forces appear to be driving the increase.

The first is energy and commodity costs. Rising oil and petrochemical prices have increased costs throughout China’s manufacturing sector. China remains one of the world’s largest energy importers, making its factories particularly sensitive to changes in global commodity markets. Higher transportation, fuel, and materials costs have filtered through industrial supply chains.

The second driver is the global boom in artificial intelligence and electrification. Dong Lijuan, Chief Statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, said the expansion of AI infrastructure, electrification projects, and computing demand helped lift prices in sectors tied to metals, machinery, and technology hardware.

According to the bureau, non-ferrous metal mining prices rose 36.5% year-over-year, while non-ferrous metal smelting and processing prices increased 24%. Demand for copper, aluminum, rare-earth materials, electrical equipment, and data-center infrastructure has surged as countries and companies race to build AI capacity and expand electric-power systems.

In simple terms, the world’s push toward AI, cloud computing, electric vehicles, and upgraded energy infrastructure is consuming enormous quantities of industrial materials, pushing prices higher.

Consumer inflation told a different story.

China’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.2% from a year earlier in May, below economists’ expectations of 1.3%, while prices slipped 0.1% from April. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, eased to 1.1%.

Food prices remained weak, falling 1.7% year-over-year, reflecting continued softness in household spending and consumer demand.

One notable exception was energy. Consumer gasoline prices climbed sharply from a year earlier, reflecting higher global crude-oil prices and rising transportation costs.

The gap between factory inflation and consumer inflation is important because it suggests many manufacturers are struggling to pass rising costs on to customers. Businesses are paying more for raw materials and energy, but consumers remain cautious, limiting companies’ ability to raise prices.

That squeeze can pressure profit margins across manufacturing industries.

The implications extend far beyond China.

As the world’s largest manufacturing hub, China produces a significant share of global electronics, machinery, appliances, industrial components, and consumer goods. Rising production costs inside China can eventually ripple through international supply chains and affect prices paid by businesses and consumers around the world.

For much of the past several years, China experienced factory-gate deflation, meaning producer prices were falling. That trend helped keep global goods inflation under control. The recent turnaround suggests that dynamic may be changing.

The May report also reflects broader policy shifts in Beijing. Chinese authorities have been working to reduce excess industrial capacity and discourage aggressive price competition in certain sectors, measures that can contribute to firmer pricing across manufacturing industries.

There are reasons for caution, however.

Many of the strongest gains were concentrated in commodity-related industries such as energy and metals, which can be volatile. If commodity prices retreat, producer inflation could cool quickly. On a monthly basis, producer prices rose more slowly than they did in April, suggesting some moderation may already be underway.

At the same time, weak consumer demand remains one of the biggest challenges facing China’s economy. Without stronger household spending, manufacturers may continue facing pressure despite rising factory output prices.

For now, the picture is one of two very different economies operating side by side: an industrial sector facing rapidly rising input costs driven by energy, metals, and AI-related demand, and a consumer sector that remains far more cautious.

Whether those rising factory costs eventually flow through to shoppers in China and around the world may become one of the most important inflation questions for the global economy in the months ahead.

JBizNews Desk — Asia

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

After his latest detention, Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef was released from Israeli prison Thursday without charge after two and a half years of detention.

Yousef is the father of Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as the Green Prince. Mosab became disillusioned with Hamas and worked with Israeli intelligence against the terror group from 1997 to 2007, eventually writing about his experiences in a memoir titled Son of Hamas. While working for the Shin Bet, Mosab provided intelligence that helped thwart terror attacks such as suicide bombings, helped Israel find Hamas cells, and helped lead Israel to the arrests of senior officials, including the repeated arrests and incarcerations of his own father.

Yousef was arrested in October 2023 in the territories after the Oct. 7 attack, during a sweep of the territories in which dozens of Hamas terrorists in the region were arrested and imprisoned. Upon his release, he was taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where he appeared to have a hand injury. It’s unclear how he incurred the injury.

Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef is wheeled out of a Ramallah hospital after his release from an Israeli prison. (From a post on X)

Yousef’s son Oweis confirmed that his 71-year-old father was released near Hebron and taken to the hospital.

The Green Prince himself posted a press release on X about the incident:

“Mosab Hassan Yousef warns Sheikh Hassan Yousef against any attempt to revive Hamas in the West Bank and ignite an Intifada,” the press release stated. “Sheikh Hassan Yousef has been released yesterday from Israeli prison on humanitarian grounds due to his poor health. He is one of the most prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank and one of its original founders. His influence on the Palestinian street remains significant.”

Yousef is seen greeting friends and relatives after his release. (From a post on X)

“After nearly 30 years in and out of prison, one would hope he would finally rest and take care of himself,” the press release continued. “However, if he attempts to revive Hamas, rebuild its infrastructure, or activate its sleeping cells in the West Bank, he must fully understand the consequences and not take advantage of this humanitarian gesture.”

The press statement adds that the actions of those who serve the Hamas leadership living in luxury abroad are not serving the “exhausted and suffering Palestinian people.”

“He should look at Gaza, Lebanon, and Tehran and think very carefully before allowing Hamas to exploit his influence and set the West Bank on fire,” the statement warned. “There will be no more mercy, and he will bear direct responsibility for the consequences.”

“This is the reality, the same man who stood with armed Hamas militants now lies weak in a hospital bed,” the press release concluded.

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu issued a forceful statement Friday following reports of an emerging agreement between the United States and Iran, declaring that Israel remains unwavering in its determination to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Speaking amid growing discussion about a US-backed diplomatic framework with Iran, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel’s position has not changed and that stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions remains a top national priority.

“As long as I am the Prime Minister of Israel – Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that he and US President Donald Trump “are in full agreement on this issue.”

Netanyahu pointed to his decades-long campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that sustained international pressure has delayed Tehran’s efforts to acquire atomic weapons.

“For over 30 years, I have been at the forefront of the international struggle against Iran’s nuclear program. Were it not for this struggle, Iran would have long ago possessed atomic bombs to destroy Israel.”

The prime minister also warned that Iran’s broader objective remains the destruction of Israel and said his personal mission has been to prevent that outcome.

“Iran is working to destroy the Jewish state, and I am dedicating my life to preventing them from doing so.”

“As long as I am the Prime Minister of Israel, this will not happen.”

Netanyahu’s comments came one day after President Trump revealed that planned US military action against Iran had been suspended following progress toward a diplomatic understanding aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and launching a new round of nuclear talks.

Trump disclosed the development Thursday evening in a post on Truth Social, announcing that the scheduled strikes had been called off in light of commitments made by Iranian leadership.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president said the framework had received broad backing from numerous regional and international stakeholders involved in the negotiations.

“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.”

While signaling optimism about the diplomatic effort, Trump made clear that pressure on Iran would continue until a final agreement is formally completed.

He stressed that “the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect until this transaction is finalized. The time and place of the signing will be announced shortly.”

Following Trump’s announcement, Netanyahu’s office released a statement confirming that the two leaders had spoken regarding the emerging understanding between Washington and Tehran.

“President Trump spoke this evening with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the memorandum of understanding (MoU) currently taking shape with Iran to enter into negotiations.”

The Prime Minister’s Office noted that although Israel is not directly participating in the proposed memorandum, Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s assurances regarding the objectives of any eventual agreement.

“Although Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding, the Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for President Trump’s commitment that the final agreement concluded at the end of negotiations will include the removal of enriched material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, limits on missile production, and the cessation of Iran’s support for its regional terror proxies,” the statement added.

{Matzav.com}

Nearly a year after launch, Tesla’s self-driving taxi service remains limited to just 59 vehicles across three Texas cities, raising fresh questions about Elon Musk’s ambitious autonomy targets.

Nearly a year after Tesla put its first robotaxis on the road, the service remains far smaller and less reliable than the company originally projected. As of late May 2026, Texas motor-vehicle filings and independent tracking data showed a fleet of roughly 59 robotaxis, operating only in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

That is far from the vision outlined by Elon Musk, who has repeatedly described a future in which Tesla operates thousands of autonomous vehicles across the United States. Musk previously indicated the company could reach 1,000 robotaxis by the end of 2026, a target that now appears increasingly difficult.

The gap between promise and reality became more visible this week as riders and reviewers documented operational issues that suggest the service is still functioning more like a public test program than a mature transportation network.

Users reported wait times frequently exceeding 30 minutes, while the Tesla Robotaxi app periodically displayed messages such as “High Service Demand” and “No Rides Available.” In at least one reported case, a vehicle arrived but failed to begin the trip, requiring intervention from customer support.

Passengers have also cited inconvenient pickup and drop-off locations, sometimes forcing riders to walk significant distances despite available curb space nearby.

Tesla launched the service in Austin in June 2025 with approximately a dozen modified Model Y vehicles. Access was initially restricted to selected users, influencers and Tesla enthusiasts who shared favorable early experiences online.

During Tesla’s July 2025 earnings call, Musk outlined plans for rapid expansion into additional states, including California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. While Tesla expanded into Dallas and Houston in April 2026, the broader national rollout has yet to materialize.

The vehicles themselves remain more limited than many consumers expected.

Most rides continue to include a human safety operator, and Tesla restricts operations to carefully defined geographic areas known as geofences. The service therefore remains well short of Musk’s long-standing vision of fully autonomous vehicles operating nationwide without human supervision.

The stakes for Tesla are significant.

As vehicle sales growth has slowed, investors increasingly view robotaxis and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology as key drivers of the company’s future value. Expectations surrounding autonomous transportation have become a central component of Tesla’s market valuation.

The numbers highlight the challenge ahead.

With approximately 59 vehicles currently operating, Tesla would need to expand its fleet by roughly 17 times in just seven months to reach Musk’s stated goal of 1,000 robotaxis by year-end. That expansion would also require regulatory approvals, operational infrastructure and proof that the vehicles can safely operate with reduced human oversight.

Meanwhile, competitors have established a substantial lead.

Waymo, the autonomous-driving division of Alphabet, operates a significantly larger robotaxi network. Estimates suggest Waymo’s Texas fleet is roughly ten times larger than Tesla’s. In Austin alone, public reports indicate Waymo operates more than 250 vehicles, compared with approximately 50 for Tesla.

Waymo also routinely operates vehicles without safety drivers, a milestone Tesla has not yet achieved at comparable scale.

Wall Street analysts have taken notice.

Garrett Nelson, an analyst with CFRA Research, recently said Tesla’s Austin deployment has fallen short of expectations. Independent road tests in Dallas and Houston have reported similar concerns, including lengthy wait times, unavailable vehicles and routing issues.

In one Dallas test, a trip expected to take roughly 20 minutes reportedly stretched to nearly two hours because of service interruptions and availability problems.

For consumers, the current limitations are difficult to ignore.

A service marketed as convenient, on-demand transportation remains available only in limited areas and often struggles to deliver rides quickly and consistently. Until reliability improves and availability expands, robotaxis are unlikely to replace traditional ride-hailing services—or personal vehicles—for most riders.

Tesla maintains that its camera-based approach to autonomous driving will ultimately allow it to scale more quickly and at lower cost than competitors that rely on expensive lidar and sensor systems.

That strategy could still prove successful over time.

For now, however, the company’s Texas deployment highlights the considerable distance between Tesla’s long-term vision and the current state of its robotaxi service. Nearly a year after launch, the business remains small, geographically limited and operationally inconsistent.

Whether Tesla can close that gap before the end of the year remains one of the most closely watched questions in the autonomous-vehicle industry.

JBizNews Desk — Texas

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

A Lakewood resident today shared with TLS that they received this week two batches of wedding return cards, both of which were found to have been opened and their contents missing.

The return cards – all which were clearly tampered with – have apparently been gone through in search of checks.

If you’ve also experienced this, be sure to report it to authorities and the local post office.

Additionally, if you’ve recently sent out checks with a return card, you may want to keep an eye on the check to ensure it wasn’t stolen and fraudulently cashed.

Elon Musk crossed a historic financial threshold this week as soaring investor demand for SpaceX pushed the entrepreneur’s fortune beyond the trillion-dollar mark, cementing his status as the richest individual in history and underscoring the extraordinary confidence markets continue to place in his vision.

Few modern business figures have achieved the level of public recognition Musk commands. The entrepreneur has become as much a cultural phenomenon as a corporate leader, building a vast following online while transforming industries ranging from electric vehicles to space exploration.

His ascent has come during a period when skepticism toward billionaires and concerns about wealth concentration have intensified. Yet despite possessing a fortune unlike anything previously seen, Musk has maintained a devoted base of supporters, even without cultivating the everyman image associated with business icons such as Warren Buffett.

Supporters praise Musk’s blunt, unscripted style and willingness to challenge conventional thinking. Detractors, however, argue that his influence rivals that of a modern oligarch, pointing to governance concerns within his companies and criticizing his increasingly visible involvement in political debates.

Investor enthusiasm was on full display Thursday when SpaceX completed a blockbuster initial public offering that raised an unprecedented $75 billion. The offering highlighted Wall Street’s continued faith in Musk’s ventures. Before the IPO, Forbes estimated his fortune at approximately $780 billion, placing him far ahead of Alphabet co-founder Larry Page, the next wealthiest person on the list.

“The second richest person has been hovering around $300 billion, so about less than one-third of what Musk can potentially be worth tomorrow,” said Matt Durot, deputy editor at Forbes Wealth. “And only one other person, [Oracle founder] Larry Ellison, has ever been ⁠worth $400 billion.”

The bulk of Musk’s fortune is now tied to SpaceX, where his ownership stake is valued at roughly $866 billion. Combined with his holdings in Tesla and other enterprises, estimates from Forbes and Reuters indicate that his wealth will surpass $1.1 trillion once SpaceX shares begin trading publicly.

Although Tesla and SpaceX established Musk as one of the world’s most recognizable entrepreneurs, his influence expanded dramatically after he purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion. Ownership of the platform provided him with direct access to hundreds of millions of users and amplified his voice on topics including immigration, government policy, free speech, and politics.

His growing political role has proven among the most divisive chapters of his career. Musk’s participation in President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency drew both praise and criticism. At the same time, Tesla faced mounting pressure overseas in 2025, as consumer boycotts and public demonstrations contributed to weakening sales in several markets.

Now 54 years old, Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a South African father and Canadian mother. After earning a degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, he embarked on a career that would eventually place him at the forefront of multiple industries.

His leadership at Tesla began in 2008, driven by a belief that electric vehicles could be both technologically advanced and highly desirable. Under his guidance, Tesla helped reshape consumer expectations and accelerate the worldwide transition toward electric transportation.

Industry analysts argue that Tesla’s success—and its trillion-dollar-plus valuation—forced traditional car manufacturers to take electric vehicles seriously. Many investors now believe Musk may be capable of achieving a similar transformation in fields such as artificial intelligence and commercial space travel.

Despite the excitement surrounding SpaceX, the company continues to require substantial capital, and much of its valuation depends on technologies whose long-term commercial potential remains years away from realization.

In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has launched or co-founded several other ventures, including Neuralink, which develops brain-computer interfaces, and The Boring Company, focused on transportation tunnels.

Throughout his tenure at Tesla, Musk has generated both admiration and controversy. Nevertheless, he is widely credited with turning the company into the most valuable automaker on the planet.

For years, executives at established automobile manufacturers doubted Tesla’s prospects, questioning whether a startup could successfully mass-produce electric vehicles while remaining profitable.

“He renewed the world’s respect for American ingenuity in automotive engineering,” said Bob Lutz, a former General Motors vice chairman.

At the same time, Tesla has periodically faced legal disputes and investor concerns connected to Musk’s leadership, including scrutiny over his 2018 compensation package, which at one point carried a value of $56 billion.

Musk’s far-reaching influence has inspired market observers to coin the term “Muskonomy” to describe the ecosystem of businesses surrounding him. That influence has also contributed to what many investors call the “Elon premium”—a phenomenon in which confidence in Musk himself drives valuations beyond what conventional financial models might justify.

“Much like Tesla, SpaceX is a bet on Elon Musk,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.

“A market cap of $1.5 trillion-$2 trillion would certainly throw all traditional valuation methodologies out the window, and is instead best characterized as the ‘Elon Musk premium.'”

As Musk’s reach has expanded, so too have concerns about concentrating enormous influence in the hands of a single individual. Critics have questioned whether companies tied so closely to one personality face heightened governance risks and potential conflicts of interest.

Over the years, Musk has repeatedly found himself in public disputes with regulators, journalists, media organizations, short sellers, and fellow billionaires. Many of those confrontations have played out in real time across social media platforms, further reinforcing his reputation as one of business’s most unpredictable figures.

His partnership with President Trump followed a similar trajectory. After contributing heavily to Trump’s successful return to the White House and serving in a senior advisory capacity through the administration’s DOGE initiative, Musk emerged as one of the president’s most influential allies in the corporate world.

That alliance eventually deteriorated as disagreements over spending priorities and policy decisions escalated into a highly public feud. Although relations between the two have since improved, the episode underscored the increasingly intertwined nature of Musk’s business interests and political ambitions.

Despite those controversies, many investors remain focused on Musk’s record of turning ambitious concepts into highly successful enterprises, viewing his unconventional behavior as secondary to his achievements.

“Elon is the Edison of our time,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said during a recent conversation with Musk.

Dimon’s praise marked a striking shift from earlier years, when the two were engaged in a lengthy legal dispute. Reflecting on their improved relationship, the banking executive told CNBC that they had “hugged it out,” and praised Musk as “our Einstein.”

{Matzav.com}

LONDON (VINnews) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Friday that he will fight to stay in office after the sudden resignation of his trusted defense minister left his shaky leadership weakened still further.

Starmer has seen the departure of several junior and senior ministers in recent weeks, as Labour Party lawmakers revolt and rivals plot, in despair at the government’s relentless unpopularity.

But the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey is a heavy blow. Healey quit Thursday, warning that the government is not spending enough on the military to keep Britain safe “at this time of rising threats.”

His departure hits Starmer in the one place the often embattled prime minister has won consistent praise: the world stage.

Since taking office after a landslide election victory in July 2024, Starmer has bolstered support for Ukraine, working with French President Emmanuel Macron on a multinational “coalition of the willing” to help guarantee the country’s security if a ceasefire is reached.

France and the U.K. also have put together a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends.

Starmer has also argued strongly that European nations must do more to fund their own defense in response to President Donald Trump ’s criticism of the United States’ NATO allies.

“Starmer has been consistently staunch about warning of the security risk from Russia,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, head of the U.K. in the World program at the Chatham House think tank. “He’s been given quite a bit of credit by the public for having to deal with Trump and doing so with a level of steadiness and calm. And he has been, in line with previous U.K. governments, a close and consistent ally of Ukraine.”

At issue is money for defense
At issue is the government’s long-awaited Defense Investment Plan, a road map for how the U.K. will increase military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The U.K. military is also seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

Healey says defense spending must reach 3% of GDP by 2030. He quit in frustration after Treasury chief Rachel Reeves refused to budge on a plan that falls short of that.

He cited a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country as soon as 2030 and said a lower-than-needed spending plan “could make the country less safe.”

Critics argue that military spending can be a bottomless pit, and point out that procurement projects regularly run over time and over budget.

Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who quit on Thursday a few hours after Healey, said it is not just a question of spending more money, but spending it wisely. He said the investment plan was not “transformative enough.”

“I want to see a higher percentage for uncrewed systems, AI, data — data is the new gunpowder — and we’ve got to move that forward if we are going to win the next war,” he told the BBC.

Resignations could hasten Starmer’s exit from office
Healey is not the first government minister to resign. Last month Starmer lost several junior ministers and then Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who quit so that he can run for party leader if a contest is triggered.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership if he is elected to Parliament in a special election on Thursday.

But the departure of Healey, long seen as a loyal minister without personal leadership ambitions, “suggests that Starmer’s credibility, even with his inner circle of ministers, is perhaps draining away,” O’Sullivan said.

Starmer insisted Friday he is staying put, saying it’s his job to make “hard-edged decisions.”

He told the BBC that defense is “my number one priority. And I have taken the difficult decisions to make sure that we are safe as a country.”

“I’m not going to go away. I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election,” he said. “I don’t think it should happen, but if it does, then I will fight.”

U.S. stocks opened higher Friday, June 12, 2026, as the largest stock offering in history and rising hopes for peace in the Middle East drew buyers into the market. President Donald Trump told reporters that a deal to end the war with Iran could be signed within days, one that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore energy shipping through the Gulf. At the same time, SpaceX began its first day as a public company on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, completing the biggest initial public offering ever recorded, according to the company’s S-1/A registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In early trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 298 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 added 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%, held back by a steep drop in Adobe.

The move extended Thursday’s rally, when the Dow gained 1.86% to close at 50,848.75, the S&P 500 rose 1.75% to 7,394.30, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.54% to 25,809.66.

SpaceX Takes Center Stage

The day’s centerpiece is SpaceX.

In its SEC filing, the company founded by Elon Musk set its price at $135 a share and offered about 555.5 million shares to raise roughly $75 billion, valuing SpaceX at $1.77 trillion and making it the seventh-most valuable U.S. company, ahead of Tesla.

Musk and SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell Friday, Musk from Texas and Shotwell from the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York.

The first public trade did not print at the opening bell as the stock cleared a Nasdaq auction to establish its opening price.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the offering as part of a syndicate of 23 banks listed in the prospectus.

Market Movers

SpaceX-related companies led early gains.

EchoStar, which owns an estimated 3% stake in SpaceX, rose about 4.8% before the open to roughly $134.28.

AST SpaceMobile advanced for a second straight session, while Rocket Lab gained about 4.5% after announcing it will join the Nasdaq-100 later this month.

Intel jumped about 5% after Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya upgraded the stock to Buy from Underperform and raised his price target to $135 from $96. Arya cited stronger demand for artificial-intelligence server chips and improved visibility into Intel’s contract manufacturing business, including a reported order from Google for more than three million custom AI processors.

Nvidia added about 1%. The company told Chinese customers its new Vera AI data-center processor could be available as early as August and is now open for orders.

Amazon also moved higher as investors returned to artificial-intelligence infrastructure names.

The biggest drag was Adobe, which fell about 7% despite reporting stronger-than-expected results.

Adobe reported quarterly revenue of $6.62 billion, above analyst expectations of $6.46 billion, but news of the planned departure of its chief financial officer triggered a series of analyst downgrades.

Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges lowered her price target to $190 from $220 while maintaining a Sell rating. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said Adobe’s results reflected strong AI demand but expects the stock to remain range-bound.

Financial stocks also firmed, with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs trading higher.

Fifth Third Bancorp began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Among other notable movers, Playtika rose more than 5%, Virgin Galactic fell about 10%, DoubleVerify dropped roughly 4.2%, and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet declined about 3.3%.

Oil Falls as Diplomacy Gains Momentum

Oil prices declined on hopes that diplomatic progress could ease tensions in the Middle East.

West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery fell 2.8% to $85.26 a barrel, while Brent crude dropped 2.5% to $88.13 a barrel.

The decline followed comments from President Trump indicating that an agreement could be reached as soon as this weekend in Europe.

A 14-point draft reported by Iranian state media would commit Iran to reopening the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days in exchange for the lifting of U.S. oil sanctions, although Tehran has not formally approved the proposal.

Lower oil prices typically translate into lower gasoline costs for consumers and businesses.

Meanwhile, gold traded near $4,180 an ounce after briefly dipping toward $4,000 before rebounding above $4,200.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) eased toward 19.

Investors Focus on Historic Debut

Despite Friday’s gains, investors remained focused on the historic SpaceX debut.

Some traders reportedly sold existing holdings during the week to raise cash for SpaceX shares, contributing to choppy trading in parts of the technology sector even as the broader market advanced.

With the largest public offering in history still establishing its opening price, volatility is likely to remain elevated throughout the session.

JBizNews Desk — Markets

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

TEL AVIV (VINnews) — Officials overseeing Israel’s airports are cautioning that capacity constraints at the country’s main international gateway could affect airline schedules during the summer and upcoming holiday travel periods.

Sharon Kedmi, head of the Israel Airports Authority, said limited aircraft parking space at Ben Gurion Airport has become an increasing operational challenge. The issue is linked to the continued presence of a significant number of cargo and military-related aircraft occupying parking areas needed for commercial aviation.

Airport authorities said passenger volumes are expected to climb sharply in the coming months as travelers head abroad during the summer vacation season and the Jewish High Holidays.

According to Kedmi, if additional space cannot be freed up, some airlines may need to adjust schedules or reduce planned service during peak travel periods. He stressed that any decisions regarding flight cancellations or schedule changes would be made by individual carriers.

Officials also noted that airport congestion has contributed to operational delays, including longer waits for arriving and departing aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport remains Israel’s primary international air hub, handling tens of thousands of passengers daily. Authorities said efforts are continuing to address the capacity issue and minimize disruptions before travel demand reaches its seasonal peak.

(AP) – The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk is due back in court Friday as his attorneys seek to hold prosecutors in contempt for comments they made in the media about a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.

Defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson have accused prosecutors of going on a “media tour” to discuss expert reports about the bullet. The defense claims those statements violated restrictions imposed by Judge Tony Graf against speaking about the case outside of court.

But prosecutors said they had a right to correct misinformation from Robinson’s attorneys about an inconclusive, preliminary finding by ballistics experts, who could not immediately match the bullet fragments with a gun allegedly used by Robinson. Details about the preliminary finding spurred stories speculating about Robinson’s possible exoneration.

“The rules expressly allow lawyers to set the record straight,” Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard wrote.

Robinson’s lawyers have tried to guard against media coverage that they say sometimes misrepresents their client, as his case has drawn tremendous public attention. The 23-year-old from southwestern Utah is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk, cofounder of the conservative Turning Point USA organization, on the Utah Valley University campus.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted. He has not yet entered a plea.

Robinson’s attorneys did not specify what sanctions should be levied against prosecutors if Graf agrees they violated his orders and holds them in contempt. But in court filings, the defense team pointed to another criminal case where prosecutors were accused of contempt and said one potential remedy was to bar the state from seeking the death penalty.

While the judge in that earlier case disagreed that an order barring the death penalty was merited, Robinson’s attorneys noted that, “the court did not conclude that such a remedy was beyond its authority where the facts support it.”

Graf has said he will issue his decision about the contempt allegation at a later date.

A key hearing in the case is scheduled for next month, when prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial. That would mark the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case that has so far focused on matters of media access.

Robinson’s attorneys have asked Graf to halt the proceedings while they appeal a June 1 order in which the judge declined to bar cameras from the courtroom.

A dramatic overnight confrontation in Ashdod ended with police releasing a yeshiva bochur who had been detained as an alleged draft evader, after dozens of chareidi protesters descended on the scene and demanded his immediate release.

The incident unfolded late Thursday night near the Big shopping complex in Ashdod. Police officers conducting a traffic stop pulled over a vehicle carrying several yeshiva students. During the inspection, officers discovered that one of the passengers had been classified by the IDF as a draft evader.

Police detained the bochur and summoned military police to take custody of him.

Within minutes, messages began circulating through chareidi communities under the headline “The kidnappers have arrived,” prompting a rapid mobilization. Dozens of protesters quickly gathered at the location, surrounding the officers and calling for the release of the yeshiva student.

As concerns mounted that the situation could escalate into a larger public disturbance and potentially block a major traffic artery at the entrance to the city, the officer in charge reportedly ordered the immediate release of the bochur and instructed that the checkpoint be dismantled.

Following the release, the protesters broke out into dancing, singing “Utzu Eitzah V’sufar,” celebrating what they viewed as a successful effort to prevent the transfer of the yeshiva student into the custody of the military police.

The crowd subsequently dispersed from the area without further incident.

{Matzav.com}

(AP) – At least three tornadoes battered communities outside Chicago on Thursday, leveling homes and ripping down trees and power poles, while storms grounded flights for some and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in the Midwest and Northeast.

As a large column of air descended on Merrillville, Indiana, a town about 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, the city’s police warned residents to take cover. By the evening, downed trees and power lines blocked the streets, homes were torn up and part of a high school’s roof was ripped off.

Meanwhile, emergency crews were in the nearby manufacturing and farm city of Streator, Illinois, as the community reeled from tornado damage. A reunification center for displaced residents was set up in its city hall and the Red Cross opened a shelter.

Streator Mayor Tara Bedei said there were no reported deaths. “We are incredibly grateful for the safety of our residents and the quick action of emergency personnel,” she said in a statement.

Strong storms delayed or halted flights at airports in some cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York on Thursday. Parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also strained under high heat and humidity.

Grounds crew remove water from the field after severe thunderstorms came through the Chicago area before a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/David Banks)

The tornadoes came after severe storms swept through the Midwest Wednesday, knocking out power, damaging buildings and canceling flights.

In Des Moines, Iowa, a 54-year-old man died at a homeless encampment in a park Wednesday after being hit by a tree that “broke apart and fell during strong storms,” police said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of other deaths or injuries from the storms.

Tree limb breaks through roof
Tornado warnings were also in place in Chicago and in parts of Indiana and Michigan Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. In Chicago, a series finale between the White Sox and the Atlanta Braves was postponed due to rain.

Jennifer Hall was in her garage in Elkhart, Indiana, as the winds and rain picked up Thursday evening. Suddenly, she said, she heard a loud crash and discovered a tree limb had gone through the roof of her rental home. She used buckets to catch the rain coming in from the hole.

“I’m just nervous because it’s just been one thing after another,” said Hall, explaining she just had surgery and her husband is out of town.

This frame grab from aerial video shows a building in Stickney, Illinois, after its roof was damaged by the severe storms that struck the Chicago area on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Courtesy WMAQ-TV in Chicago) TELEVISION OUT

A home vanishes before residents’ eyes
Shane Tipton stepped out of his truck in Unionville, Missouri, Wednesday afternoon to find a twister bearing down, said his daughter, Kylie Rouse. He rushed to get his 87-year-old dad out of his mobile home.

They made it back to the truck, drove just far enough away and watched as the tornado obliterated the home. Shattered cabinets, furniture and appliances littered the ground. Clothes hung in trees. They believe they lost one of their hunting dogs, who has been missing since it struck.

“Everything’s destroyed,” Rouse told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. “It was scattered clear for miles. If my grandpa would have been in there, there’s no way that he would be alive.”

Storm damages animal shelter in Illinois
Residents of Springfield, Illinois, believe a tornado touched down in their area late Wednesday. Two buildings at the Animal Protective League shelter in Springfield were heavily damaged, but none of the nearly 150 cats and 28 dogs housed there were injured, said Deana Corbin, the group’s executive director.

“It pretty much wiped out our shelter facility, took the roofs off both of our buildings,” Corbin said. “It’s a miracle. We were so blessed to not have any injuries of either people or animals.”

The community pitched in to take in all the cats and dogs temporarily, including a local animal control center, veterinarians and residents, she said.

Damage also was reported at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield.

Weather service meteorologist Frank Pereira said the system that produced the storms, including high winds and hail, was moving eastward Thursday, fueled by cool air from Canada clashing with warm, humid air from the South.

Damaged tree branches lie on a street in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, June 11, 2026, following a severe weather system in the area. (Jennifer Hall via AP)

Record high temperatures expected along East Coast
Potentially dangerous heat and high humidity arrived Thursday and was expected to continue Friday for a swath of the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, where daily high record temperatures could be broken in numerous places, the weather service said. Temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) were expected, but with the humidity it could feel like 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or more, the service said.

Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency for Thursday and Friday, activating cooling centers, home visits by field teams, outreach to people experiencing homelessness and other services. New York City officials were also urging residents to take precautions, including drinking plenty of water and finding a cool place to stay if they do not have air conditioning.

Severe weather wreaks havoc on air travel and power
At various points Wednesday and Thursday, ground stops were issued at Chicago’s O’Hare International and Midway International airports, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The Pittsburgh International Airport experienced a temporary power outage after a storm produced an “extraordinary” power surge, the airport said.

More than 1,000 flights going into and out of Chicago had been delayed or canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.

Commonwealth Edison Company, which provides electric service across northern Illinois, said the storms had downed poles and wires. On X, it wrote that it expected “80% restoration” by late Saturday.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of Puerto Ricans are struggling with water shortages so severe that the governor of the U.S. territory has activated the National Guard and emergency responders are fielding calls every day.

Officials have not publicly pinpointed the cause, with shortages largely affecting some areas in the island’s most populated cities, including the capital San Juan. The island’s utilities company extracts water from rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers that have in the past provided sufficient supply for the island’s 3.2 million people.

Residents are being forced to buy potable water, spend money at laundromats and haul heavy buckets up several flights of stairs to wash dishes, flush toilets and take showers. The elderly and disabled struggle the most, with community leaders noting that some have been hospitalized as water shortages persist.

Jorge Figueroa, a community leader for several impoverished San Juan neighborhoods, stood by his car one recent morning fielding questions from residents wondering when the next water truck would swing by.

“They are playing with people’s health and lives,” Figueroa said.

Shortages are widespread
Some customers in San Juan began reporting intermittent service more than a year ago, with the governor acknowledging the infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.

The water outages have grown so severe that Mayor Miguel Romero sued Puerto Rico’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May.

People like Jeannette Mercado Rodríguez have spent up to two weeks without water as Puerto Rico’s searing summer starts and meteorologists are already issuing heat advisories.

“This is really exhausting; it’s maddening,” she said.

The 52-year-old is among the lucky ones: a water truck is stationed near her public housing complex, Las Margaritas. But she still has to haul five buckets and 10 2-liter (half-gallon) bottles up to her third-floor apartment every day. She recently injured her shoulder doing so.

“We can’t take it sometimes,” Mercado said, confiding that she has broken down and cried. “There are older people here, bedridden people.”

Nearly 40,000 customers were hit with water outages on the first weekend of June. That prompted Gov. Jenniffer González to activate the National Guard, which began distributing water via four trucks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) each.

Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company brought in additional water trucks with a capacity of 12,800 gallons (48,453 liters) to help serve hotels and short-term rentals.

The need for water is so great that even Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture sanitized two large trucks that transport milk and instead used them to deliver potable water.

Despite those measures, water remains scarce for many in San Juan and beyond. At least one stationary tanker in an impoverished community sat empty for a couple of days, with residents cheering the water truck when it arrived, calling municipal workers “heroes.” Other residents also complain that the government doesn’t inform them when a water truck will stop by, with those at work missing out.

“This has been a disaster,” said Luz Laborde, president of a neighborhood association in Santurce, a working-class community in San Juan. “This is inhuman … It’s destroying the emotional state of a people.”

Puerto Ricans demand water
Dozens of Puerto Ricans young and old crowded into a courtroom on a recent morning, eager to hear a ruling on the lawsuit that San Juan’s mayor filed against the island’s water and sewer company as they questioned when their water would return.

“We are exhausted,” said Marcia Soler París, a 61-year-old community leader. “We shouldn’t be living this way. We don’t deserve this.”

Every day at dawn, phones ping as people in San Juan and elsewhere share whether they have water, just a trickle or nothing at all.

Soler calls the emergency management office every other day to request a water truck for her and her neighbors. She lives with her daughter, who has three boys ages 13, 10 and 4, and they play soccer every day. Like many, they don’t have a cistern.

“I don’t know what it is to see a stream of water,” said Soler, who recently spent $40 at a laundromat and was forced to buy plastic cups and plates for her family.

The extra costs are straining the budgets of many on the island of 3.2 million people where more than 40% live below the poverty line.

Soler said some of her neighbors bedridden and caregivers are forced to use towels and wet wipes to clean them. Another neighbor is blind, so people ferry water up to her apartment.

For years, chronic power outages have been a big frustration for many Puerto Ricans. Water woes also are at the top of the list now.

At Villa Kennedy, a nearby public housing complex, Elizabeth Sánchez, 79, explained how she injured her waist carrying buckets of water. Her husband can no longer help because he injured his back for the same reason.

“What we are going through is horrible,” she said as she began to cry.

Judge orders experts to investigate water woes
In February 2025, Puerto Rico’s governor appointed Luis González Delgado as executive president of the island’s Water and Sewer Authority.

Months later, former regional director Roberto Martínez Toledo was replaced. But Martínez was recently appointed to a new committee ordered by a judge to work with the agency to investigate and solve the chronic water shortages.

The mayor of San Juan, who is a member of the governor’s party, said that if Martínez hadn’t been removed from his position, “we wouldn’t be here talking about this issue.”

The new head of the water and sewer agency blamed Martínez for some of the problems.

“(The crisis) could have been avoided if Roberto Martínez had answered the phone the first day I called him,” González told reporters this week, adding that he is willing to work with him.

Some Puerto Ricans are demanding González resign as they clamor for Martínez to return to his old job, while a growing number are blaming the governor for the situation. On Wednesday night, the governor announced that all projects aimed at fixing water-related infrastructure have started with an investment of $217 million.

Those without water say they are still being billed for it.

“That’s another outrage,” said Laborde, the community leader. “You lose no matter what.”

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Two collisions one after another on a highway in western Hungary early Friday killed eight people, police said.

A truck caught fire after colliding with a construction vehicle near the city of Győr around 4.30 a.m., killing one person and snarling traffic, police said.

About half an hour later, a minibus with Moldovan license plates slammed into a truck that stopped on the highway following the first accident. The second crash killed seven people and seriously injured two, police said.

Authorities closed one lane of the M1 highway toward Austria.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

Lángok és roncsok az M1-esen, Vitézy Dávid soron kívüli vizsgálatot rendelt el a halálos tragédiák miatt.https://t.co/40Hg6X4wWW

Fotó: Győr HTP / Győr-Moson-Sopron VMKI#Hungary #tragedy #accident #indexhu pic.twitter.com/wKgrtKoXb4

— Index.hu (@indexhu) June 12, 2026

A remarkable moment of gadlus baTorah unfolded Thursday in a Lakewood, NJ home when Rav Yisroel Bunim Schreiber, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Nesiv Hadaas, demonstrated an astonishing command of Torah by recalling the entirety of Maseches Bava Basra from memory before a captivated audience.

The episode took place during the visit of the gedolim of Keren Olam HaTorah, who are currently traveling throughout America on behalf of the yeshivos and kollelim of Eretz Yisroel. While Rav Chaim Mordechai Ausband, Rosh Yeshiva of Ateres Shlomo, was visiting the home of Yanky Stern, a bochur approached him with a challenging question in learning. The inquiry was anything but simple. The bochur asked for a complete accounting of every machlokes between Rabbah and Rav Yosef found throughout Maseches Bava Basra.

Rather than answer the question himself, Rav Ausband directed it to Rav Schreiber, whose reputation as an exceptional baki is well known in the olam haTorah. What followed left those present in awe.

Rav Schreiber began mentally traversing the masechta, moving through the dafim one by one. As he progressed, he identified each machlokes between Rabbah and Rav Yosef, systematically working his way through the entire masechta without opening a Gemara or consulting any notes.

The extraordinary display of mastery transformed an ordinary visit into an unforgettable lesson in the depth and breadth of true Torah knowledge.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

(AP) – Ford is recalling more than 250,000 vehicles that were incorrectly repaired under a previous recall meant to fix a problem that caused the engine to stall while driving.

The recall includes 255,404 Ford Focus automobiles, model years 2012-2018. Ford said the canister purge valve may malfunction, causing the engine to stall unexpectedly while driving, increasing the risk of crash and injury.

To fix the problem, dealers will provide a powertrain software update free of charge.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed July 6. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332.

Ford’s number for this recall is 26S40. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s number for this recall is 26V369. The original NHTSA recall number for this issue is 18V735.

Vehicle identification numbers involved in this recall will become searchable on NHTSA.gov on July 6.

(AP) – Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries, depots and pipelines. Tanker trucks attacked and left ablaze along the land corridor from Russia to Crimea. Motorists waiting in long lines at gas stations.

In a new blow to the Kremlin’s narrative that Moscow is winning the 4-year-old war in Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces have targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The persistent attacks reflect the growing intensity and efficiency of Ukraine’s drone strikes and have caught Russia off guard and struggling for a response.

As the country marks the Russia Day national holiday on Friday, signaling the start of summer vacations, the gas shortages are threatening to cause further disruptions to the tourism-dependent region with its beaches and resorts.

In a rare public acknowledgment, the Kremlin has recognized the scope of the problem and promised to address the issue quickly.

Ukraine’s successes have highlighted its ability to inflict painful damage on Russia and change the course of the conflict while Moscow’s advances recently have ground to a near halt. On Thursday, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reached its 1,569th day, surpassing the duration of World War I.

Crimea has special importance to Russia
Crimea has been a jewel in Russia’s imperial crown since it was seized from Turkic-speaking Tatars in the 18th century after Moscow defeated the Ottoman Empire.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 when both republics were part of the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the diamond-shaped peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.

Russia kept a naval base in Sevastopol, and when a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president was ousted by a popular uprising in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent in troops to overtake Crimea. Weeks later, Moscow annexed the peninsula following a referendum that most of the world refuses to recognize.

Soon afterward, a Moscow-backed separatist insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine, and fighting there raged with varying intensity until the February 2022 invasion. Russian troops concentrated in Crimea quickly seized large parts of southern Ukraine early in the war and secured the land route to the peninsula.

Since early in the war, Ukraine has fired missiles and drones to try to dislodge Moscow’s hold on the territory. The Ukrainian military sank several Russian warships in the Black Sea and at their Crimean bases, crippling Moscow’s naval capability and forcing it to redeploy its fleet to Novorossiysk.

Ukraine also methodically targeted munitions depots, airfields and Putin’s prized asset, the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The span was struck by a truck bomb in October 2022 that killed five people, blew up two sections of the bridge and required months of repairs. More attacks on the bridge followed in 2023 and 2025.

Ukraine has attacked the land corridor to Crimea
Since the Kerch Bridge attacks, Russia has channeled most fuel and other supplies along the highway and railroad via the occupied territories along the Sea of Azov coast. Those shipments were interrupted last month, when Ukrainian drones hit fuel trucks on the highway that Moscow once deemed to be safe, leaving behind dozens of burning vehicles.

Other relentless Ukrainian strikes hit refineries, oil depots and pipelines deep inside Russia, hurting its oil exports and causing domestic fuel shortages.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted the synergy between the longer-range attacks and those disrupting supplies to Crimea and other occupied regions.

“The long-range strike campaign is therefore reducing Russia’s production capacity, while the midrange strike campaign is hurting Russia’s ability to transport the gasoline Russia is still able to produce,” it said in an analysis.

Making matters worse, Ukrainian drones this week repeatedly hit the Chonhar Bridge, which links mainland Ukraine and Crimea over a shallow strait. Authorities deployed pontoon bridges.

The Ukrainian military said it struck the bridge to disrupt the movement of troops, ammunition and fuel from Crimea.

Natia Seskuria, of the Royal United Services Institute in London, observed that the latest attacks on Crimea’s supply lines have exposed Russia’s vulnerabilities and inflicted significant damage, allowing Ukraine to reclaim momentum.

“It’s a political statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, underscoring that Ukraine does not accept the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has both the capabilities and intent to contest Russian control in Crimea,” she said. “And on the other hand, it serves a strategic aim to deprive Russia (of) its very important logistics hub.”

Crimea is seeing lines for fuel and gas rationing after Ukrainian strikes
It’s not immediately clear how the fuel disruptions will affect Russian military operations, but residents of Crimea and other occupied territories are keenly feeling the blow.

The peninsula has had periodic fuel shortages from Ukrainian strikes before, but this crisis is the worst since its 2014 annexation.

At the end of May, authorities restricted the sale of gasoline to 20 liters (5 1/3 gallons) per vehicle owner per week using prepaid coupons. Those were snapped up immediately following their release on an official messaging app channel, and motorists lined up for hours, waiting to refuel.

Social networks have been abuzz with requests and advice on where to find fuel, and authorities launched a hotline for tourists who have found themselves trapped.

While fuel shipments over the Kerch Bridge long have been suspended for security reasons since the Ukrainian attacks, fuel also has been carried by ferries. Those shipments are expected to increase.

Some motorists bring their own gas over the bridge from the mainland, but they are restricted to carrying 100 liters (about 26 1/2 gallons) per vehicle. Some speculators are selling gas at double the market price.

Crimea attracted nearly 7 million tourists last year, and it had hoped to top that number this year. The business daily Kommersant reported that nearly 80% of hotel bookings were canceled in late May and early June.

Some hotels offered gasoline as a bonus for new bookings, offers that were quickly snapped up.

Some travelers were unsettled by a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week on a passenger train traveling from Moscow to Crimea, injuring its driver and killing his assistant. That led to a brief suspension of service, with passengers taken by buses.

An earlier attack on a commuter train in Crimea killed one person and injured three others, forcing authorities to shift schedules to limit service during daytime hours.

The Kremlin pledges action
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the Crimean fuel shortages earlier this week and promised that “measures were being taken” to deal with them.

The Russian Defense Ministry has been silent about the Ukrainian attacks on the land corridor, while some war bloggers have harshly criticized the military for failing to anticipate the strikes and its slow response.

Some suggested military escorts for fuel trucks while others urged stepping up strikes on Ukrainian bridges, fuel storage sites and other infrastructure.

Amid the fuel crisis and the finger-pointing, Ukraine dealt another symbolic blow to Russia, striking a historic Sevastopol building that houses a huge panoramic painting that depicts the defense of the city during the 19th century Crimean War. The painting was effectively destroyed by fire during the attack, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea’s largest city.

Given Putin’s focus on Crimea, military blogger Valery Shiryayev said the attack would certainly anger the Russian leader.

“It’s hard to find another work of art, another part of national heritage, whose destruction would be as painful for Putin,” he said.

A driver ran a red light approximately five seconds after the signal changed at the intersection of Route 70 and Vermont Avenue in Lakewood this morning, causing an accident.

No serious injuries were reported.

President Donald Trump downplayed a sharp rise in inflation, arguing higher prices are tied to the Iran conflict and will fall once the war ends.

U.S. inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in three years during May, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Wednesday, June 10, 2026, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But rather than expressing concern, President Donald Trump surprised reporters with an unusual response.

“I really love the inflation,” Trump said during remarks at the White House.

The comment immediately drew attention because rising prices have traditionally been viewed as a political liability for any administration. However, Trump quickly clarified his reasoning, shifting the discussion toward the ongoing conflict with Iran and arguing that inflation pressures are largely tied to wartime energy disruptions.

“I love the inflation. You know why?” Trump said before discussing U.S. operations related to Iran’s oil sector and asserting that the administration’s broader strategy would ultimately benefit the economy.

The remarks came after a difficult inflation report.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures changes in the prices consumers pay for goods and services, recorded its highest annual increase since April 2023. It marked the third consecutive month of accelerating inflation and moved further above the Federal Reserve’s long-term target of approximately 2%.

The primary driver remains energy.

Since the escalation of hostilities involving Iran earlier this year, oil markets have experienced significant volatility. The disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors, has pushed fuel prices sharply higher.

According to AAA, the national average price of regular gasoline has climbed to approximately $4.15 per gallon, compared with about $2.98 before the conflict intensified.

Within the May inflation report, gasoline prices rose 7%, following a 5.4% increase in April and a 21.2% surge in March.

Higher energy costs continue to ripple throughout the economy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported increases across multiple categories, including transportation, airline fares, recreation, healthcare services, communications and other consumer expenses. Because fuel affects shipping and operating costs throughout the economy, higher energy prices often translate into broader inflationary pressures.

Trump used the inflation discussion to make a broader argument about the war.

The president claimed U.S. operations have prevented oil prices from rising even further by disrupting Iranian oil activity. He described nighttime maritime operations involving multiple vessels but did not provide specific figures or supporting documentation. The claims could not be independently verified.

When asked whether inflation would fall before the November midterm elections, Trump expressed confidence.

“When the war’s over, it’s coming down,” he said. “It’s going to come down like a rock.”

That message reflects the administration’s position that current inflation pressures are temporary and largely tied to geopolitical events rather than underlying economic weakness.

Economists note, however, that sustained inflation can create additional challenges.

Persistent price increases may force the Federal Reserve to maintain higher interest rates or even consider future increases to cool demand. Higher rates can raise borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, business financing and credit cards.

For consumers, that means inflation can have effects beyond rising prices at gas stations and grocery stores.

Even so, current inflation remains below the levels experienced during the post-pandemic surge.

In 2022, annual inflation exceeded 9%, reaching its highest level in roughly four decades. While today’s inflation is the strongest in three years, it remains significantly below those historic peaks and is currently more concentrated in energy-related sectors.

The key variable remains the duration of the Iran conflict.

If energy markets stabilize and oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz return to normal levels, inflation pressures could ease. If disruptions continue, higher fuel costs could remain a source of upward pressure on prices throughout the economy.

For now, consumers face rising costs, policymakers face renewed inflation concerns, and investors are watching closely to see whether the recent surge proves temporary—or becomes a more persistent challenge for the U.S. economy.

JBizNews Desk — Washington

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The Kabolas Panim and Atzeres Tefillah took place on the grounds of Beth Medrash Govoha between Ninth and Tenth Streets, bounded by Clifton Avenue and Lexington Avenue. The men’s section was situated on the western side of the main event area, while a separate women’s section was located to the north. Entrances were available from both Clifton Avenue and Lexington Avenue, with designated access points for the public and separate entrances for rabbanim. Extensive security measures and road closures surrounded the event perimeter, with attendees directed by event staff and law enforcement personnel. Restroom facilities and emergency medical services stations were positioned throughout the area to accommodate the thousands who attended.

This post was originally published on this site.

A unique and educational Torah event will take place this Sunday morning, June 14, when the Agudath Israel of America Torah Projects Commission presents a special shiur in Far Rockaway, New York, 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 Agudas Yisroel of Long Island, located at 1121 Sage Street in Far Rockaway, and is expected to attract Daf Yomi participants, bnei Torah, rabbanim, and members of the broader community seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most fascinating and practical areas of halachah.

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

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

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

The shiur, as mentioned, will take place at Agudas Yisroel of Long Island, 1121 Sage Street, Far Rockaway, New York, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

{Matzav.com}

OpenAI announced that it had shut down a series of accounts tied to Chinese influence operations that allegedly used ChatGPT to generate content aimed at shaping American discussions surrounding tariffs and the rapid expansion of AI data centers.

According to a report by Axios, the campaigns failed to gain meaningful attention online, but OpenAI said they offer a glimpse into how individuals connected to Beijing are testing artificial intelligence as a tool for amplifying divisions and contentious policy debates within the United States.

The company disclosed that investigators uncovered two separate efforts that relied on ChatGPT to create social media content, including posts, comments, and political cartoons focused on U.S. technology issues. One campaign, which OpenAI dubbed “Data Center Bandwagon,” produced material arguing that AI data centers were driving up electricity prices for American consumers. A second campaign, labeled “Tech and Tariffs,” generated content attacking the Trump administration’s tariff policies and criticizing America’s efforts to maintain leadership in advanced technology sectors.

“This was not a case of an influence operation creating a debate,” said Ben Nimmo, principal investigator on OpenAI’s intelligence and investigations team, in comments to reporters. “The debate existed already. This was an influence operation from China trying to interfere in it.”

While OpenAI said neither effort achieved significant reach or engagement, company officials noted that the data center operation appears to be the first known China-linked influence campaign to use OpenAI’s technology to inject itself into the ongoing public discussion over AI infrastructure and energy consumption.

Investigators believe the data center effort involved individuals connected to a Chinese government contractor. According to OpenAI, those users instructed ChatGPT to create comic strips and other content focused on power-grid capacity and rising electricity costs. The material was later distributed through what appeared to be fake accounts on X, often accompanied by links to legitimate news stories discussing the energy demands of large-scale data centers.

A separate operation, whose organizers could not be definitively identified, used ChatGPT to produce political cartoons critical of U.S. trade and technology policies. One image cited by OpenAI depicted President Trump wearing pants emblazoned with the American flag and the words “America First,” while holding a hammer marked “Tech Dominance” and striking a barrier labeled “Global Future.”

OpenAI said the campaigns illustrate how foreign actors may increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to quickly generate large volumes of content designed to influence debates over divisive political and economic issues. The company said its ability to detect and remove the accounts underscores both the growing sophistication of foreign information operations and the challenges facing AI companies seeking to prevent their platforms from being exploited for propaganda and influence campaigns.

{Matzav.com}

Attention Post-Seminary Girls! Now Is Your Chance To Bask In The Presence Of The Gedolei Hador!
The Gemara asks a question: Nashim b’mai zakyan? By what merit do women acquire their share in Torah? The answer has always been that women earn their cheilek by building the world of limud haTorah, by carrying it on their shoulders and making it possible. On Tuesday, June 16, young women will have the chance to grab their own eternal cheilek.

Keren Olam HaTorah is inviting post-seminary girls to an exclusive evening in Bell Works, offering the rare opportunity to stand in the presence of the Gedolei Hador, receive their berachos, and to become true partners in upholding the yeshivos of Eretz Yisroel, by running Keren Olam Hatorah’s dedicated call center.

The urgency could not be greater. Keren Olam HaTorah is a historic initiative of the Gedolei Hador, launched to save the yeshivos of Eretz Yisroel amid the severe Israeli government budget cuts that have threatened to choke off their lifeblood. Today, the Keren stands behind and supports 120,000 lomdim. As long as the crisis endures, so must the fight for Torah.

The program will include an uplifting musical and inspirational program, an address from Rabbi Joey Haber, and a full dinner buffet. Even better, the program will include a visit from the Gedolei Hador themselves, offering their brachos directly to you, no intermediaries involved!

The Gedolim are calling on you. Will you answer?

What: Exclusive call-center event for post-seminary girls

When: Tuesday, June 16. Doors open 7:00 PM
Where: Bell Works

Register: kerenolamhatorah.org/girlsevent or call: 732.941.1000 ext. #5

Email: [email protected]

Despite rising defaults, redemption pressures and slowing retail inflows, investors continue pouring money into bonds issued by private credit firms, keeping a key source of business financing alive.

For all the concern surrounding the private credit industry this year, one corner of the market remains surprisingly strong: investors continue to buy the bonds issued by private credit funds.

In an April 2026 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs Private Credit Corp. reported raising approximately $1.04 billion of new capital during the first quarter, citing what it described as “continued strong investor demand.” More recently, Blackstone’s flagship private credit fund reported fresh inflows in early June, signaling that institutional investors continue to support the sector despite mounting concerns elsewhere in the market.

To understand why that matters, it helps to understand what private credit is.

Private credit refers to loans made outside the traditional banking system. Instead of borrowing from a commercial bank or issuing publicly traded bonds, companies receive financing directly from investment firms, asset managers and specialized lending funds. These loans often carry higher interest rates than traditional debt and typically lock investors into long-term commitments.

Over the past decade, private credit has grown into a multi-trillion-dollar global industry, becoming an increasingly important source of financing for businesses that may not qualify for conventional bank lending.

A large share of that activity takes place through Business Development Companies (BDCs), investment vehicles that raise money from investors and lend it to businesses. To increase their lending capacity, many BDCs also issue bonds of their own, effectively borrowing money from fixed-income investors.

Those bonds continue to find buyers.

According to Fitch Ratings, rated BDCs issued approximately $21 billion of debt during 2025 and another $4 billion during January 2026 alone. Recent bond offerings from several major private credit firms have continued to attract strong demand despite broader concerns about the sector.

That resilience stands in contrast to developments elsewhere in private credit.

After a fundraising boom during 2024 and 2025 that brought more than $60 billion into BDCs, investor enthusiasm began cooling in early 2026. Industry data show retail sales of new BDC shares fell approximately 40% during the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

Several so-called evergreen funds—semi-liquid investment vehicles designed for individual investors—have also encountered significant redemption pressure.

These funds typically limit quarterly withdrawals to approximately 5% of assets, and some managers have been forced to restrict redemptions after requests exceeded those limits.

Blue Owl Capital was among the firms that capped withdrawals after investor redemption requests substantially surpassed available liquidity.

At the same time, credit conditions have become more challenging.

In March, Morgan Stanley strategist Joyce Jiang warned that private credit default rates could approach 8%, significantly above historical averages. Some industry observers argue that actual stress levels may be even higher when distressed restructurings are included alongside formal defaults.

The rising number of troubled loans has intensified debate over whether the private credit boom has entered a more difficult phase.

Supporters of the industry argue that the concerns may be overstated.

Most private credit loans are structured as senior secured debt, meaning lenders are first in line to recover money if a borrower encounters financial trouble. That position generally provides greater protection against losses than unsecured lending.

Industry participants also note that redemption limits are functioning exactly as intended by preventing forced asset sales during periods of market stress.

Neuberger Berman and other managers have argued that recent redemption restrictions reflect prudent liquidity management rather than underlying portfolio weakness.

Institutional investors appear to agree.

Unlike retail investors, pension funds, insurance companies and large institutions typically invest with longer time horizons and are less likely to react to short-term market volatility. Their continued support has helped sustain demand for private-credit-related debt even as retail sentiment has weakened.

Still, competition for investor dollars is increasing.

As concerns surrounding private credit have grown, some investors have shifted assets into traditional publicly traded bond funds that offer daily liquidity, transparent pricing and attractive yields without multi-year lockups.

Asset managers including Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) and Janus Henderson Group have actively promoted those advantages as investors reassess their options.

For businesses, the outcome matters.

Private credit has become a major funding source for thousands of small and midsize companies that may struggle to secure financing through traditional banks. If capital inflows slow significantly, borrowing costs could rise and financing could become harder to obtain, potentially affecting expansion plans, hiring decisions and investment activity.

That is why continued demand for BDC bonds remains important.

As long as investors keep buying the debt issued by private lenders, those firms can continue raising capital and extending loans to businesses across the economy.

The result is a market sending mixed signals.

Retail investors are pulling back. Redemption requests are climbing. Default concerns are growing.

Yet institutional investors continue committing capital, and bond buyers continue funding private lenders.

The private credit industry faces one of its biggest tests since its rise to prominence, but for now, investors purchasing its bonds still appear convinced that the asset class remains worth the risk.

JBizNews Desk — Markets

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Federal authorities are investigating after the numbers “86 47” were discovered etched into a grassy section of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., just days before large crowds are expected to descend on the capital for a UFC event scheduled to coincide with President Donald Trump’s birthday.

The markings were spotted Thursday on a sizable patch of grass east of the World War II Memorial. Live webcam images captured the numbers cut into the discolored area, though officials have not yet determined when the damage occurred. Images taken of the same location on June 5 showed no sign of the message.

Although the carving was clearly visible from above, visitors at ground level had difficulty seeing it Thursday afternoon. Witnesses reported that emergency vehicles temporarily restricted access to the area around 1 p.m. while members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team landed nearby. According to a law enforcement source who spoke with CNN, the Secret Service will assist the U.S. Park Police if investigators identify a suspect.

Authorities are still working to determine exactly what caused the damage. A spokesperson for the Park Police said samples from the affected grass have been collected and are being analyzed. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior issued a sharp condemnation of the incident, describing it as “deranged vandalism.”

“Any threat against the President is taken very seriously by the Department, and our U.S. Park Police will investigate this incident and hold those responsible accountable,” a department spokesperson said.

The phrase “8647” has circulated in some anti-Trump circles in recent years, while members of the administration have argued that the slogan amounts to a threat directed at the President.

The controversy surrounding the phrase intensified in April when the Department of Justice brought charges against former FBI Director James Comey after he shared a photograph on Instagram showing the numbers arranged with seashells.

The meaning commonly attributed to the phrase stems from the use of “86” as slang for eliminating, removing, or getting rid of something, while “47” is a reference to Trump’s status as the 47th President of the United States.

Investigators have not announced any suspects or motives in connection with the National Mall incident, and the inquiry remains ongoing as authorities work to determine who was responsible for the markings and when they were created.

JERUSALEM (VINnews)-Israeli forces conducted a raid several weeks ago in the southern Lebanon village of Dibbine, locating significant weapon depots used by Hezbollah to launch attacks against troops and Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday.

Dibbine lies approximately 12 kilometers (about 7.5 miles) north of the Israeli border and beyond the IDF’s forward defense line, which marks Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon. Troops from the 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade carried out the operation, according to the military.

During the raid, the Israeli Air Force struck around 50 targets, destroying dozens of Hezbollah sites and killing operatives, the IDF said. The village had served as a base for Hezbollah to advance anti-tank missile attacks and other assaults on Israeli forces.

The brigade previously operated in Dibbine in April, prior to the implementation of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon.

The announcement highlights ongoing Israeli efforts to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon despite the truce.

The Florida-based medical marijuana operator becomes the first American cannabis company that grows and sells marijuana to trade on a major U.S. stock exchange, marking a milestone years in the making for the industry.

A U.S. marijuana company traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for the first time on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, as Trulieve Cannabis Corp. began trading under the ticker TRLV.

The Tallahassee, Florida-based company became the first American “plant-touching” cannabis operator—one that directly cultivates, processes and sells marijuana—to secure a listing on a major U.S. stock exchange.

The achievement represents a breakthrough for an industry that has spent years seeking broader access to public capital markets.

“As the first U.S. cannabis company to list on a major U.S. exchange, we are excited,” said Kim Rivers, Trulieve’s founder and chief executive officer, in announcing the listing.

Rivers said the move is expected to expand the company’s shareholder base, improve market visibility and increase awareness of the medical cannabis industry.

Prior to the NYSE listing, Trulieve traded over-the-counter under the symbol TCNNF and on the Canadian Securities Exchange, where it has been listed since 2018.

For years, major U.S. exchanges largely prohibited listings by American cannabis companies because marijuana remained classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.

That classification placed marijuana alongside drugs considered by the federal government to have no accepted medical use, creating significant legal and regulatory obstacles for companies directly involved in the cannabis business.

As a result, most U.S. cannabis operators were forced to raise capital through Canadian exchanges or over-the-counter markets, which generally offer lower trading volumes and reduced access to institutional investors.

The regulatory landscape changed this spring.

In April 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the reclassification of medical marijuana to Schedule III, a category reserved for substances recognized as having accepted medical uses and a lower potential for abuse.

The move created a pathway for state-licensed medical marijuana businesses to register with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and potentially qualify for listing on major U.S. exchanges.

Trulieve still needed to restructure its business to meet listing requirements.

Because only medical marijuana was rescheduled, the company separated its adult-use recreational cannabis operations into a distinct entity. Through a third-party investment arrangement, Trulieve fully deconsolidated its recreational business, leaving the publicly traded company focused exclusively on medical marijuana.

While Kim Rivers continues to maintain control over the recreational operation, its financial results are no longer included within the NYSE-listed company.

The remaining medical cannabis business remains substantial.

Trulieve operates 206 state-licensed dispensaries and approximately 3.5 million square feet of DEA-registered cultivation and production facilities. The company is also one of the dominant players in Florida’s medical marijuana market, where it is estimated to control between 30% and 40% of statewide medical cannabis revenue.

Investors responded positively to the listing.

Shares initially rose about 4% during Wednesday morning trading before moderating later in the session. The larger market reaction came after the June 5 listing announcement, when Trulieve shares surged approximately 20%.

The stock is now up roughly 38% in 2026.

The broader cannabis sector has also benefited.

The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (NYSE: MSOS), one of the industry’s most widely followed exchange-traded funds, recently reached its highest level of the year. Trulieve represents approximately 30% of the fund’s holdings.

For individual investors, the NYSE listing significantly simplifies access.

Investors can now purchase Trulieve shares through traditional brokerage accounts, retirement accounts and popular investing platforms without navigating over-the-counter markets or Canadian exchanges.

Industry competitors are already positioning themselves to follow.

Curaleaf Holdings announced a 1-for-3 reverse stock split in late May, while Verano Holdings implemented a 1-for-5 reverse split, moves widely viewed as preparation for potential uplistings if regulatory conditions continue to improve.

Curaleaf has cautioned, however, that additional regulatory clarity will still be necessary before a listing can move forward.

Meanwhile, Canadian cannabis companies including Tilray Brands, SNDL, and Canopy Growth have long traded on major U.S. exchanges because they operate under Canada’s federally legal cannabis framework rather than directly touching U.S. marijuana operations.

Additional regulatory developments could arrive soon.

Industry participants are closely watching a DEA hearing later this month that could further reshape federal cannabis policy. The move to Schedule III also offers another major benefit: relief from certain federal tax rules that have historically imposed heavy burdens on cannabis businesses.

Lower tax costs could significantly improve profitability across the industry.

Industry advocates view Trulieve’s listing as a turning point.

Michael Bronstein, president of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, said U.S. cannabis companies have long argued they deserve the same access to capital markets available to international competitors.

With Trulieve now trading on the New York Stock Exchange, that argument is finally being tested on Wall Street.

JBizNews Desk — Markets

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A 22-year-old Arab woman from Kafr Qasim who struck a chareidi protester during Thursday night’s demonstration near the Geha Interchange was released without being questioned by police, according to a report by Channel 14, sparking outrage among protesters and members of the chareidi community.

According to the report, police released the driver after she requested medical treatment. Rather than questioning her immediately, authorities said she would be summoned for questioning at a later date. The investigation into the incident remains ongoing.

The incident occurred during demonstrations against the arrest of yeshiva bochurim, when the driver passed through the area and struck a 21-year-old chareidi protester.

According to Magen David Adom, emergency crews responded at approximately 6:38 p.m. to reports of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle near the Ganot Interchange. Paramedics treated the 21-year-old victim at the scene before transporting him to a hospital in moderate condition with injuries to his head and limbs.

The decision to release the driver before questioning has drawn sharp criticism, with many questioning how such a move would have been handled had the victim belonged to another sector of Israeli society.

Police have not announced whether any charges are expected, and the circumstances surrounding the collision remain under investigation.

Following the demonstrations, representatives of the Peleg Yerushalmi vowed that the protests would continue.

“The demonstrations are not going to stop—on the contrary, they are only expected to intensify and expand,” the group said in a statement. “The message from the thousands of protesters is clear: Leave the Yeshiva Bochurim alone, and there will be peace here. Continue persecuting them, and you will discover that life here will not return to normal.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A reported draft agreement between the United States and Iran is raising alarm in Israel, as the proposed framework would reportedly grant Tehran sweeping economic and diplomatic concessions while leaving many of the threats facing the Jewish State untouched.

According to reports citing Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency, the proposed Memorandum of Understanding would inject billions of dollars into Iran’s struggling economy, ease American pressure on the regime, and reduce the U.S. military presence around the Islamic Republic—all while postponing negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and excluding its ballistic missile arsenal and terrorist proxies from the talks altogether.

If the reported terms are accurate, Iran would receive many of its key demands upfront while making relatively few immediate concessions.

Among the reported provisions is an immediate and permanent ceasefire across all fronts, including Lebanon, potentially freezing Israel’s military gains against Hezbollah while placing no obligation on the terror group to disarm or dismantle its military infrastructure.

The United States would reportedly lift its naval blockade within 30 days, withdraw forces positioned near Iran, and facilitate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, sanctions on Iranian oil and petrochemical exports would be suspended, allowing Tehran to once again generate billions in energy revenue.

Perhaps the most dramatic provision is the reported release of approximately $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets. According to the report, roughly half of that amount—about $12 billion—would be transferred to Tehran before negotiations even begin on a permanent nuclear agreement.

In exchange, Iran would enter a 60-day negotiating period over its nuclear program.

However, according to the reported draft, some of Israel’s greatest security concerns would remain completely off the table.

Iran’s ballistic missile program—which has supplied thousands of missiles and drones used against Israel—would reportedly not be part of the negotiations. Neither would Iran’s continued support for Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, or the network of Iranian-backed militias operating throughout the Middle East.

For Israeli security officials, those omissions could prove far more significant than the concessions Iran is being asked to make.

Critics warn that billions of dollars in sanctions relief and released assets could allow Tehran to rapidly rebuild military infrastructure damaged during the recent conflict, replenish Hezbollah’s arsenal, expand funding for its regional terror network, and strengthen its domestic economy—all while preserving the military capabilities that pose the greatest long-term threat to Israel.

The reported Lebanon provisions have also drawn concern. A permanent ceasefire without requiring Hezbollah to surrender its weapons could give the terror organization time to regroup, rearm, recruit new fighters, and rebuild positions damaged during the fighting, while significantly limiting Israel’s ability to continue military operations.

The draft also reportedly envisions reopening the Strait of Hormuz under arrangements negotiated with Iran, a move critics argue would hand Tehran a diplomatic victory after demonstrating its ability to threaten one of the world’s most strategically important shipping lanes.

According to the report, any final agreement would ultimately be submitted to the United Nations Security Council for approval, potentially making it more difficult for Israel to act independently against Iran in the future should Tehran violate the agreement or exploit the lull to restore its military capabilities.

The reported agreement has not been confirmed by Washington, and Iranian officials say the draft has not yet received final approval from the country’s senior leadership. It also remains possible that some of the published provisions reflect Iranian negotiating demands rather than language accepted by both sides.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday, portraying the retiring Kentucky Republican as embittered, disloyal, and undeserving of the praise he has received over the years for reshaping the federal judiciary.

Trump made the remarks during an Oval Office question-and-answer session following the signing of a proclamation rolling back fishing regulations enacted during the Obama administration. The exchange was broadcast live on Newsmax and the network’s streaming platform, Newsmax2.

The President was asked about the possibility that Senate Republicans could pursue a third budget reconciliation package, a proposal that has been floated as a vehicle for additional funding tied to the conflict with Iran, election-security measures connected to the SAVE America Act, and restrictions on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

Earlier this week, McConnell, who is stepping down at the end of his current term and will not serve in the next Congress, cast doubt on the idea during a Senate hearing.

“I think it’s safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill, so it’s really not an option.”

Trump responded with a lengthy criticism of the former Senate Republican leader.

“McConnell is an angry man,” Trump said. “You know, he got thrown out of his position [as Senate GOP leader]. He’s an angry guy. You know, he should be very thankful to me because if I didn’t win, he wouldn’t have gotten to a point … I appointed the judges. He didn’t.

“He gets credit for appointing judges. He didn’t appoint anybody. I did. You know how I did? I won the election and then I picked judges, and the judges ended up getting approved and they said, oh, didn’t he do a good job?

“He didn’t do a good job. What the hell did he do? I won the election.”

The President also accused McConnell of undermining Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who succeeded him as Republican leader in the upper chamber.

“He’s an angry man who’s very disloyal to John Thune,” Trump said. “John Thune is a good man. He was a loyal worker for Mitch McConnell. He worked very hard. He was very loyal to him.

“I disagree with him a lot because Mitch McConnell gave so much money to Democrats. He gave them money. I had to go get the [border] wall money from the military [in Trump’s first term]. I just took it out of the military because that guy wouldn’t do anything.

“No, Mitch McConnell’s a bad guy. And I thought he was lousy at his job. But the only thing they gave him a lot of credit was for judges.

“But I’m the one that got the judges. You know why? I won the election. If I didn’t win the election, he wouldn’t have had any judges.”

The conversation then shifted to reports that the White House is preparing a supplemental funding request for Congress. While the Pentagon initially discussed a package approaching $200 billion to replenish weapons stockpiles and maintain military readiness, recent reports indicate the administration may ultimately seek between $80 billion and $100 billion.

Rather than address the details of the funding proposal, Trump turned his attention to Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, criticizing the Republican senator over her voting record.

Last month, Murkowski joined Sens. Susan Collins and Rand Paul in voting alongside Democrats to advance a measure aimed at preventing U.S. military action against Iran without congressional approval.

Trump argued that despite efforts by his administration to benefit Alaska, Murkowski has consistently opposed his agenda.

“But you have him. You have Murkowski,” Trump said. “I’ve done so much for Murkowski. And Murkowski is terrible. Terrible to us, terrible to the country. I almost feel guilty.

“I [have] probably done more for Alaska than any other state, not because of her, because it’s the right thing to do. She’s just an impediment. But she’s there. She probably will be a negative vote.”

{Matzav.com}

The state funeral for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, already delayed for more than three months, will be pushed back again to late June or early July, the mayor of Tehran said, extending one of the most politically sensitive loose ends of the country’s wartime transition.

Mayor Alireza Zakani, in a statement carried by the state-run Fars news agency, said the three-day ceremony had been postponed until after the first 10 days of Muharram, the opening month of the Islamic calendar. Iran had previously planned to hold the event in early Muharram, which would have placed it in early June, and the new timing points to a burial in the second 10 days of the month, roughly between June 26 and July 5. Officials have said they expect as many as 20 million people to attend.

The announcement stretches out an already extraordinary delay. Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 in a US-Israeli strike on his Tehran compound at the start of the war, and more than 100 days later his body has still not been buried. Senior military commanders and other officials killed in the same conflict have already been laid to rest, even as repeated promises of a mass funeral for the longtime leader have gone unfulfilled. Plans call for ceremonies spanning several cities before a final burial in the city of Mashhad, his birthplace.

The originally planned three-day farewell tour, set for early March, was the first to slip. State television said at the time that the farewell had been postponed “in anticipation of unprecedented turnout,” with organizers citing the expected participation of millions and the infrastructure needed to manage such crowds. Days later, authorities scrapped a planned procession over security concerns, prompting a wave of sarcastic and angry commentary on Iranian social media.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether some of America’s largest banks improperly closed customer accounts based on political beliefs, affiliations, or lawful business activities.

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether some of the nation’s largest banks cut off customers because of their political views. The probe became public on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, when people familiar with the confidential matter said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, had issued subpoenas to several major lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.

The subpoenas, some dating back to last year, seek lists of customers whose accounts were closed and records explaining the reasons for those closures. Prosecutors are examining whether the decisions were standard business actions or whether customers were targeted because of their political views, affiliations, religious beliefs, or industries in which they operate.

JPMorgan Chase did not immediately comment. Bank of America and Wells Fargo declined to comment.

At the center of the investigation is a practice known as “debanking,” in which a financial institution closes an account or declines to provide banking services. For individuals and businesses alike, losing access to banking services can create serious disruptions, affecting payroll, bill payments, deposits, financing, and everyday operations.

According to people familiar with the matter, prosecutors are reviewing whether any account closures violated federal law, including the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). The statute is commonly associated with bank fraud investigations but is also attractive to prosecutors because it provides a broad enforcement framework and a ten-year statute of limitations.

That timeline would allow investigators to review account closures dating back to the period following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, when some financial institutions reassessed relationships with politically exposed clients and organizations.

The investigation represents the most significant escalation to date in a broader debate over whether financial institutions have unfairly denied services to customers based on political considerations.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused major banks of refusing to do business with him following his first term in office. He publicly raised the issue with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan during the World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2025.

In August 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” directing federal agencies to investigate allegations of politically motivated debanking and refer potential violations to the Department of Justice.

Much of the government’s initial review was conducted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which supervises the nation’s largest national banks. According to reports, the OCC found preliminary evidence that some institutions had imposed restrictions on certain customers in the past.

Notably, the regulator reportedly did not formally refer the matter to the Justice Department. That makes the criminal investigation unusual, as prosecutors appear to have moved forward independently rather than acting on a formal regulatory recommendation.

The banks involved have consistently denied closing accounts because of politics or religion.

JPMorgan Chase has publicly stated that it does not close accounts based on political or religious affiliation. Banking industry representatives argue that account closures are typically driven by anti-money-laundering requirements, sanctions compliance obligations, fraud concerns, or other regulatory risk-management considerations.

That defense highlights one of the central questions facing investigators.

Federal civil-rights laws prohibit certain forms of discrimination, particularly in lending. However, banks generally maintain broad discretion over whom they choose to serve, and regulatory requirements sometimes compel institutions to terminate relationships viewed as high-risk.

Critics of the investigation argue that banks are being scrutinized for complying with the same federal regulations that require extensive customer-risk monitoring.

The outcome could have major implications for several industries that have long struggled to maintain banking relationships.

Cryptocurrency companies, cannabis businesses, firearms-related businesses, political organizations, advocacy groups, and certain nonprofit entities have frequently argued that they face heightened scrutiny from financial institutions. A determination that some account closures were unlawful could reshape how banks evaluate customer risk and could lead to significant changes in compliance policies across the industry.

Meanwhile, regulators have already begun adjusting their guidance.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) jointly removed references to “reputation risk” from supervisory guidance. Critics had argued that the standard allowed banks to deny services to lawful businesses simply because they were politically controversial or carried public-relations risks.

For now, the investigation remains in its early stages.

Subpoenas are requests for information and do not indicate wrongdoing. No bank has been charged with a crime, and prosecutors have not publicly alleged that any institution violated federal law.

Still, the probe signals that federal authorities intend to test a question that has increasingly moved from political debate into legal scrutiny: when a bank decides to close an account, where is the line between legitimate risk management and unlawful discrimination?

JBizNews Desk — Washington

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

Newly appointed Mossad Director Roman Gofman announced Thursday the appointment of a new deputy director, just days after unexpectedly dismissing the agency’s previous second-in-command.

According to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office on behalf of the Mossad, the official—identified only as “A”—will immediately assume the roles of Deputy Director of the Mossad and Head of the Operations Directorate. The appointment was approved by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The Mossad said the newly appointed deputy has served in a variety of key operational positions within the organization and “brings with him knowledge, experience, and a deep familiarity with the organization.”

The announcement follows Gofman’s surprise decision on Motzoei Shabbos to remove the previous deputy director, also identified only as “A,” ending his 22-year career with the agency.

The move came as a surprise in Israeli security circles. The outgoing deputy was reportedly viewed as being well-regarded by Prime Minister Netanyahu and had previously been considered by former Mossad chief David Barnea as a potential successor should Gofman’s appointment not have been approved.

In announcing the dismissal, Gofman thanked the outgoing official for his decades of service, saying, “The Mossad director wishes to express his deep appreciation to A for 22 years of operational service in the Mossad and for his significant contribution to the security of the State of Israel.”

The identity of both the outgoing and incoming officials remains classified in accordance with longstanding security protocols.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

British police have released footage of the arrest of Johannes Kongsnes Natland, a 19-year-old Norwegian accused of flying to the UK to carry out a paid killing for the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organized-crime gang prosecutors describe as “used by the Iranian regime.”  

The bodycam video shows armed officers raiding his hotel room in Huddersfield. Natland, wearing only boxer shorts, walks out with his hands up, then mimes shooting at police before being pinned and handcuffed. Police found £2,000 in cash, a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and 12 live rounds in the room.  

Prosecutors say Natland flew in from Stavanger, was directed to hidden cash, then to a dead-drop near a tree where guns and ammunition were waiting. Court messages allegedly referred to an “assassin,” a recruiter called “Generalen,” and a handler using the name “Agent 47,” with €25,000 said to be “in the pot.” The intended target has not been publicly identified.  

Natland has pleaded guilty to possessing the firearms and ammunition but denies conspiracy to murder. The wider picture is bigger than one teenager: Britain and the U.S. have sanctioned Foxtrot and its leader, Rawa Majid, over Iranian-backed violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.

Thousands of Satmar Chassidim gathered this week at Eden Palace in Williamsburg for a major emergency assembly led by the Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel, focusing on strengthening standards of kedusha and tznius throughout the kehillah.

The gathering, titled “Shemirah L’Doros,” was attended by thousands of chassidim together with the community’s rabbanim and dayanim.

Before the Rebbe’s arrival, his eldest son, HaRav Menachem Mendel Teitelbaum, Av Beis Din of Satmar-Williamsburg, delivered a passionate address stressing the importance of tznius, proper head coverings, the dangers posed by modern sheitels, technology, and other contemporary spiritual challenges.

When the Rebbe addressed the gathering, he delivered an emotional and forceful speech calling on families to preserve the mesorah of previous generations.

Quoting the pasuk, “V’hayah B’achalchem Milechem Ha’aretz Tarimu Terumah LaHashem,” the Rebbe explained that “lechem” alludes to a wife, while “terumah” signifies separation. He urged families to separate themselves from the influences and values of the outside world when building a Jewish home.

The Rebbe sharply criticized communities that are meticulous in many areas of religious observance while, in his view, failing to maintain proper standards of tznius.

“We live in Williamsburg alongside communities that are careful with many chumros and customs, yet regarding tznius they are not careful at all,” the Rebbe said. “Our holy forefathers regarded kedusha and tznius as among the most serious matters. We have a clear mesorah for how to conduct ourselves, how to dress, and how to educate our children, and it must not be changed to suit the spirit of the times or current fashions.”

At one point, the Rebbe became visibly emotional as he lamented what he described as the growing differences between generations.

“The gap in dress between the grandmother and the children and grandchildren is terrible,” he said. “In our generation there is a frightening decline. A chassidic Jew must conduct himself with dignity and elevation, not be drawn after neighbors or society, but stand proudly with the traditions that have been entrusted to us.”

The Rebbe also argued that much of the weakening in standards begins when bochurim are sent to study outside Satmar institutions.

“A large part of this weakening comes from sending young men to learn in outside yeshivos,” he said. “There they are exposed to foreign hashkafos and cool off in matters of chassidus and yiras Shamayim. Later, they see nothing wrong with their wives becoming lenient in matters of dress and tznius.”

The Rebbe strongly endorsed the earlier remarks delivered by his son, saying they were “words that come from the heart,” and urged every participant to ensure that proper standards are maintained within their own homes and families.

At the conclusion of the gathering, the Rebbe praised students of the Satmar Beis Rochel schools who recently accepted upon themselves to cut their long hair, commending them for what he described as a courageous step in strengthening the kedusha of the Jewish home.

He concluded by blessing the assembled chassidim that they should succeed in upholding the community’s standards and ended with the words, “In the merit of righteous women our forefathers were redeemed, and through righteous women may we soon merit the final redemption, Amen.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Dogecoin’s (CRYPTO: DOGE) official X account marked the start of the FIFA World Cup on Thursday by posting images of Shiba Inu dogs in national team jerseys.

DOGE Goes Woof-A!

The image featured three adorable canines on a soccer field, sporting U.S., Japan, and England jerseys.

“Drop ur flag so we know which country got the most shibes,” the X handle urged as it attempted to map Dogecoin supporters worldwide.

world cup started today 🏆 drop ur flag so we know which country got the most shibes pic.twitter.com/JigKb3pY5U

— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) June 12, 2026

Replies showed diverse flags from countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Canada, suggesting DOGE’s broad worldwide fanbase.

In fact, one user, MrGoldRobe.eth, declared …

Full story available on Benzinga.com

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1469-Machseh-Part-99.mp3

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

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Tefila4Life-Shiur-1095-Everything-Vayevarech-Dovid.mp3

For decades, the homebuying journey followed a relatively predictable path. Buyers would visit communities, meet with sales representatives to gather information and gradually move toward a purchase decision. Today, that process looks dramatically different.

Modern homebuyers move fluidly between websites, online reviews, virtual conversations, social media content, mortgage research and in-person model visits. They may spend weeks or even months researching builders, floor plans and school districts. While buyers have more information than ever before, they also face a growing challenge: information overload.

As builders work to improve their homebuilder sales strategy in a competitive housing market, many are discovering that success is no longer determined solely by generating more leads. Instead, the opportunity lies in creating a more connected and consistent omnichannel homebuyer experience that guides customers through an increasingly complex decision-making process.

The homebuyer journey is no longer linear

Historically, builders operated around a relatively structured sales funnel. Buyers entered the process, progressed through a series of steps and eventually reached a purchase decision. Today’s buyers rarely follow that path.

They often move between multiple builders, conduct extensive online research and consume enormous amounts of information before engaging directly with a sales team. In many cases, buyers arrive at a model home having already narrowed their options and formed preliminary opinions about the builders they are considering. This shift has fundamentally changed how builders must think about customer engagement.

The challenge is no longer simply providing information. Buyers already have access to floor plans, pricing details, community information and reviews. The challenge is helping buyers make sense of that information and confidently move toward a decision.

Builders that recognize this shift are increasingly focusing on creating seamless experiences across every customer touchpoint rather than treating each interaction as a separate event.

Why homebuilder sales continuity matters more than ever

One of the biggest obstacles facing builders today is the lack of continuity across sales and marketing channels. Many organizations still operate with separate teams, with work spread out in silos between:

• Marketing
• Online sales
• Mortgage conversations
• Model home interactions
• Design center appointments
• Customer care functions

While these teams may perform their individual roles effectively, the buyer often experiences them as disconnected departments rather than a unified brand. From the buyer’s perspective, this can feel frustrating.

Customers frequently find themselves repeating the same information multiple times as they move through the process. Questions already answered online must be answered again during virtual consultations and repeated once more during in-person visits. The result is a lack of what many sales leaders describe as contextual intelligence: the ability for every team member interacting with a buyer to understand that buyer’s goals, concerns and previous interactions.

When information flows seamlessly between teams, buyers feel understood. When it does not, confidence begins to erode. In an environment where trust plays a significant role in purchasing decisions, reducing these points of friction can directly impact homebuilder conversion rates. When buyers feel understood and supported throughout the process, they are more likely to move confidently toward a purchase decision.

Transforming the website into a digital salesperson

The role of the builder website is also evolving. For years, builder websites operated on an outdated model, primarily serving as digital brochures. Their purpose was to display communities, floor plans and contact information.

Modern builders are increasingly treating their websites as 24-hour sales professionals capable of educating, engaging and supporting buyers throughout the research process. This requires a different mindset.

Buyers expect websites to educate, guide and answer questions. Rather than simply presenting information, websites should help buyers understand the builder’s processes, warranty programs, construction standards and overall customer experience.

Every digital interaction should reinforce the builder’s value proposition and help establish trust before a direct conversation ever occurs. As virtual engagement tools continue to mature, websites are becoming a critical foundation of the broader omnichannel homebuyer experience.

Moving from qualification to consultation

The growing sophistication of today’s buyers is also changing the role of sales professionals. Traditionally, many builder sales processes focused heavily on qualification. The goal was to determine whether a prospect was ready and capable of purchasing a home. While qualification remains important, leading builders are shifting toward a more consultative approach.

Today’s buyers need guidance before they need qualification. Most buyers are not experts in homebuilding, financing or community selection. Even after conducting extensive research, many still need guidance in navigating the process and evaluating their options. Trust is built through consultation, not interrogation.

Builders who position their teams as advisors rather than gatekeepers often create stronger customer relationships and better long-term sales outcomes.

The new role of the on-site sales professional

By the time many buyers arrive at a model home, many times much of the traditional sales process has already occurred. They have reviewed floor plans, explored communities and compared multiple builders online. In many cases, they have already identified a shortlist of preferred options. This means sales professionals must adapt.

The days of simply presenting information are fading. Buyers often need help interpreting information rather than acquiring it. Successful sales teams are becoming skilled at discovery and interpretation. Instead of leading with presentations, they focus on understanding the buyer’s goals, concerns and decision-making process.

Rather than seeking additional data, customers are looking for a sense of certainty. The most effective sales conversations help buyers connect the information they have already gathered with the personal decisions they need to make for their families. In this environment, sales professionals become guides who help buyers navigate complexity rather than simply providing additional details.

Building an omnichannel homebuyer experience without overhauling everything

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding omnichannel engagement is that it requires a major technology overhaul. In reality, successful implementation often starts with process alignment rather than new tools.

Builders can begin by asking three simple questions:

1. What information is collected at each stage of the buyer journey?
2. How effectively is that information shared across teams?
3. Where are buyers being forced to repeat themselves?

These questions often reveal gaps that create friction throughout the customer experience. The goal is not necessarily to add more technology. The goal is to create greater continuity between existing touchpoints. Every interaction should build upon the previous one.

Whether a buyer moves from a website to an online sales representative, from a virtual meeting to a model home visit or from a mortgage conversation to a design center appointment, the experience should feel connected and consistent. When continuity increases, buyer confidence tends to increase as well.

Conclusion: The future belongs to connected brands

As builders look ahead, the most successful organizations may not be those generating the largest volume of leads. Instead, they may be the ones creating the most connected customer experiences. Buyers do not experience marketing, online sales, mortgage services and model homes as separate departments. They experience a single brand.

Every interaction shapes their perception of the brand and influences whether they feel confident moving forward. The builders that thrive in the next phase of home sales will be those that prioritize homebuilder sales continuity, create a connected omnichannel homebuyer experience and align every touchpoint around a consistent homebuilder sales strategy.

In a market defined by abundant information and evolving consumer expectations, continuity is becoming more than an operational goal. It is becoming a competitive advantage.

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More than 17,000 coffee makers were recalled over a burn hazard that can cause serious injury, according to federal regulators.

About 17,600 Kidisle-branded hot and iced coffee machines were affected by the recall, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“The recalled coffeemakers(sic) can become clogged, causing hot liquid or steam to build up and be released unexpectedly during use, posing a risk of serious injury from burn hazard,” the commission said on Thursday.

FORD ISSUES RECALL FOR MORE THAN 548,000 VEHICLES OVER ISSUE WITH CENTER CONSOLE

At least 107 reports have been made regarding the coffee makers releasing hot liquid or steam unexpectedly, causing at least 27 reported injuries, including first and second-degree burns that required medical treatment.

The item is designed in black, white and gray colors, measures about 11 inches high and 6 inches wide and has a 50-ounce detachable water tank. It can brew six to 14 ounces of cupped or ground coffee.

The coffee makers were sold online at Amazon, Walmart and eBay from June 2024 through April of this year for about $49.

The machines affected by the recall have model “KC101B” printed on a sticker on the underside while the brand name is listed on the product order receipt.

KIA RECALLS 6K VEHICLES DUE TO POSSIBLE SEAT BELT DEFECT THAT COULD RAISE INJURY RISK

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Consumers are urged to stop using the coffee makers immediately and contact Kidisle for a full refund.

This post was originally published on this site.

This post was originally published on this site.

WASHINGTON— President Donald J. Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday, June 11, 2026, restoring commercial fishing access to nearly half a million square miles of the Pacific Ocean and opening three additional marine national monuments to U.S. commercial fleets as part of what the White House calls its America First Fishing Policy.

The proclamation reopens the Mau and Ho‘omalu Zones of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the Islands Unit of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument — vast Pacific waters that have been closed to commercial fishing since their creation.

The White House said the move is intended to increase domestic seafood production, support American jobs, strengthen food and national security, and help lower seafood prices for consumers.

Building on Earlier Fishing Actions

Thursday’s proclamation completes a broader series of actions taken by the administration to expand commercial fishing access in federally protected waters.

In April 2025, Trump signed an executive order creating the America First Seafood Strategy, along with a proclamation reopening portions of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to U.S.-flagged vessels operating between 50 and 200 nautical miles offshore.

In February 2026, the administration reopened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off New England.

The latest action follows a recommendation approved on March 24, 2026, by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac), which urged reopening the remaining Pacific monuments.

American Samoa Stands to Benefit

The economic impact may be felt most strongly in American Samoa, where fishing remains the backbone of the private-sector economy.

According to administration figures, more than 80% of the territory’s private economy depends on fishing.

American Samoa is home to the nation’s only “Buy American”-compliant tuna cannery supplying U.S. military rations and school lunch programs. The facility employs approximately 5,000 workers, accounts for roughly 99.5% of the territory’s exports, and supports about 84% of private-sector employment.

American tuna purse-seine vessels and longline fleets are expected to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the newly reopened fishing grounds.

Supply Chain and Food Security

The White House argued that the benefits extend well beyond fishermen.

Commercial fishing supports jobs across harvesting, processing, transportation, shipbuilding, equipment manufacturing, distribution, sales, and marine services.

Administration officials said expanding domestic seafood production could strengthen the U.S. seafood supply chain and reduce dependence on imports, which currently account for the majority of seafood consumed in the United States.

The White House also linked the policy to household budgets, arguing that limiting domestic supply contributed to higher seafood prices for consumers.

Conservation Debate Continues

The administration maintained that many targeted species, including tuna, are highly migratory and do not remain permanently within monument boundaries.

Officials argued those fisheries are already managed under federal law, including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, making broad monument-wide fishing prohibitions unnecessary.

Under that view, the administration says the closures imposed economic costs while providing limited conservation benefits.

Legal Challenges Expected

Opponents strongly disagree.

In August 2025, Judge Micah W. J. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii vacated an earlier NOAA Fisheries authorization that would have allowed fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage monument, ruling that required public procedures had not been followed.

That lawsuit was brought by Earthjustice, the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, and the Center for Biological Diversity, which argued the administration’s actions violated protections established under the Antiquities Act.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green has publicly supported maintaining monument protections, while conservation organizations and some Native Hawaiian leaders have warned that reopening areas such as Papahānaumokuākea — one of the largest marine conservation regions in the world and an area of profound cultural significance — could cause lasting environmental damage.

Legal challenges to Thursday’s proclamation are widely expected.

What Comes Next

The administration described the proclamation as part of a broader effort to reduce regulatory barriers at NOAA, expand access to fisheries, and increase catch opportunities based on what it calls the best available science.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs have repeatedly argued that increasing access to domestic fisheries will help strengthen coastal economies and put more American-caught seafood on American tables.

The White House said the administration’s combined fisheries actions have unlocked billions of dollars in potential economic value.

For the U.S. fishing industry, Thursday’s proclamation represents one of the most significant expansions of commercial access in years.

For American Samoa’s tuna fleet, its canneries, and the thousands of jobs tied to them, it opens the door to fishing grounds that have largely been off limits for more than a decade.

The next chapter will depend on how NOAA implements the policy and whether the courts ultimately allow the expanded access to remain in place.

JBizNews Desk — Washington

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Today, the New Jersey State Assembly removed language from a bill that would have jeopardized religious rights. The legislation had allowed individuals to sue anyone accused of interfering with their decision to obtain reproductive or gender-related health care services and seek damages for harm to their business or personal reputation, financial harm, or pain and suffering, mental anguish, and emotional harm.

Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey Office led opposition to the language, warning that its broad and undefined terms could expose rabbis, educators, counselors, schools, and parents to costly litigation for providing guidance or expressing views regarding gender-related medical procedures. In addition to working with legislators in both chambers, the Agudah issued an action alert urging residents across the state to contact their Assembly members and oppose the bill.

“We are grateful to the bill sponsors and legislative leadership for recognizing the serious concerns included in this provision and for addressing them,” Shlomo Schorr, Director of Legislative Affairs for Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey Office, said.

“The removal of this language is an important victory for religious liberty, free speech, and parental rights.

We especially thank the thousands of New Jersey residents who responded to our action alert and contacted their legislators to make their voices heard. Their advocacy helped ensure that constitutionally protected speech and religious expression will not be subjected to vague and potentially far-reaching civil liability.”

{Matzav.com}

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off Thursday at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where co-host Mexico defeated South Africa 2-0 in front of a packed home crowd. The match opened the largest World Cup in history — a 104-game tournament spanning 16 cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, marking the first time three nations have jointly hosted the event. The tournament concludes with the final on July 19 in the New York-New Jersey region.

The opening day carried significance far beyond the result on the field. Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada declared a local holiday to celebrate the kickoff, while President Claudia Sheinbaum indicated a broader national observance remained under consideration. The opening ceremony transformed the nearly 87,500-seat stadium into a global entertainment stage, featuring performances by Shakira, Burna Boy, J Balvin, and Maná.

For FIFA, the World Cup is far more than a sporting event — it is the organization’s largest economic engine.

The expanded 48-team format, up from 32 teams in previous tournaments, creates more matches, more sponsorship inventory, more ticket sales, and significantly more broadcast content. FIFA has projected record revenues for the current cycle, driven largely by the expansion.

Host cities are hoping for their own economic boost.

The tournament is expected to attract millions of visitors across North America, generating spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation, entertainment, and tourism. Cities hosting matches are positioning themselves as global destinations, using the event to showcase local infrastructure and attract future investment.

Mexico City’s holiday declaration reflects how seriously local leaders view the economic opportunity.

The opening venue itself illustrates the business side of modern sports.

Estadio Azteca recently entered a naming-rights agreement with Mexican financial institution Banorte and is officially branded Banorte Stadium. However, because Banorte is not an official FIFA sponsor, the governing body required the venue to be referred to as “Mexico City Stadium” during the tournament.

The move highlights FIFA’s strict sponsorship protections, designed to preserve exclusivity for companies that pay billions for official tournament partnerships.

Broadcasting remains another major revenue source.

In the United States, matches are being carried by Fox Sports and Telemundo, while streaming coverage is spread across multiple digital platforms. Fox-owned Tubi streamed portions of the opening festivities free in 4K, reflecting the growing importance of ad-supported streaming models for major live events.

The World Cup also fuels a vast consumer marketplace that extends far beyond television.

Official jerseys, merchandise, collectibles, licensing agreements, music partnerships, and promotional campaigns are expected to generate billions in additional spending worldwide. Global brands continue to compete aggressively for visibility during what remains the most-watched sporting event on the planet.

Not everything surrounding the tournament has been celebratory.

Rights groups and some fans have raised concerns about security planning at several venues, while dynamic ticket pricing has generated criticism after some ticket costs rose significantly above original face values. Economists also continue to debate whether the long-term financial benefits of hosting major sporting events justify the substantial public spending often required.

For now, however, the focus remains on the tournament itself.

Mexico’s opening victory gave home supporters an early reason to celebrate, while businesses across North America are preparing for weeks of increased tourism and consumer activity. As the tournament unfolds, the broader question for host cities will be how much of the spending and attention generated by the World Cup translates into lasting economic gains after the final match is played in the New York region next month.

JBizNews Desk — North America

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Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sharply condemned UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese on Thursday after she reportedly responded to the grieving mother of a victim murdered during Hamas’s October 7 massacre by telling her to “change medication.”

Danon highlighted the exchange in a public statement, accusing Albanese of displaying shocking insensitivity toward a bereaved parent.

“The mother of Carolin Bohl, a young German woman brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7, has posted about the extreme anti-Israel hostility she encountered at a film premiere in Berlin, where Francesca Albanese, the UN ‘Special Rapporteur,’ was the guest of honor,” Danon wrote.

According to Danon, Bohl’s mother shared the emotional pain she experienced at the event and described the atmosphere she encountered. He said Albanese’s response only deepened the hurt.

“After the bereaved mother shared her pain and experience, Albanese’s outrageous response was: ‘Change medication,’” he added.

Danon said the remark reflected what he described as a continuing pattern of conduct by the UN official.

“There seems to be no limit to Francesca Albanese’s moral decline,” said Danon.

Albanese has long faced criticism from Israeli officials and others who argue that her statements demonstrate a consistent anti-Israel bias. Most recently, several European foreign ministers rebuked comments she made during an Al Jazeera conference.

During that event, Albanese stated: “The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support … We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”

After the remarks generated controversy, Albanese denied that she had characterized Israel as humanity’s common enemy.

In a subsequent interview, she insisted that she “never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'” and dismissed the criticism as “completely false accusations.”

Questions surrounding Albanese’s views on Israel have persisted for years. In 2022, previously uncovered social media posts drew widespread attention after she asserted that the “Jewish lobby” exerts control over the United States.

Albanese rejected claims that those comments were antisemitic, arguing that her words had been “mischaracterized.” Nevertheless, critics have continued to point to similar statements as evidence of longstanding hostility toward Israel.

Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, scrutiny of Albanese intensified after she argued that the massacre should be viewed within a broader “context” and described it as a response to Israeli “aggression.”

More recently, in late March, Albanese leveled additional accusations against Israel, claiming the international community had granted the country “a license to torture Palestinians.” She further alleged that “torture has effectively become state policy” in Israel.

Her latest clash with the family of an October 7 victim has now sparked fresh outrage, with Danon and others arguing that the comments cross a line of basic human decency and further undermine her credibility as a UN official.

{Matzav.com}

A day after the Knesset advanced the Basic Law on Torah Study, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri launched a blistering defense of the legislation, accusing Israel’s attorney general and Supreme Court justices of waging a campaign against the Torah world and forcing lawmakers to enshrine what he described as self-evident truths into law.

Speaking at a public event on Thursday, Deri argued that the new legislation, which recognizes the significance of Torah study to the Jewish people, should never have been necessary in the first place.

“The Basic Law on Torah Study that we passed yesterday states that Torah learners make a significant contribution to the Jewish people. Isn’t that obvious? Isn’t that self-evident?” Deri said.

He compared the need for such legislation to passing a law affirming the practice of bris milah.

“We never dreamed that we would have to legislate this. It’s like legislating a law about bris milah. It’s something so basic. What is our existence in this land if not because of the Torah? What sustained the Jewish people? Every child understands this.”

Deri reserved some of his harshest criticism for opponents of the legislation and for those who criticized his recent visit to yeshiva students being held in military detention facilities.

“There were those who attacked me: How dare I go visit the ‘draft dodgers’? Hashem have mercy! ‘Afra l’fumayhu’ (dust upon their mouths). Torah learners who sacrifice themselves for Torah study are ‘draft dodgers’? It’s all because of the wicked attorney general and the ‘supreme’ High Court judges who are persecuting the Torah world,” Deri charged.

Addressing criticism that Shas has neglected the needs of Israeli soldiers, Deri rejected the accusation and pointed to the large number of Sephardic families with relatives serving in the military.

“We don’t need anyone to teach us what soldiers are. How much we daven for them. Among us Sephardim, there isn’t a single person who doesn’t have a soldier somewhere in his family. Our movement, Shas, ranks third or fourth, if I’m not mistaken, in the number of double-envelope votes.”

Deri recounted a recent visit to a military prison, saying the experience reinforced his belief that support for Torah learning remains widespread among traditional Sephardic Israelis.

“When I visited the detainees in the military prison this week, I saw the staff of the soldiers there. I don’t need to guess how they vote. They’re all G-d-fearing, all Sephardim, lovers of Torah, people who respect Torah. You can see it on them.”

The Shas leader also expressed astonishment that some religious Zionist figures have become leading advocates for sanctions and enforcement measures against yeshiva students.

“I am amazed by those who wear a kippah on their heads and are leading the sanctions and persecution against the Torah world. Hashem have mercy! It’s impossible to understand. There is no explanation for it. How do they not understand what Torah learners are? As for the secular public, I am not surprised—they don’t know what Torah is.”

Deri said the passage of the Basic Law was intended as a public statement against what he views as growing hostility toward Torah scholars and yeshiva students.

“Therefore, yesterday we were obligated to make this protest. We passed the Basic Law on Torah Study, and with Hashem’s help we will pass it in the first reading, the second reading, and the third reading as well.”

He concluded by describing the arrests of Torah students as a spiritual danger for the Jewish people at a time when Israel faces threats on multiple fronts.

“The arrests of Torah learners are a great prosecution against the Jewish people,” Deri said. “When we are surrounded by enemies, when the Iranians and Hezbollah spend every day thinking about how to destroy the Jewish people, we need tremendous merits. We must stop all of this drift. We see so many miracles, and unfortunately there are those who do not appreciate Torah learners and instead persecute them.”

Cryptocurrencies rallied Thursday after President Donald Trump said he had called off planned U.S. military strikes on Iran, easing fears of a wider conflict and sending investors back into risk assets.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had “canceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” adding that negotiations had reached the highest levels of Iran’s leadership and that a potential agreement could be finalized soon. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said a deal could potentially be signed over the weekend.

The announcement sparked a broad rally across digital assets.

Bitcoin climbed to an intraday high of approximately $63,850, while Ethereum approached $1,700. XRP and Dogecoin also posted strong gains as investors moved back into speculative assets. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose nearly 2%, reaching roughly $2.17 trillion.

The reaction followed a familiar market pattern. When geopolitical tensions ease, investors generally become more comfortable holding volatile assets, and cryptocurrencies often benefit disproportionately.

Trump’s comments came just one day after U.S. forces launched strikes against Iran following the loss of a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor responsible for transporting a significant share of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies.

Although Trump signaled progress toward diplomacy, he also said the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until any agreement is formally completed, highlighting the fragile nature of the situation.

Markets remain cautious.

Iranian officials have not publicly confirmed that a final agreement has been reached, and at least one senior Iranian official reportedly stated that Tehran has not approved a framework.

Investor sentiment also remains weak despite Thursday’s rally. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index continued to register “Extreme Fear,” suggesting many traders remain skeptical about the sustainability of the move.

According to data from Coinglass, more than $260 million in crypto positions were liquidated during the previous 24 hours, with the majority consisting of short positions betting on lower prices. As those bets were forced to close, buying pressure accelerated the rally.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin open interest increased approximately 1.2%, indicating additional capital entering the market.

Another major event looming over financial markets is the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO.

The Elon Musk-led aerospace company priced what has been described as the largest stock sale in history this week, raising approximately $75 billion and preparing to begin trading Friday on the Nasdaq.

Such a massive offering could attract significant investor capital away from other speculative investments, including cryptocurrencies.

Widely followed market analyst Michaël van de Poppe warned that the timing could make conditions “tricky” for Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Van de Poppe said Bitcoin must hold a key support level near $63,200 to maintain upward momentum.

“However, if the trend stalls, we’ll probably hit the low of this correction in the weekend,” he said.

By Thursday afternoon, Bitcoin remained slightly above that threshold, but analysts said the coming days will determine whether the breakout can hold.

Additional signs of speculation emerged beneath the surface of the rally.

Research firm CryptoQuant reported rising activity in derivatives markets, particularly in Ethereum. Open interest in Ethereum futures on the Binance exchange reached a record high, reflecting increased use of leverage by traders seeking to capitalize on market volatility.

While leverage can amplify gains, it can also accelerate losses if sentiment reverses.

Thursday’s trading session highlighted how closely cryptocurrency markets have become tied to geopolitical developments and policy headlines.

A single social-media post from Trump helped move hundreds of billions of dollars across financial markets within hours. Analysts noted that just as quickly, those gains could reverse if negotiations break down.

The market now faces two competing forces.

A formal Iran agreement could remove one of the largest sources of uncertainty confronting investors and support continued buying of risk assets. At the same time, a successful SpaceX market debut could attract investor attention and capital away from cryptocurrencies.

For now, Bitcoin remains above the critical level analysts are watching, and traders will be closely monitoring both the Iran negotiations and Friday’s historic SpaceX debut to determine whether the rally has staying power.

JBizNews Desk — Markets

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.

The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The formal stay will be filed on Friday, the person said.

Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The board move marks a shift from a June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel saying email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped the president’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat who is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, said in a statement that he participated in the meeting and opposed seeking a stay.

“I look forward to putting these distractions behind us and focusing on supporting the arts and the future of the Center.”

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a hand-picked board of trustees that named him chairman. He brought in Richard Grenell to serve as president, a position he held until March when Matt Floca assumed the role.

The center’s lineup has included more Trump-friendly programming, serving as the venue for events such as the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania.”

The board also announced it had renamed the facility the Trump Kennedy Center, a change scholars and lawmakers say must be initiated by Congress, and physically added the president’s name to the building’s facade.

The fallout from the arts community was swift and intense. Actor Issa Rae, musician Bela Fleck and author Louise Penny were among the numerous artists who withdrew from appearances, while consultants such as musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned. Earlier this month, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Jean Davidson, left to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to voting on the stay on Thursday, the board backed a resolution recognizing Trump’s “commitment to uphold this cherished American institution.”

As Israel’s political system gears up for another election season and candidates position themselves as the country’s would-be saviors, Rav Tzemach Mazuz used his weekly shiur to deliver a pointed message about ambition, honor, and the limits of human effort.

Drawing on the lessons of this week’s parshah (in Eretz Yisroel), Parshas Korach, the Rosh Yeshiva connected the political maneuvering of the present day with timeless Torah teachings, offering a sharp critique of the relentless pursuit of power and what appeared to be a veiled jab at those determined to unseat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at all costs.

“There is nothing better than peace,” Rav Mazuz began. “Soon the election season will be here, and everyone wants to ‘save’ the country. Everyone wants to be prime minister. But Shlomo Hamelech already taught us in Koheles: ‘Hevel havalim, amar Koheles, hevel havalim, hakol havel.’”

The Rosh Yeshiva then cited the words of Chazal in Maseches Yoma, “Bimkomcha yoshivucha, u’mishelcha yitnu lach,” along with the verse in Mishlei, “Al tiga l’ha’ashir.” The message, he explained, is that a person is obligated to make only a reasonable effort and then place his trust in Hashem.

“There is no need to exhaust oneself and struggle excessively,” Rav Mazuz said. “A person must make some hishtadlus, but beyond a limited amount of hishtadlus, nothing more is required. This is the tradition we have received from our rabbeim.”

To illustrate the dangers of chasing status and honor beyond what Heaven has allotted, Rav Mazuz cited a famous parable from the Gemara in Sanhedrin.

“This is what people say: ‘The camel went to ask for horns, and in the end they cut off the ears that it already had.’”

The Rosh Yeshiva elaborated on the Gemara’s imagery with a smile.

“Anyone who has seen a camel knows that it is a tall and impressive animal, but it has one deficiency—its ears are small. The camel said to itself, ‘I am much taller than the ox. If the ox has horns, then I deserve even larger and more beautiful horns.’ In the end, not only did it fail to receive the horns it wanted, but even the ears it already possessed were taken away.”

He then applied the lesson directly to human behavior.

“What is the lesson? A person thinks that what he has is not enough. He fights and struggles for more and more. What does he gain in the end? Not only does he fail to receive what he sought, but even what he already had can be taken from him.”

Rav Mazuz pointed to Korach as the classic example of someone whose ambition led to ruin. Although Korach was already enormously wealthy and held a position of great distinction as one of those entrusted with carrying the Aron, he was not satisfied.

“That tremendous greatness was not enough for him,” Rav Mazuz said. “He set his sights on the Kehunah Gedolah and sought to overthrow Moshe and Aharon. But what happened in the end? Not only did he fail to become Kohen Gadol, not only did he cease being among those who carried the Aron, he did not even remain alive. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed him, his family, and all his possessions. Nothing remained. In the end, Korach lost everything.”

Concluding his remarks, Rav Mazuz delivered what many listeners viewed as a timely message for politicians and public figures caught up in the current political climate.

“From here we learn that a person must be happy with his portion and with what he has,” he said. “A person should remember: If something truly belongs to you, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will bring it to you on a golden platter. One may—and indeed should—make hishtadlus. But one must not wage war for it.”

A US federal judge has approved the release on bail of an Iranian-born engineer just days before his trial in a case tied to a 2024 drone strike on a US military base in Jordan attributed to Iran-backed militants.

US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston had previously refused to release Mahdi Sadeghi, a dual US-Iranian citizen, from custody, citing concerns that he might flee before trial. He is accused of conspiracy to unlawfully obtain technology used in a navigation system for Iranian military drones.

Prosecutors allege the technology was integrated into a drone that hit the US base known as Tower 22 near the Syrian border in January 2024, killing three Army Reserve soldiers and injuring 47 others.

However, on Thursday, Talwani said circumstances had shifted since Sadeghi’s arrest in December 2024, pointing to the ongoing war involving Iran that began in February after joint US-Israeli strikes.

She said the conflict had made it less likely that Sadeghi or his family would return to Iran and reduced the incentive for him to flee.

“It is just a different political world,” she said.

The judge also noted that Sadeghi’s wife had expressed a desire to remain in the United States, where the family lives in Natick, Massachusetts, adding that leaving would risk separating him from them if he chose to avoid trial.

She ordered his release on Friday under a $500,000 secured bond, along with strict home confinement and GPS ankle monitoring. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sadeghi has pleaded not guilty to charges that he participated in a scheme to violate US export controls and sanctions laws by acquiring technology for Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini’s company, which allegedly worked with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and developed navigation systems used in Shahed drones.

He is scheduled to stand trial alone on June 22 after Italian authorities last year released co-defendant Abedini, who had been detained pending extradition to the United States following Iran’s detention and subsequent release of an Italian journalist.

A leading election forecaster has moved three key US Senate contests in Democrats’ direction, though Republicans remain favored to keep control of the chamber, according to a new update released Thursday.

The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics revised its ratings for Alaska, North Carolina, and Ohio, moving Alaska from “leans Republican” to “toss-up,” North Carolina from “toss-up” to “leans Democrat,” and Ohio from “leans Republican” to “toss-up.”

All three seats are currently held by Republicans.

The adjustments give Democrats a somewhat clearer—but still difficult—route to a potential Senate majority in November’s elections.

In Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who is seeking a third term, faces a crowded field in the Aug. 18 nonpartisan primary.

Sullivan is expected to face former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola as his main challenger in the general election.

While Alaska backed President Trump over Kamala Harris by 13 points in 2024, analysts noted that Peltola previously outperformed Democrats in her district, narrowly losing to Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) by 2.5 points.