New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is reportedly working with state lawmakers to draft two new bills strengthening consumer protections and child safety online, the day before 29 state attorneys general are set to face off against Meta in a separate federal trial in Oakland, California.

The legislation, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, would extend beyond social media to cover artificial intelligence and chatbots.

“I think there’s a lot of momentum coming out of our victory in court, and the idea is to build on that momentum,” Torrez told the Guardian.

The timing lines up two fronts in the fight over Meta and child safety: Torrez’s push at the state legislative level, building on New Mexico’s own $942 million verdict against the company, and Tuesday’s opening statements in the federal case brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey as part of the broader 29-state coalition that sued Meta in 2023.

One of Torrez’s bills would remove the cap on penalties for violating New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. “What we are going to do is continue to lobby Congress for that, but also to work at the state level to try and build not only a comprehensive social media safety bill, but also to reform and update our consumer protection laws,” he told the Guardian.

Torrez said his office is also pursuing a second, separate case against Meta over data privacy and civic harms, with a trial expected to begin in September. In addition, he is preparing to file a lawsuit against an AI company over a chatbot he said children have formed emotional attachments to. The New Mexico Attorney General’s office declined Fortune’s request for comment.

“We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson told Fortune. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

New Mexico’s legislative effort follows an Aug. 6 ruling in which First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid ordered Meta to create a $567 million abatement fund on top of $375 million in civil penalties a jury had already imposed in March, bringing the company’s total New Mexico liability to $942 million. The court also imposed reforms lasting five years, including age verification, overnight limits on push notifications, and mandatory time-use limits for users under 18.

An ongoing debate between privacy and security

That tension between the popularity of age verification mandates and the privacy and enforcement problems they raise has defined the broader fight over kids and social media this year. Congress has moved in fits and starts on the Kids Online Safety Act and the App Store Accountability Act, while the Federal Trade Commission has pulled back from social media rulemaking even as kids spend more than four hours a day online. Most Americans doubt existing age verification laws will actually work, and reporting has shown Gen Alpha users easily find ways around the age checks that do exist.

Child safety advocates, on the other hand, welcomed Torrez’s legislative push.

“We applaud Attorney General Torrez and attorneys general across the country who are holding Meta and other Big Tech platforms to account for their treatment of kids and teens,” Haley Hinkle, policy counsel at child advocacy group Fairplay, told Fortune. “States have been leading the charge to improve our children’s safety and data privacy online. We urge Congress to join the states in this leadership by passing the Kids Online Safety Act, bringing baseline safety by design standards to all children in the U.S.”

Julie Scelfo, founder and executive director of Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA), told Fortune: “It shouldn’t matter if a company manufactures food, toys, vehicles or digital products. Consumer product safety is the bedrock of a healthy society, and it is long past time for lawmakers to impose basic safeguards to protect children online, ones that Big Tech clearly is unwilling to implement on their own.”

“No company should be allowed to profit from products that intentionally addict and harm our kids. We applaud AG Torrez, as well as other attorneys general and lawmakers nationwide, for helping bring consumer and child safety into the 21st century,” Scelfo continued.

Tuesday’s federal fight

In the Northern District of California tomorrow, opening statements begin the case brought by the 29 states against Meta. They allege the social media giant designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children and teens on the platforms longer, to the point of physical and mental harm.

They accuse the company of illegally collecting children’s data in violation of COPPA, the same federal children’s privacy law at the center of the FTC’s rulemaking retreat. The case follows a Ninth Circuit ruling this month rejecting Meta’s bid to use Section 230 immunity to halt the trial, a decision that also cleared the way for thousands of other pending social media harm lawsuits.

The trial is expected to run seven weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri both expected to testify. According to a July court filing by Meta, potential damages in the broader litigation could exceed $1.4 trillion. The company currently has a $1.5 trillion market capitalization.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Israeli low-cost airline Israir Airlines received approval to sell tickets for flights to the US, the airline announced on Tuesday.

The US Department of Transportation gave the initial approval to sell tickets, the airline stated, while noting that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is continuing the review before granting final approval for Israir to operate flights to the US.

Israir “is in continuous contact with the FAA and is working in full cooperation with the relevant authorities, with the expectation that the approval proces will be completed as soon as possible,” the airline said.

“As soon as the FAA authorizes Israir to fly to New York… Israir will immediately start operating the flights, and, as a result, start selling tickets,” the airline stated.

Israir to fly to New York from October, airline forecasts

The airline is planning to operate flights on the New York route from October 19 onwards, it added.

As of August 18, the flights are not available on the website. Tickets are expected to go on sale from “next week,” the airline said.

Israir’s other destinations include only two locations outside Europe and the Caucasus, namely, Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Marrakesh, Morocco.

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The Southern District Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday filed an indictment against Abdullah Gergawi, a 20-year-old resident of a Bedouin town in the Negev, on several charges, including planning a mass terror attack at a nightclub in Be’er Sheva.

Gergawi was arrested in his hometown of Segev Shalom on July 19, 2026, as part of a joint investigation by the Israel Police Southern District Central Unit and the Shin Bet.

The investigation found that Gergawi had been exposed to ISIS content online and as he became increasingly aligned with the group’s ideology, he established contacts with other terror enthusiasts online, including a person who presented himself as a Palestinian terrorist operative. He later contacted an Islamic State member in Syria and expressed interest in traveling to Syria and joining the fighting.

Along with his activity online, Gergawi resolved to carry out a terrorist attack in Be’er Sheva and took steps to prepare explosives and manufacture an explosive device as part of preparations to carry out an attack at the Forum nightclub in Be’er Sheva using a car bomb. He planned to detonate the car bomb remotely while hundreds of people were at the site.

In addition, during March and April 2026, the suspect allegedly possessed an illegal M16-style weapon containing standard firearm components, as well as firearm accessories and ammunition. He also fired the weapon in an open area.

During 2025, the suspect allegedly kept numerous weapons in his home, including a MAG machine gun, a Kalashnikov, a Negev machine gun, an M16, magazines, and ammunition.

He was charged at the Be’er Sheva District Court with charges related to planning an act of terrorism, training for terror purposes, maintaining contact with terrorist elements, and illegally possessing weapons and ammunition.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Nvidia is putting its balance sheet behind one of the largest artificial-intelligence infrastructure projects ever attempted, agreeing to provide up to $105 billion in guarantees to support OpenAI’s lease of a massive data-center campus in Ohio.

The chipmaker will also invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, the SoftBank-owned developer building the project in Pike County. OpenAI is expected to lease the site for 20 years, while Nvidia will be the exclusive chip supplier. 

The scale is extraordinary.

The campus is planned to reach as much as 8 gigawatts of computing capacity, with the first 800 megawatts expected to come online in 2028. For perspective, one gigawatt is roughly enough electricity to power about 750,000 U.S. homes on average. 

But the most important part of the deal is not simply its size.

Nvidia is increasingly using its enormous financial strength to help build the infrastructure that creates future demand for its own chips.

The guarantee covers part of the project’s lease and power obligations and helps ensure that the completed data-center property maintains a minimum value if OpenAI fails to meet its commitments. That financial backing makes it easier for the developer to raise the enormous amounts of debt required to construct the facility. 

In practical terms, Nvidia is no longer just waiting for customers to build data centers and order GPUs.

It is helping make those data centers financially possible.

That strategy could generate enormous returns if AI demand continues growing. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the Ohio site alone could ultimately generate as much as $200 billion in Nvidia revenue, while the company estimates its broader OpenAI relationship could produce up to $600 billion in revenue by 2030. 

There is also significant risk.

When a supplier begins financially supporting the infrastructure used by its own customers, investors have to consider how much demand is truly independent and how much is being encouraged by financing relationships inside the same ecosystem.

Nvidia has rejected suggestions that the arrangement represents circular financing, arguing that it is using its scale and visibility into future demand to secure long-lived infrastructure where generations of Nvidia hardware can operate.

The Ohio project also shows why the AI race is increasingly becoming an energy race.

SoftBank and SB Energy plan to develop at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation and invest another $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure to support the campus. The project is expected to create roughly 35,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent operating positions. 

The bigger shift is what Nvidia is becoming.

For most of the AI boom, Nvidia was viewed as the company selling the picks and shovels.

Now it is increasingly helping finance the mine.

JBizNews Desk | Ohio

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Fast-fashion giant Shein is preparing to go public in Hong Kong at a valuation of roughly $25 billion, a dramatic comedown from the nearly $100 billion valuation investors assigned the company during the height of the pandemic-era e-commerce boom. 

The Singapore-headquartered retailer is expected to sell as much as 8% of the company, potentially raising about $2 billion. That would still make the listing one of Hong Kong’s largest recent IPOs, but the valuation represents only about one-quarter of Shein’s reported $98 billion private-market valuation in 2022. 

The lower target reflects a much tougher business environment. Shein’s revenue growth slowed from more than 40% in 2023 to about 8% in 2025, while net income fell 39% last year to roughly $2.06 billion. In the first quarter of 2026, the company swung to a $99 million loss. 

Regulatory changes have also hit the business model that helped Shein dominate ultra-cheap online fashion. The loss of favorable U.S. import treatment for low-value packages, higher trade costs in Europe and tougher scrutiny of its supply chain have made direct shipping from Chinese factories more expensive and complicated. Competition from Temu and other low-cost platforms has added further pressure. 

The valuation has fallen rapidly even during the IPO process itself. Shein had previously been considering a $40 billion to $50 billion valuation, then lowered expectations to roughly $30 billion to $40 billion as investors pushed back. Interest has since centered in the mid-to-high $20 billion range. 

For investors, the IPO will be an important test of how public markets now value global e-commerce companies built around extremely fast growth and low-cost cross-border shipping. Shein remains enormous, generating more than $40 billion in annual revenue, but investors are increasingly focused on whether that scale can translate into durable profits under higher tariffs, slower growth and tighter regulation.

The company is expected to move toward launching the Hong Kong offering as early as this week, though the final valuation, number of shares sold and proceeds could still change depending on investor demand. 

JBizNews Desk | Hong Kong

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California’s billionaires are going on the defensive, putting millions of dollars behind an effort to defeat a one-time billionaire tax that would collect 5% of their net worth if approved.

A pair of billionaires, along with other wealthy individuals, have recently upped their contributions to Building a Better California, a PAC formed earlier this year to oppose Proposition 40, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on California residents with more than $1 billion in assets to increase healthcare funding in the state.

Venture capitalist John Doerr put in $7.5 million to the group, while the executive chair of blockchain company Ripple, Chris Larsen, contributed an extra $10 million to the group, according to a campaign finance filing from August 14, the Financial Times reported. Doerr is worth about $22.6 billion according to Forbes, while Larsen is worth $11.4 billion.

Some multimillionaires also contributed, including the co-founder of cybersecurity company Lookout, John Hering, and Greenoaks Capital founder Neil Mehta, who contributed $946,000 and $250,000, respectively.

The newest contributions come as Building a Better California boasts an endowment of $110 million as of late June—a sign that wealthy Californians are taking seriously the threat the one-time tax represents for their finances if approved by voters in November. 

Still, a recent poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies shows voters are split on whether to approve the billionaire tax. The survey of more than 4,000 registered voters found that 48% of likely voters support the measure, while 41% oppose it. Though registered Democrats overwhelmingly said they would back the proposed tax, only 50% of unaffiliated voters said the same, while 80% of Republicans said they would not support the proposal.

“These results suggest that the Billionaires Tax initiative is shaping up to be a closely fought contest, with the key question being whether opponents can make big enough inroads among the state’s traditionally Democratic-leaning voters,” said Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, in a press release.

Two fighting propositions

Building a Better California isn’t taking any chances. The group has backed two of its own initiatives, Proposition 41 and Proposition 42, which would cancel out the billionaire tax if either receives more votes than the billionaires tax, even if the billionaire tax is also approved.

Proposition 41 would require the state auditor to review any special tax proposal before it is presented to voters, while Proposition 42 would ban new taxes based on mere ownership of assets like property, which are usually only taxed when sold.

It’s unclear if either Proposition 41 or 42 has more of a chance at passing than the billionaire tax. The survey by the Institute of Governmental Studies found that while 72% of voters had heard of the billionaire tax, fewer than a third of the state’s voters were aware the two counter-intitiatives existed.

Building a Better California has also allocated a large chunk of its massive war chest to reserve $87 million worth of advertising time ahead of the November election to sway public opinion, the New York Times reported last month. 

While some important state politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and the democratic candidate for governor, Xavier Becerra, have come out against the billionaire tax, earlier this month, the California Democratic Party endorsed the proposal, dealing a blow to billionaire opponents of the bill.

Among the billionaires who oppose the bill, Google cofounder Sergey Brin is among the most adamant. The world’s fourth richest man moved many of his assets out of California late last year and has already put $102 million toward opposing the California wealth tax after an additional $20 million contribution he made to Building a Better California earlier this month.

Other billionaires, including former Shark Tank star Mark Cuban have also come out against the billionaire tax. In an exchange on X over the weekend, Cuban warned California congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that the tax would hurt entrepreneurs and innovation in the state. 

“IMO, if this passes, only idiot startup founders stay in Cali,” Cuban wrote in a post.

Still, prominent politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have pushed for the billionaire tax to pass. Sanders said in February that the billionaire tax would help show the wealthiest Americans “we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power.”

Sen. Sanders with Rep. Khanna also introduced legislation in March that would take a version of California’s billionaire tax to the national level. 

Their bill, the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” would establish a 5% wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires to expand Medicare, reverse cuts to Medicaid made by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, and provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman, and child in households making $150,000 or less. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

After a long and dramatic night at Bloomfield Stadium, the vote count in the Likud primaries was completed Tuesday morning. The results showed a largely stable leadership tier, alongside several major surprises and sharp declines for some senior party figures.

The clear winner of the primaries was Minister Eli Cohen, who finished comfortably in first place, more than 3,000 votes ahead of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. Ohana secured second place, narrowly edging out Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who finished third in the nationwide primary.

They were followed by Minister Miri Regev, who finished as Likud’s highest-ranking woman by a wide margin, and MK Ofir Katz, who scored one of the night’s biggest surprises by breaking into the top five.

Two candidates in particular surprised Likud members: Ofir Katz and Almog Cohen. Katz, chairman of the Likud Knesset faction, overtook a number of veteran ministers to secure a high position in the nationwide primary despite not serving as a minister. After Netanyahu’s reserved slots are factored in, Katz is expected to appear around 10th place on Likud’s Knesset slate.

Former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen also scored an impressive result. The deputy minister, who was competing in a Likud primary for the first time and launched his campaign only days before the vote, broke into the top ten, finishing ahead of a long list of veteran ministers and MKs.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Minister Miki Zohar, Minister Amichai Chikli and Minister Dudi Amsalem also finished near the top of the rankings.

MK Moshe Saada opened the second group of ten candidates, also emerging from the primary with a strong showing.

One of the most striking results was the steep decline of Minister Nir Barkat. After years as a fixture near the top of Likud’s rankings, Barkat fell deep into the second ten and came dangerously close to losing a realistic spot once Netanyahu’s reserved slots and district positions are factored in. Barkat narrowly won over Ze’ev Elkin, winning 16th place in the nationwide primary, considered at this stage to be the last realistic position. Once reserved and district slots are incorporated, that ranking is expected to translate to approximately 24th place on Likud’s Knesset slate.

Tally Gotliv also finished considerably lower than some early projections had predicted. During the campaign, some estimates placed her near the top of the rankings and suggested she could compete to become Likud’s highest-ranking woman. Instead, Regev finished far ahead of her, while Gotliv placed around 12th in the nationwide primary.

Another close contest was between Minister Gila Gamliel and MK Eti Atia for the third women’s slot. The margin between them remained extremely narrow, with Gamliel holding the lead.

MK Amit Halevi also finished in that range, near the bottom of the second ten in the nationwide rankings.

MK Boaz Bismuth, who had hoped to break into the top ten and ran an intensive campaign, finished around 15th place. Throughout the night, he was locked in a close race with MK David Bitan, with the two repeatedly trading places. Bitan, who has been among the most prominent Likud figures to clash with Netanyahu in recent months, is nevertheless expected to retain a realistic spot.

Other candidates in this range include Shlomo Karhi, Nir Barkat and Ze’ev Elkin.

The biggest drama, however, was at the bottom of the list. Three incumbent ministers — May Golan, Idit Silman and Avi Dichter — are expected to find themselves outside the realistic spots on Likud’s slate for the next Knesset.

Also currently outside the realistic range are MKs Avichai Boaron, Chanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Sasson Guetta, Nissim Vaturi and Shalom Danino.

May Golan’s situation is particularly noteworthy amid speculation that Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir could offer her a place on his party’s slate if she ultimately fails to secure a realistic position in Likud.

Because Netanyahu is entitled to reserve nine slots through 30th place, in addition to the district slots, the primary rankings do not correspond directly to candidates’ final positions on Likud’s Knesset slate.

According to the current projections, the top of the slate is expected to be:

1. Binyamin Netanyahu
2. Eli Cohen
3. Netanyahu reserved slot
4. Netanyahu reserved slot — Yisrael Katz
5. Netanyahu reserved slot — Gideon Sa’ar
6. Amir Ohana
7. Yariv Levin
8. Miri Regev
9. Netanyahu reserved slot
10. Ofir Katz
11. Netanyahu reserved slot — Oren Dobronsky
12. Yoav Kisch
13. Miki Zohar
14. Almog Cohen
15. Netanyahu reserved slot
16. Amichai Chikli
17. Dudi Amsalem
18. Netanyahu reserved slot — Haim Katz
19. Moshe Saada
20. Tally Gotliv
21. Shlomo Karhi
22. Boaz Bismuth
23. David Bitan
24. Nir Barkat
25. Gila Gamliel

Positions further down the slate could still shift depending on final adjustments, reserved slots and district placements.

A total of 75,177 Likud members cast ballots in the primaries, representing 53.5% of eligible voters. Turnout was lower than some senior party officials had expected, particularly given the intense competition for a relatively small number of realistic spots.

After the polls closed, the results were transferred to Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa, where Likud established its election command center. Results from polling stations streamed in throughout the night as the counting and data-entry process continued.

Following the completion of the count, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister was “very pleased with the results of the Likud primaries” and congratulated those elected to the slate.

“The new Likud slate reflects renewal and the integration of new forces at the top of the list,” the statement said. “Together with the candidates Prime Minister Netanyahu will appoint to the reserved slots, who will further strengthen the slate, the Likud team under Netanyahu’s leadership will lead to a major victory and the establishment of a broad national government immediately after the elections.

“This is the only way to prevent a left-wing government of Eisenkot, Yair Golan, Liberman and the Arab parties.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu thanks the Likud members who voted according to common sense and not according to deals.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu also greatly appreciates those who did not succeed in entering the slate, thanks them for their contribution and intends to integrate them into efforts toward a Likud victory.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iran pushed to continue the war with the United States in order to force a ceasefire on its own terms, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a conference with Iranian educators on Tuesday.

“We were the ones who refused the ceasefire and continued the war until we reached a point where they [the US] agreed to a ceasefire and negotiations on Iran’s terms,” Araghchi said. “We fought with strength and negotiated with strength, and we won the war, and we won the diplomacy.”

According to Araghchi, “The Iranian people stood against what was supposedly the largest military in the world, which was supported and assisted by most Western countries and by several other countries in the region and beyond.”

Araghchi concluded by saying that “those who tried to impose unconditional surrender on Iran begged for negotiations shortly after the war began.”

Trump says Iran should raise white flag, threatens Oman over Hormuz

On Monday, US President Donald Trump told FOX News that Iran should raise “the white flag of surrender,” and that he has “no time schedule” and is in “no hurry” to make a deal. The Iranians are “good poker players, but they’re dying,” said Trump.

He also warned that “if Oman gets in the way [of US control in the Strait of Hormuz], we’ll bomb the s*** out of them.”

Regarding US munitions used against Iran, Trump said that what has been used so far against Iran “is peanuts.”

Miriam Sela-Eitam contributed to this report.

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Five Thai workers were injured Tuesday morning when unexploded ordnance detonated in an agricultural area near Metula, along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The explosion occurred at around 7:15 a.m. A military medical team dispatched to the scene provided initial treatment to the victims. Two workers who were seriously injured were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital, while the other three, who sustained light injuries, were transported by ambulance.

Police and bomb disposal experts were called to the scene. According to initial reports, investigators believe the device may have been unexploded cluster munition ordnance. However, the circumstances of the explosion and the precise origin of the munition have not yet been officially confirmed and remain under investigation.

“We received a report of several men who were injured in an explosion in an orchard near Metula,” said senior MDA medic Moti Barel. “We arrived at the scene and saw the injured men conscious and suffering from injuries to their bodies. We began an initial triage and provided medical treatment at the scene, including stopping bleeding and administering medication. Together with an IDF medical team, we evacuated the injured by helicopter and MDA ambulances to the hospital while continuing to provide medical treatment.”

Police again urged the public not to touch shrapnel or fragments from interceptions left over from the fighting in northern Israel and reminded residents to immediately report any suspicious objects to the police emergency hotline.

The Metula Local Council said the explosion occurred in nectarine orchards near the town.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Amazon Web Services’ top Asia executive is moving to Tokyo, as the global cloud computing provider bets that Japan’s potential for AI adoption makes it a far more interesting market than its sluggish headline GDP growth suggests.

“Japan is in a moment of change,” Jaime Valles, AWS’ managing director of Asia-Pacific, Japan and China, tells Fortune at the firm’s Singapore office. “AI, security and competition are three strong reasons for Japanese companies to move from a traditional mainframe-based platform to the cloud.”

Japan’s government has warned that a failure to modernize the country’s IT systems, which it dubs a looming “digital cliff,” could cost the economy as much as $76 billion each year. 

The country was once a global pioneer in technological innovation, playing a leading role in the spread of technologies like LEDs, lithium-ion batteries, and notebook computers. But Japan’s corporate culture shifted to reward caution over disruptive innovation, a trend that the World Economic Forum attributes to a cultural aversion to failure and risk. 

“The technology posture Japan has today is still very based on traditional, legacy on-premise technology,” Valles says. “Even if you go deep into Japan, most of the support, enablement, applications and technology is run by four local companies: Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu and NTT Data.”

Yet this conservative mindset has caused Japan to fall behind its peers in reaping the benefits of the AI boom. China has pulled forward in the development of humanoid robots and frontier open-source AI models, while Taiwan and South Korea’s chipmakers have entrenched themselves in global AI hardware supply chains. While Japan lags on manufacturing advanced logic chips, it is still a major manufacturer of legacy and specialized automotive chips, as well as materials and equipment.

Last year, Japan began a push to reboot its innovation engine with a plan to channel $2.3 trillion in public and private investment to 17 strategic sectors by 2040. Semiconductors will get the largest share of the money, receiving $426 billion. Around $66 billion will go to physical AI, a catch-all term that includes robotics and autonomous systems.

“With AI development moving so fast, Japan can’t afford to fall behind,” the country’s digital minister, Hisashi Matsumoto, said during a press briefing last June. “I hope many Japanese people understand that we need to press ahead with AI development, or we’ll end up becoming an AI colony.”

For Valles, that renewed technological push creates an opportunity for cloud providers to drive digital transformation among local companies. “AI allows individuals to make their ideas happen without support from anyone, as long as they have the right data platform, security posture, and reliable systems—all of which we provide,” he says. “With that in place, you’re going to have new ideas from multiple people within companies.”

‘Build something from zero’

Before moving to Asia, Valles spent close to a decade building up AWS’s business in Latin America from a small office in Brazil. “AWS Latin America did not exist,” Valles says. “There was an opportunity to build something from zero, and actually try new ideas.” 

Under his leadership, AWS opened several edge locations, or secure connections to the global AWS network, in Argentina, Chile and Colombia. In 2022, the firm also announced plans to open 30 new “AWS Local Zones,” which offer infrastructure, storage and database services.

At the core of his leadership playbook is a commitment to hiring people who are “bigger and better” than him, and being humble enough to let them experiment and innovate.

“The regions are different but at the end of the day, people are people, and culture is culture,” Valles explains. “It’s about bringing on the best leaders, listening to them, and having a mindset that allows you to continuously learn from them.”

‘Land of innovation’

Valles moved to Singapore in 2023 when he was tapped to lead AWS’ operations in the APAC region. He’s bullish on the region, touting it as the “land of innovation”.

“In my view, the future is going to be built and exported from Asia,” Valles tells Fortune. “That’s for multiple reasons, including the region’s diversity, the learning agility of its people, its mix of developing and developed nations, and its continuous drive for innovation.”

AWS is investing in the region, adding four new data center clusters in Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, and Taiwan over the last 18 months.

“The decision to invest in each of these regions was driven by customer feedback,” Valles explains. “We’re hearing from local governments and companies that they need computing power to drive innovation in education, health and other domains.” He adds that with more companies moving from AI training to inference, users require cloud regions close by to reduce latencies and delays in operations.

AWS is also rolling out localized initiatives tailored to users in each Asian market. In India, for instance, where software engineering is a core tenet of the economy, AWS has focused its efforts on uplifting developers. Last August, it launched the AI-driven development life cycle (AI-DLC) methodology in Bengaluru to support local developers.

The firm also works to provide adequate enterprise support for local businesses. “We have Japanese language enterprise support to help our Japanese customers in mission critical applications,” Valles says, adding that in Japan, one or two minutes of downtime would “already require an apology from the CEO”.

At the heart of it all, Valles remains an AI optimist. “We’re at such an inflection point in the industry,” he concludes. “I’m totally convinced that AI is going to allow us to build a new future, and completely transform everything that we see.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Iranian intelligence operatives have begun targeting journalists and media professionals in Israel through sophisticated impersonation and phishing attempts, i24NEWS reported.

According to the report, Iranian operatives have recently made several attempts to contact Israeli journalists while posing as Israeli law enforcement officials, seeking to trick them into opening malicious links that could provide access to their accounts.

The report comes after the Shin Bet and Israel National Cyber Directorate issued an unusual warning Sunday about phishing attempts targeting members of the Israeli media.

In one case, the operatives used the name of Maj. Gen. Boaz Balt, head of the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Division. An Iranian operative contacted an Israeli journalist while posing as Balt’s assistant and attempted to arrange a meeting with her.

“I am Balt’s adviser. I would like to arrange a meeting with you regarding recent criminal matters,” the operative wrote.

When the journalist asked who she was corresponding with, the operative replied: “I’m Sarah Levy. I schedule the meetings.”

The journalist was subsequently sent an email invitation to a Zoom meeting. At that point, an attempt was made to take control of her account.

Following the incident, the journalist was forced to change her account password and block her credit card.

According to the report, the incident was not an isolated case. Similar approaches have been made to other Israeli journalists, including through social media. The method involves gaining the target’s trust by impersonating a recognizable official or someone acting on that person’s behalf, then sending a malicious link or invitation designed to compromise the victim’s account.

Israeli security officials are investigating the incidents and attempting to determine the scope of the operation.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Egg prices have finally stopped punishing American shoppers. A dozen averaged $2.19 in July, down nearly 26% from a year earlier as flocks recovered from avian flu. Now nearly 19 million eggs are carrying a different kind of problem—and the sell-by dates on some of them run through today.

The problem began in July, when Midwest Poultry Services voluntarily recalled white shell and brown cage-free eggs over potential salmonella enteritidis contamination.

The eggs were produced at farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3 and carry sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug. 17. They were sold under the Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Cal-Maine Sunups brands.

Then on Aug. 12, the Food and Drug Administration classified the recall under its highest-risk category after the eggs were linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 98 people and hospitalized 26.

The FDA said the Class I designation followed its assessment of the risk to the public and “should not be seen as an expansion or change to a firm’s voluntary public warning.”

Midwest Poultry Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, previously stressed that the classification does not represent a new recall. “What you’re seeing in the news today is not a new recall,” she said in a statement provided to the New York Times, adding that the company’s voluntary recall “is already complete.”

Consumers bought them at Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi, along with smaller retail outlets, according to the FDA. Kroger said in July that “all eggs currently available for purchase in our stores were sourced from a different production facility,” according to Reuters.

The outbreak has stretched well beyond the states where the recalled eggs were sold. As of July 24,  people across 17 states had been infected with the outbreak strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  No deaths have been reported. Texas accounts for the large majority of cases, but illnesses also turned up in states including Michigan and New York, which are outside the states identified in the FDA’s distribution information.

That mismatch is one reason an investigation isn’t over. The FDA said epidemiological, laboratory and traceback evidence points to Midwest Poultry Services eggs as a likely source, but that the producer “does not account for all the illnesses in this outbreak.”

Illnesses began on dates ranging from Nov. 21, 2025, to June 30, 2026—a seven-month span. Of the 44 people interviewed about what they ate before getting sick, 40 reported eating eggs.

Midwest Poultry Services said it identified the potential contamination at two Texas farms through environmental monitoring and root-cause analysis, and that whole-genome sequencing by a third-party lab matched some samples to the outbreak strain. The company stopped distributing fresh eggs from those farms in July.

Salmonella typically causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food, with symptoms lasting four to seven days. Children under five, older adults and people with weakened immune systems face the greatest risk of severe illness.

Consumers can identify recalled cartons by the codes P-1950 or 0840962 alongside a Julian date between 157 and 184, printed in date-coding ink on the side of the carton. The FDA says consumers should not eat the eggs and should return them for a full refund, or throw them away if they’re no longer in their original packaging.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that preserving peace remains “most important” for the country, while warning that Seoul must also be prepared for the “worst case scenario.” His remarks come as the Trump administration moves to significantly scale back joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.

.S. President Donald Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military drills with South Korea, arguing that continuing them could “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” toward North Korea.

In a Truth Social post Sunday, Trump pointed to his “very good” relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and characterized North Korea as “unthreatening and respectful.”

Lee emphasized Tuesday that the annual exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, are defensive in nature. According to a CNBC translation of the Korean government statement, he said the drills are not designed to attack North Korea or increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The exercises are scheduled to continue through Aug. 27 and involve roughly 18,000 South Korean military personnel.

For Seoul, the situation presents a delicate balance: maintaining stability and avoiding unnecessary escalation while ensuring the country remains prepared for a potential security crisis.

Lee’s comments underscore the tension between efforts to reduce confrontation with North Korea and the need to preserve military readiness amid uncertainty over the future of U.S.-South Korean defense cooperation.

David Makovsky, the director of the Program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, revealed on Tuesday that Israel has quietly withdrawn from the “Orange Line” in Gaza, under which Israel controlled about 60% of Gaza.

“Israeli sources say that, in compliance with President Trump’s wishes, Israel has quietly withdrawn in recent weeks from the so-called Orange Line in Gaza to the original Yellow Line stipulated in last October’s ceasefire deal,” Makovsky wrote.

“Under that deal, Israel controls 53% of Gaza. But in an effort to limit Hamas’s room to maneuver, Israel had subsequently extended its control to more than 60%, creating what became known as the Orange Line. (PM Netanyahu has put the figure closer to 70%, but this appears to have been an overstatement.)

“With Israel now in an election season, Netanyahu has sought to emphasize points of difference with Trump over Gaza to placate his political base. In a video to supporters, he declared that Israel will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas completely disarms.

“Nor has Netanyahu publicly acknowledged his willingness—in compliance with Trump’s wishes—to refrain from strikes against Hamas beyond the Yellow Line absent an imminent threat, apparently believing such restraint would be politically unpopular.”

The report follows a previous report by Kan News on Monday evening that IDF troops in the Gaza Strip have been officially instructed not to push the Yellow Line any further west, marking a significant shift after months in which Israeli forces gradually moved the line westward and expanded their control to nearly two-thirds of the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, troops have been instructed to document every Hamas violation of the ceasefire agreement, using their personal phones if necessary.

According to Kan, the new directive was issued following a meeting Monday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner, and Gaza Peace Council Director-General Nikolay Mladenov.

The four-hour meeting took place amid U.S. pressure to advance the implementation of Phase II of Trump’s plan. Kushner and Mladenov subsequently met with President Isaac Herzog.

The original Yellow Line, established under Trump’s 20-point plan last September, left Israel in control of slightly more than half of the Gaza Strip. In the months since, Israeli forces steadily pushed the line westward, bringing nearly two-thirds of the territory under Israeli control.

The latest directive marks the first time the IDF has been ordered to halt that westward expansion.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

After 44 years, the IDF has located the remains and personal belongings of Yehuda Katz, Hy”d — the last soldier still missing from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during the First Lebanon War.

Katz’s remains and personal belongings were recovered overnight in a special operation by the IDF and Mossad, based on intelligence provided by the IDF Intelligence Directorate, and were transferred to Katz’s family.

The Battle of Sultan Yacoub took place on June 11, 1982, just hours before a ceasefire was set to take effect. Twenty Israeli soldiers were killed, and many others were wounded.

Following the battle, six Israeli soldiers were declared missing. Two had been taken captive and were later returned in prisoner exchanges, while another, tank commander Zohar Lifshitz, Hy”d, was killed and his body was subsequently returned.

Katz, Zechariah Baumel, and Tzvi Feldman, H’yd, remained listed for decades as missing soldiers from the battle.

In 2019, Baumel’s remains were recovered from Syria and returned to Israel with Russian assistance in an operation led by the IDF Intelligence Directorate. In May 2025, Feldman’s remains were recovered in Syria and returned to Israel in a special operation carried out by the Mossad and IDF.

Katz remained the last missing soldier from the battle, with his fate unknown until today.

Katz was born on July 18, 1959, in Ramat Gan to Holocaust survivors Yosef and Sarah Katz. From an early age, he demonstrated exceptional academic abilities and a particular thirst for Torah learning.

After graduating from high school, Katz enlisted in the IDF through the Hesder program. When the First Lebanon War broke out, he joined his fellow soldiers in Lebanon. He was sent into the Battle of Sultan Yacoub just ten days before he was scheduled to complete his military service.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The 60-day negotiating window meant to move the United States and Iran toward a more durable settlement expired August 17 without a comprehensive agreement, leaving behind a military balance increasingly different from the one that existed when the pause began.

Iran has used periods of reduced fighting to repair launchers, restore access to damaged military infrastructure, and accelerate missile and drone production. The United States is confronting depleted stocks of interceptors and precision weapons used during the conflict, while Gulf countries struck by Iranian missiles and drones are seeking additional air-defense systems and ammunition. Israel has accelerated production of its own interceptors and aerial munitions.

What began as an attempt to create diplomatic space has also functioned as a period of military reconstitution.

For Tehran, that effort has been explicit. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi said in April that Iran was updating and replenishing missile and drone launchers faster than before the war, although Reuters was unable to independently verify accompanying footage from an underground missile facility.

On May 21, Reuters, citing CNN and two sources familiar with US intelligence assessments, reported that Iran had restarted some drone production during the six-week ceasefire that began in April. The news agency reported July 29 that Iran was preparing to receive an initial shipment from China of as many as 400 shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers as Tehran rebuilt its defenses.

Iran restoring access to underground missile facilities quicker than expected

The Wall Street Journal reported July 23 that satellite imagery showed Iran restoring roads and access to underground missile facilities more quickly than some Israeli officials had anticipated. The imagery also indicated reconstruction at a missile-component plant near Tehran, although more sophisticated parts of Iran’s weapons industry appeared harder to restore.

Tehran has clearly recovered part of its ability to fight, but publicly available information does not establish that Iran has returned to its full prewar missile-production or operational capacity.

That uncertainty is central to Israeli calculations.

Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division of Israel Defense Intelligence, told The Media Line that focusing solely on the number of destroyed production sites risks obscuring the arsenal Iran may still retain.

“Nobody knows exactly how many weapons they have, but even during the friction with the US, they attacked Jordan numerous times with long ballistic missiles, so obviously they still have the capacity to launch missiles,” Citrinowicz said. “Adding to that, there are numerous reports in Israel that the Iranians were able to rebuild their manufacturing capacity – not 100%, but they have the ability to manufacture.”

Citrinowicz said that despite what he described as operational gains during the 39-day war, Iran retained sufficient missiles and launchers to sustain hostilities for weeks or months.

His assessment points to a structural problem exposed by the conflict. Strikes can destroy fixed production facilities, launchers, and command infrastructure. They have greater difficulty eliminating technical expertise, dispersed supply networks, underground storage, and the political decision to rebuild.

Iran has spent decades developing a largely indigenous ballistic-missile industry because missiles allow Tehran to threaten targets far beyond its borders despite the limitations of its conventional air force. The war damaged that architecture but did not remove the strategic reason Iran relies on it.

John Keith King, a strategic adviser and founder of Q Advisory, cautioned against interpreting every sign of resumed production as evidence that Iran had already restored its previous military strength.

Public estimates have differed sharply. An Israeli Air Force official reportedly estimated in early April that Iran retained slightly more than 1,000 missiles capable of reaching Israel, while US intelligence assessments cited in American reporting placed the surviving share at roughly 70% of its prewar stockpile. Later Israeli reporting said about two-thirds of Iran’s launchers remained operational. Satellite analysis also indicated that Iran had reopened 50 of 69 entrances at 18 underground missile facilities.

“The number of operational launchers, missile accuracy, command-and-control resilience, availability of solid-fuel components, and the ability to conduct sustained coordinated barrages are at least as important as the total number of missiles,” King told The Media Line. “Some of the current estimates originate with Israeli security sources and require continued independent verification.”

King did not characterize the Israeli estimates as false, but said assessments based on security sources should not be treated as independently confirmed.

That distinction could prove critical if Israel considers another preventive military campaign.

The relevant calculation is no longer simply how many missiles Iran possesses. It is whether Tehran has enough functioning launchers, command networks, and precision systems to sustain large salvos; whether Israel can identify and destroy those systems quickly enough; and whether Israeli and American missile defenses can absorb another prolonged exchange.

US, Gulf countries replenishing arms during Iran ceasefire

Iran is not the only actor rebuilding.

The war placed unusually heavy pressure on air-defense inventories across the region. The International Institute for Strategic Studies reported May 12 that Iranian missile and drone attacks had depleted Gulf countries’ interceptor magazines and exposed capability gaps, prompting Saudi Arabia and other states to seek additional interceptors, radars, counter-drone equipment and surface-to-air systems.

The United States faces its own replenishment problem. On August 3, Washington announced framework agreements worth more than $3 billion to expand production of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor components. The Pentagon said the agreements could eventually triple Patriot production capacity and quadruple THAAD production after the conflicts involving Iran and Ukraine strained US inventories.

The US military awarded RTX a $22.9 billion contract on August 17 aimed at dramatically increasing Tomahawk production as Washington moves to replenish long-range weapons used in recent conflicts.

It would be difficult to describe the current period simply as a pause in which Iran alone is rearming. It has become a broader regional replenishment race.

There is no public evidence that Washington entered the ceasefire specifically to restore its weapons inventories. Still, the United States and its partners have used the same period to address shortages and strengthen defenses, particularly around the Gulf, where American bases and allied infrastructure remain within range of Iranian missiles.

Iran is trying to restore the offensive capability needed to make another attack costly. Washington and its Gulf partners are rebuilding defensive stocks intended to absorb that capability. Israel must prepare both to defend itself against another Iranian barrage and to decide whether renewed Iranian production eventually justifies another strike.

King described the resulting environment as something less stable than a conventional ceasefire.

“I would describe the present situation not as peace, but as an armed pause within an unresolved conflict,” he said. “The ceasefire has not produced agreement over Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, control of the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, or the future regional security structure. Both sides are therefore using the pause to rebuild military capacity and strengthen their negotiating positions.”

According to King, the situation creates a dangerous cycle.

“Iran’s rearmament may encourage another preventive strike, while continued American or Israeli threats convince Tehran that accelerating missile production is essential for survival,” he said.

Strait of Hormuz shipping obstacles showcase continued conflict

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the clearest examples of how little of the underlying conflict has been resolved.

As the negotiating period expired, Iran said it was close to finalizing an understanding with Oman on routes for commercial vessels through the strait. Washington and Tehran remain divided over the larger political conditions surrounding the waterway, including the US blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran’s demand for a role in controlling passage through Hormuz. Separate efforts to restore the broader interim US-Iran arrangement produced no substantive progress before the deadline.

Military rebuilding on all sides could reduce the margin for error while diplomacy remains unable to address the conflict’s underlying causes.

A missile deployment interpreted as preparation for an attack, a new shipping incident, or an Israeli decision that Iranian production has crossed an unacceptable threshold could quickly transform the standoff.

Israel’s role in that scenario is particularly complicated.

The Israeli Defense Ministry has moved to increase production of Arrow interceptors, part of Israel’s ballistic-missile defense architecture developed jointly with the United States. It has also accelerated aerial-munitions production and moved to replenish weapons used in operations against Iran and on other fronts.

Yet military readiness does not automatically translate into freedom of action.

Citrinowicz argued that another major Israeli operation against Iran would remain heavily dependent on Washington, particularly if the United States sought to prevent a new round of direct fighting.

He said Israel’s ability to conduct such an operation would be sharply constrained as long as the US administration opposed renewed escalation. He argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be especially reluctant to act against US President Donald Trump’s regional policy because Netanyahu also values the US president’s political support ahead of Israel’s election.

Citrinowicz said Israel would be unlikely to expand the war as long as the United States opposed further escalation, even if Netanyahu favored doing so, because acting against US policy in the region would be difficult.

He stressed that the dependence was structural rather than limited to one administration or military operation.

“There is no replacement in Israel for the US support,” Citrinowicz said. “We need the US support offensively and defensively… At the end of the day, we are highly dependent on the US.”

He said Israel must adjust when Washington’s regional priorities diverge from those of the Israeli government. In the present case, he said, US opposition to renewed fighting would leave Israel with few realistic alternatives because it depends on American diplomatic backing, offensive support and missile defense.

That dependency places Israel in a difficult position if Iranian missile rebuilding continues faster than expected while Washington remains reluctant to return to a large-scale offensive.

Israel could decide that allowing Tehran additional time would make a future strike more costly. Striking sooner could trigger Iranian retaliation against Israel, US forces, and Gulf infrastructure, followed by another round of American involvement.

King said the military question could not be separated from the diplomatic one.

“The only sustainable alternative is an enforceable agreement covering more than the nuclear issue,” he said. “It would require verifiable limitations on missile production and deployment, reliable inspection mechanisms, protected navigation through Hormuz, military deconfliction channels, and phased economic incentives tied to compliance.”

“Without such arrangements,” King said, “the region risks entering a recurring pattern in which Iran rebuilds, the United States or Israel strikes again, and every round becomes more destructive than the last.”

This post was originally published on here.

Berkshire Hathaway has dramatically increased its investment in Google parent Alphabet, turning what was once an unusual technology bet for Warren Buffett’s conglomerate into its third-largest stock holding.

Berkshire increased its Alphabet position by 83% during the second quarter, ending June with nearly 106 million shares worth about $37.8 billion.

That puts Alphabet behind only Apple, valued at roughly $66 billion in Berkshire’s portfolio, and American Express at $51.3 billion.

The size of the investment is significant, but the timing may be even more important.

Berkshire spent 14 consecutive quarters selling more stocks than it purchased as it accumulated one of the largest cash piles in corporate America. That changed sharply during the second quarter, when the company purchased $23.5 billion of stocks while selling just $3.7 billion.

Alphabet was at the center of that shift.

The investment also gives Berkshire exposure to considerably more than Google’s search and advertising businesses. Alphabet is spending heavily on artificial intelligence and data-center infrastructure while holding one of corporate America’s most extraordinary outside investments.

Alphabet invested roughly $900 million in Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2015. By the end of June, that stake was valued at approximately $94 billion — more than 100 times the original investment.

In other words, Berkshire is putting tens of billions of dollars behind a company that has itself demonstrated an ability to turn an early strategic investment into nearly $100 billion of value.

The move also marks an important chapter in Berkshire’s transition from Buffett to Chief Executive Greg Abel. Buffett has said the original decision to invest in Alphabet was his, while capital allocation is now being managed under Abel’s leadership.

For Berkshire shareholders, the bigger message is where the conglomerate is finally willing to put some of its enormous financial firepower.

After years of accumulating cash and struggling to find investments large enough to meaningfully move Berkshire, Alphabet has become one of the few companies receiving tens of billions of Berkshire dollars.

That makes the investment more than another portfolio adjustment.

Alphabet is now one of Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest bets.

JBizNews Desk | Omaha

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

A startling report published Monday alleges that young Chareidi men were paid hundreds of shekels in cash to cast ballots for designated candidates in the Likud primaries, with two of the participants openly acknowledging that they had little interest in the political process and were voting according to lists supplied to them.

The footage, revealed by reporter Yossi Abdu, was recorded during the Likud primary voting at Binyanei Ha’Uma in Yerushalayim. Two young Chareidi men are seen speaking openly about the payments they allegedly received and the prepared lists of candidates they were instructed to support.

“To tell you the truth, I came to vote. I don’t care about politics or anything, but they paid me money,” one of the young men said, declining to provide his full name.

According to the young man, Likud representatives send people to the polls and pay them in exchange for their votes in the primaries.

“I’m Chareidi and I came to vote, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m voting for someone Chareidi. I vote for whoever paid me,” he said.

His friend, identified as Elchanan, said that he, too, had received money to participate, claiming that the amount he received was even higher.

Another young man, Netanel, pulled a detailed list from his pocket containing the numbers of the candidates he had allegedly been instructed to select. The list included candidates numbered 103, 105, 143, 122, 125, 126, 127, 128, 133, 138, 144 and 208 on the national slate, along with candidate 315 in the Yerushalayim district. Of the candidates involved, the only name he recognized was Dudi Amsalem, whose name appeared first on the list.

Both young men stressed that their membership in Likud and participation in its primaries did not mean they intended to support the party in the general Knesset election.

Elchanan said explicitly that he would not vote for Likud in the general election. Netanel said he would ultimately vote according to the instructions of rabbonim, before adding: “If Ben Gvir pays me money, I’ll vote for him.”

Netanel said he had been paid 400 shekels to come and cast his ballot.

The two summed up their attitude toward their participation in particularly blunt terms: “Only money, only money. We don’t work for free, we want money, what can you do?”

Monday’s Likud primaries were open to approximately 142,000 registered party members. Among them are thousands of Chassidim and other Chareidi members representing various communities and chassidusen.

Estimates place the number of Chareidi Likud members at approximately 7,000. Because a candidate may need only several thousand votes in the primary system to secure a realistic position on the party’s Knesset slate, organized voting blocs can potentially wield significant influence over the results.

The report raises serious questions about the integrity of the primary process and whether the alleged payments represented isolated incidents or were part of a broader, organized operation.

Similar allegations of vote-buying have surfaced during party primaries in Israel in the past. However, it is unusual for alleged participants themselves to be captured on camera describing so explicitly the payments they received and acknowledging that they were voting according to instructions supplied in exchange for money.

{Matzav.com}

Mohammed Dahlan has emerged as a key intermediary linking Hamas, Egypt, Gulf states and the Trump administration as efforts intensify to shape Gaza’s political future and build a broader Palestinian alliance ahead of elections in the Palestinian Authority.

Trump administration envoy Jared Kushner met Sunday in Egypt with senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, with Dahlan also present. The meeting marked another step in implementing the American roadmap for ending the war, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal and the establishment of a national committee responsible for administering and rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

According to Ynet, increasingly close ties between Hamas and Dahlan’s political faction are aimed at bringing Hamas into a broader political framework rather than having the terror group run independently in Palestinian elections scheduled for late November.

Senior Hamas official Hussam Badran confirmed that discussions are underway to establish a “national alliance” that would include Hamas, Dahlan’s faction and independent Palestinian figures.

For Hamas, such an arrangement could provide a path away from its status as an organization governing a separate Palestinian enclave in Gaza. For Dahlan, the emerging alliance offers an opportunity to return to the center of Palestinian politics without depending on the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah.

Officials in the Palestinian Authority are closely and anxiously watching the developments, particularly as donor countries pressing the PA to hold elections have reportedly responded positively to the proposed political arrangement.

A senior Palestinian Authority official said Ramallah’s deepening economic crisis, combined with the absence of an agreed-upon successor to 91-year-old PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has left the Palestine Liberation Organization increasingly vulnerable as the new alliance takes shape.

“Israel did not want ‘Fatahstan’; the question is whether in the end it will get ‘Hamastan’ in the form of Dahlan,” the official warned.

Meanwhile, Hamas announced that it has agreed to the second stage of the American roadmap.

Dahlan, who has been issuing public statements regarding progress in the negotiations while simultaneously serving as a channel between the Americans and Hamas, called on all Palestinian factions to refrain from taking any actions that could derail the agreement with Israel.

{Matzav.com}

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, made an unexpected visit to a kosher restaurant in the Yerushalayim hills on Monday, dining with Ron Dermer and several others before personally paying the bill and leaving the staff an unusually generous tip, Matzav.com has learned.

Kushner arrived at Naya restaurant with a group of eight people, including Dermer, the former Israeli minister and ambassador to the United States.

Restaurant employees received only about 30 minutes’ advance notice that Kushner would be arriving, with the visit coordinated through Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Kushner and his entourage were seated in the restaurant’s private room and the adjoining outdoor area. Although the visit was arranged on short notice, the presence of security personnel and large American vehicles outside made it clear that an unusual guest was inside.

During the meal, Kushner held a private conversation with Dermer. He also used the restaurant’s private room to conduct an interview with Fox News.

When it came to the meal itself, Kushner reportedly passed on the sushi and selected other dishes from the menu, while other members of his party sampled a selection of fish and sushi specials.

One restaurant employee described Kushner as “מאוד נחמד ודיבר עם כולם” — “very nice and spoke with everyone.”

Kushner paid for the meal with his personal credit card and left a tip of more than 35%, according to the report. He also personally thanked the restaurant staff for their hospitality before departing.

US President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner on Monday said conversations between the US and different areas of the Iranian government were probably more robust than ever, but the two sides had not yet reached an understanding.

Kushner, who is visiting the Middle East, made the comments in an interview with Fox News.

Kushner said that “Trump doesn’t want to rush into a deal, he’ll make the right deal when it’s ready.”

He added that the president would be “very patient with Iran.”

Kushner said that Trump was placing an emphasis on economic pressure over military actions, focusing on the blockade of Iran which had left the Iranian economy “way worse off now.”

Kushner also said that Trump was acting to ensure that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, adding that “if Iran is willing to finish the deal that they’ve been discussing with us to give up their ability to create a nuclear weapon then obviously he is willing to make a deal.”

Hezbollah stands in the way of peace, must be disarmed, US State Dept. spokesman declares

Hezbollah is solely responsible for Israel’s presence in Lebanon, a US State Department spokesperson told Sky News Arabia early on Tuesday morning.

The Iran-backed group is the biggest threat to Lebanon’s safety and stability, the official also told the network, adding that Hezbollah acts as the main obstacle to Lebanon’s economic recovery and the only blemish on its international reputation.

The group must be disarmed and dismantled, the spokesperson told the channel, maintaining that disarming the group is an integral part of the pilot program for Israeli withdrawal from certain areas in southern Lebanon.

This program, which seeks a staggered Israeli withdrawal from areas to be taken over by Lebanese government forces, remains the only practical path towards peace and security, the spokesperson further said.

The program is set to expand if the first stages are successfully completed, they added.

This post was originally published on here.

Efforts to resolve tensions between Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and Rav Yitzchak Yosef have hit a significant obstacle after Deri rejected a proposed agreement intended to prevent future clashes between the two sides, according to Israeli sources.

The setback comes amid intensive behind-the-scenes efforts to restore relations between Deri and Rav Yosef ahead of the upcoming elections. Despite the latest breakdown, intermediaries are continuing to work toward an understanding that could prevent the dispute from escalating further.

According to the sources, contrary to speculation surrounding the negotiations, Rav Yosef’s camp is not currently demanding that he be appointed president of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah.

Instead, the central issue in the discussions has been a proposed arrangement governing the relationship between Rav Yosef and Deri going forward.

As part of the negotiations, Rav Yosef reportedly asked Deri to sign an agreement establishing understandings designed to prevent future confrontations between the two camps and allow Shas to operate while maintaining a functional and respectful working relationship.

Deri, however, firmly rejected the proposal, causing the talks to reach an impasse.

Despite that refusal, efforts to bridge the differences have not ended. Discussions are continuing quietly behind the scenes in an attempt to formulate an arrangement acceptable to both sides and prevent the existing tensions from intensifying as the election approaches.

The developments follow an earlier report that intensive contacts have been underway in recent days between Deri and Rav Yosef’s household, with those involved seeking to calm the strained relationship before the country heads to the polls.

Serving as the intermediary in the talks is Momo Deri, the Shas chairman’s brother, who is regarded within the party as a trusted figure frequently tapped to handle sensitive and particularly delicate assignments.

Chrysler parent Stellantis announced on Monday that nearly one million vehicles  worldwide are being recalled over radio software that may prevent rearview cameras from displaying images properly.

About 955,000 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles are affected by the recall.

This covers more than 848,000 vehicles in the U.S., including various 2026 and 2027 model year Chrysler Pacifica, Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid and Voyager, Dodge Charger, Jeep Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Wagoneer, Wrangler and Ram 1500, 2500 and ProMaster vehicles.

About 107,000 vehicles are being recalled in Canada, Mexico and other countries. This includes nearly 83,000 vehicles in Canada, 8,000 in Mexico and 16,000 in markets outside North America.

If the rearview camera display fails to appear, drivers are instructed to use their rearview and side mirrors when reversing their vehicles, Stellantis said.

The automaker said it is unaware of any accidents or injuries in connection with the recall.

Vehicle owners will receive an over-the-air radio software update and will be prompted on the vehicle’s media screen when the update is available.

Recall notices will be mailed to owners beginning next month with additional information and instructions.

In 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration adopted a rule requiring rear-visibility technology in new vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds by May 2018, saying the U.S. had 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries per year on average caused by back-over crashes involving light vehicles. The regulator said children under age 5 accounted for 31% of those fatalities.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Israel and the Gaza Board of Peace have reached understandings that would prevent the IDF from redeploying out of Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and the entire Gaza Strip is demilitarized.

The understandings were reached following a roughly four-hour meeting Monday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner and Gaza Board of Peace CEO Nikolay Mladenov. An Israeli official told Kan News that the Americans accepted the red lines set by Israel’s security establishment regarding Gaza.

A senior Board of Peace official said, “There will be no IDF redeployment from Gaza until Hamas is completely disarmed and all of Gaza is demilitarized.” The demilitarization is to include all light and heavy weapons as well as Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure. Any weapons collected will be completely dismantled so they cannot be used again.

The Board of Peace announced that Hamas has committed to fully disarm and immediately cease all military activity in Gaza, including rearmament and digging tunnels. Israeli officials said the real test will be whether Hamas actually carries out those commitments.

Israel will also retain the right to act if Hamas resumes terrorism, violence or attempts to rearm. “Israel retains its full right to self-defense: if Hamas turns to terrorism, violence or attempts to rearm, Israel will retain the right to act accordingly,” the Board of Peace stated.

Hamas’s complete disarmament and the demilitarization of Gaza will also be required before reconstruction begins. Netanyahu’s office said the process must be carried out rapidly and completed before any rebuilding work starts in Gaza.

Two joint working groups will be established immediately, with one focusing on security, disarmament and demilitarization and the second dealing with basic needs including sanitation, clean water and other public health matters.

The Board of Peace said the talks focused on advancing the full implementation of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, with the sides sharing the goal of a completely demilitarized Gaza that does not pose a threat to Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Union Pacific collected $91.1 million more in fuel surcharges than it spent on fuel during the second quarter, offering a rare look at how a charge designed to offset rising diesel costs can become a source of profit for a transportation company.

The railroad disclosed the figures in filings with the Surface Transportation Board. Union Pacific said its fuel-surcharge increases were in line with the industry and that the charges are one part of the overall price customers negotiate when choosing rail service.

The gap was much larger than at rival railroads.

Norfolk Southern reported a fuel-surcharge surplus of about $3.6 million during the quarter, while CSX reported roughly $8.4 million. Union Pacific’s surplus was more than ten times either amount.

The company previously said fuel surcharges added about 14 cents per share to second-quarter earnings. Based on Union Pacific’s outstanding shares, that translates to roughly $83.2 million in profit.

Fuel surcharges are typically tied to benchmark diesel prices through formulas written into customer contracts. The complication is timing.

There can be a lag of as much as two months between a change in fuel prices and the surcharge customers actually pay. When fuel prices rise quickly, a railroad can temporarily under-recover its costs. When prices fall or stabilize while the surcharge formula is still catching up, the opposite can happen.

That is exactly what Union Pacific’s numbers show.

In the first quarter, the railroad collected $34.8 million less in fuel surcharges than it spent on fuel. Across the entire first half of 2026, however, surcharge revenue still exceeded fuel expenses by $56.4 million.

Union Pacific was the only major U.S. railroad whose fuel-surcharge revenue exceeded its fuel costs over the full first half.

That comparison makes the numbers more striking.

BNSF, Union Pacific’s major competitor in the western United States, reported fuel surcharges that were $658.1 million below its fuel costs during the same six-month period.

For shippers, the issue is bigger than one quarterly accounting line.

Rail costs ultimately become part of the price of grain, chemicals, automobiles, building materials, consumer products and countless other goods moving through the economy. When transportation surcharges rise, manufacturers and distributors either absorb that expense or eventually pass some of it along.

Rail fuel surcharges have existed for decades and have survived regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges. But railroads provide an unusually transparent window into the practice because they are required to report both fuel spending and surcharge revenue.

That makes Union Pacific’s $91.1 million second-quarter surplus particularly revealing.

The figures also arrive as Union Pacific seeks regulatory approval for its proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, a deal that would create the first railroad spanning the continental United States.

Critics of the merger argue that a larger railroad could gain additional pricing power. Union Pacific says the combination would improve service and create a more efficient national rail network.

Whatever happens with the merger, the latest filings show something businesses rarely get to see so clearly: a surcharge created to recover a volatile operating cost can sometimes recover considerably more than the cost itself.

JBizNews Desk | Omaha

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

Attorney General Todd Blanche says the Trump administration does not need to seek a new vote from Congress to proceed with President Trump’s planned White House ballroom, arguing that lawmakers have already provided presidents with the legal authority to carry out such construction on the White House grounds.

“We don’t believe we have to go to Congress. We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we’re doing,” Blanche said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”

Blanche pointed to renovations and construction undertaken by previous administrations, maintaining that Congress has long recognized broad presidential authority to make changes to the White House complex.

“Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so,” he added in discussion with anchor Shannon Bream, a lawyer criticized by Trump after the interview aired.

Bream pressed Blanche on why the administration would not simply request explicit congressional authorization for the project, which is estimated to cost approximately $900 million, if officials are confident that lawmakers have already granted the necessary authority.

The legal dispute has become increasingly urgent after a federal appeals court directed the administration to halt all work on the ballroom by Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes and permits construction to continue.

Blanche said the administration is optimistic that the justices will side with the White House, while arguing that the project goes beyond providing an elaborate new venue for official events and includes significant security improvements.

“We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible. Remember, yes, it is a ballroom, but it’s also a meaningful upgrade and necessary part of the security of this city and the security of the president and his family,” Blanche said Sunday.

“And so it’s not just about a place for world leaders to come and have dinner, it’s also about making sure that the president and his family, guests, world leaders are safe when they’re in this city,” he added.

Democratic lawmakers have rejected the administration’s contention that the ballroom project serves a significant national-security purpose and have called on the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit of the undertaking.

The project is being financed through a combination of taxpayer money and private donations, an arrangement that has also drawn scrutiny from critics who have questioned the transparency of the funding and the process used to approve the construction.

“The scale of this project, the destruction of historic architecture, the opaque and unorthodox combination of public funds with private funding sources, and the absence of standard federal review processes raise serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and stewardship of this national landmark,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the acting GAO comptroller general, Orice Williams Brown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department finalized a rule Monday that will pave the way for people who’ve been barred from owning firearms because of criminal convictions to apply to have their gun rights reinstated.

The process launched by newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche is a victory for Second Amendment advocates who have long pushed for nonviolent people with felony convictions to be given a pathway to regain their legal right to own firearms.

“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and the federal government should not permanently deprive Americans of a constitutional right without regard to whether they pose a danger to public safety,” Blanche said in a statement. The attorney general said the new process will protect “public safety while giving deserving Americans a real path to restoration.”

It’s the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to ease firearms restrictions. The Justice Department moved earlier this year to roll back and modify a slate of gun regulations. Separately, the department recently decided against challenging a court ruling that struck down regulations on firearm suppressors and certain guns.

Federal law has long allowed people who’ve had their gun rights stripped because of felony convictions to petition the government for the ability to own firearms again, but Congress since 1992 has effectively barred the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from processing applications.

The Trump administration’s rule aims to circumvent that by establishing a new application system using an online portal.

The Justice Department says restoration will be granted on a case-by-case basis, weighing a person’s record and reputation to determine whether they pose a likely threat to public safety. Officials say people who have been convicted of violent crimes, registered sex offenders, people living in the country illegally and others whom officials believe pose a danger to society will be denied “absent extraordinary circumstances.”

Kris Brown, the president of Brady, which advocates for stronger gun laws, said her group is still reviewing the administration’s final rule but has stressed the need for a “robust and thoughtful system that minimizes the risk to public safety.”

“Yet the Trump administration has consistently shown us they have no such discretion, including by restoring gun rights to convicted domestic abusers and violent January 6 insurrectionists, and by tirelessly rolling back broad policies proven to prevent crime and gun violence,” Brown said in a statement.

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was slated to begin Sept. 8, has been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds following his guilty plea last week to federal charges.

Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and giving the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the state case, until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense’s double jeopardy claims. A hearing will be held on Dec. 10, Carro said, about a week before Mangione is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case.

Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted trailing Thompson to UnitedHealth Group’s investor conference and gunning him down outside a Manhattan hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors said they would seek life in prison when Mangione is sentenced Dec. 18, though federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 24 to 30 years.

“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione said.

Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy and due process grounds. They described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions” and accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”

Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries the possibility of a life sentence.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because Mangione’s federal sentence isn’t yet known.

Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.

It will be up to Carro to decide if that applies to Mangione. However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal.

Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges that accused him of traveling across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson. The charges alleged that he used a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and a hostel serving out-of-state customers to plan and carry out the attack.

“The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.

That Mangione traveled from out of state “to be at the crime scene at the time of the shooting does nothing to eliminate the stalking of Mr. Thompson from the acts constituting his murder,” they added. “They are all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction.”

Bragg’s office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping out the state case.

Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, “must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses” and for the state’s interests in prosecuting Mangione, “including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges.”

(AP) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pitching a plan to help shield local police officers who make immigration arrests from possible financial consequences if they are accused of on-duty misconduct.

The agency is proposing to subsidize liability insurance for state and local officers who are trained and deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, according to a planning document published Friday.

ICE’s partnerships with local departments have soared since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and may get an additional boost with liability insurance by removing a hurdle that has made some local police departments reluctant to join. The Associated Press is the first to report on this insurance proposal.

Under the plan, officers would purchase insurance covering up to $500,000 in personal liability, which typically funds legal fees, settlements and judgments. Officers would be reimbursed up to $250 annually — roughly what the insurance is expected to cost.

One prominent critic of ICE’s immigration crackdown said the program would be yet another way for officers to avoid personal accountability for misconduct.

“The concern here is that ICE is going above and beyond to guarantee law enforcement does not have even the slightest risk of liability for violating Americans’ rights while helping ICE arrest people,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, who has called on Congress to make it easier to sue ICE agents for wrongdoing.

ICE outlined the plan in a document informing industry officials that it is considering hiring a contractor to help provide outreach, training and communications support for its so-called 287(g) partnerships with local departments, which are named for a section of a 1996 immigration law. The contractor would hire the insurance vendor and process the reimbursements, among other tasks.

ICE has asked for industry feedback by Thursday. The proposed timeline for launching the program and its estimated cost are unclear.

ICE had no immediate comment on the plan.

Arrests by ICE’s local partners have spiked since last year
During Trump’s second term, ICE has offered generous financial incentives to participating local agencies, increasing the number who have partnered with the federal government, as well as the number of arrests.

Nearly 1,600 agencies in 32 states now have agreements to participate in ICE’s task force model, in which trained local officers can interrogate, arrest and charge people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to ICE data.

Departments qualify for funding to help cover expenses like their officers’ pay, equipment and vehicles. With encouragement from state and local Republican officials, agencies in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia have been among the leaders.

Arrests made through such programs jumped to an average of 3,000 per month in the first two months of 2026, according to the most recent ICE data provided to the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project. That compares to a monthly average of 250 in 2024 under President Joe Biden.

Local departments, officers worried about liability for ICE work
As local officers increasingly carry out federal immigration work, they and their departments have expressed concerns about the civil liability that could result from claims alleging excessive use of force, wrongful arrest and illegal search and seizure, among other things.

That’s because insurance policies that cover their local work may not apply. Pennsylvania’s risk pool, for instance, recently made clear that it would exclude “proactive immigration enforcement activities” from coverage, forcing several participating counties to search for other insurance options.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said he found insurance to cover his 13 deputies participating in the program at a cost of $20,000 in annual premiums.

“I want to make sure the guys are additionally covered, so we had to spend the money,” he said, adding that federal funding would cover the cost.

Federal officers usually enjoy legal immunities and a government-funded defense when they face lawsuits. But those protections may not always apply to local officers, which has heightened their concerns over liability and the need for insurance.

While civil lawsuits are the main concern, professional liability insurance typically helps cover legal fees for officers facing criminal investigations as well.

Sheriffs’ group says ICE’s insurance idea sounds promising
Justin Smith, a former Colorado sheriff who is executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said ICE’s plan sounds promising and that he was anxious to speak with ICE about how the plan would work.

Smith said he has shared concerns with ICE that some sheriffs are reluctant to join the partnerships because of the potential liability at a time when immigration enforcement faces intense public protests and media scrutiny. Smith said others who are partnering with ICE have already started facing legal claims tied to their immigration work, which can be costly whether or not deputies are ultimately found to have done anything wrong.

“Right now, any time you are working on immigration there is going to be a much higher potential for there being problems and having suits and issues,” he said. “They’re recognizing that it is a different environment. And I think trying to be good partners with us as best they can.”

Under their agreements, ICE warns local departments that they are responsible for the costs of incidents that give rise to liability. But it seeks to reduce the risk by saying local officers performing ICE-authorized functions are “acting under color of federal authority,” which would bar lawsuits against individual officers.

The agreements also state that local officers who face civil lawsuits can ask the U.S. Department of Justice to represent them, and that ICE will generally support their requests. But the final decision on whether to do so rests with DOJ.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a longtime ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere.

Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusive dictator, a transactional and personal approach to foreign policy that has defined the Republican’s presidency.

“There is no American interest that I can see in this,” said Dan Fried, an assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration. “On all levels it makes no sense. It undermines the South Koreans, undermines the Japanese, frightens the Taiwanese, unnerves NATO and emboldens the Chinese, not to mention the North Koreans.”

Danny Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific in the Obama administration, said Trump’s decision to side with North Korea, which strongly objects to the annual joint military exercises, is “firmly in the ‘hard-to see-how-it-could-be-worse’ category.”

“It is tragically upside-down. Trump is punishing an ally while encouraging an adversary,” said Russel, now a scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. “He is protecting Kim Jong Un’s sensitive feelings from an unfriendly signal at the expense of U.S.-South Korean security.”

The message it sends to South Koreans
Trump on Sunday ordered the U.S. military to downsize the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which began Monday as scheduled. It wasn’t known which parts of the training were being scaled back.

His announcement baffled many in South Korea, which has been closely allied with the U.S. for decades and where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

It also drew instant criticism from many Democrats in Congress.

“Treating one of America’s closest allies like an adversary weakens our alliances and benefits China and North Korea,” said Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement.

Trump on Monday doubled down, posting a photo of North Korea’s leader speaking on a phone. The caption read: “HEY DONALD … WE COOL, RIGHT?”

Retired U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, who served under Republican and Democratic presidents, said the joint military exercises are critical to deterring North Korea, which has shunned any talks with the U.S. over its nuclear program and has accelerated weapons testing.

“We also don’t want South Korea to draw the conclusion that a nuclear weapons capability is the only guarantee it has to ensure its security,” Wood said.

Matthew Kroenig, who previously served in defense and intelligence positions in Republican and Democratic administrations, said polls show that South Koreans have increasingly supported the idea of pursuing their own nuclear weapons.

“The United States has been working really hard to try to persuade South Korea that they are protected,” said Kroenig, who is now with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. Scaling back the exercises “potentially undermines that message,” he said.

Seoul tried to flatter Trump
Trump’s turnabout came even after the South Koreans worked to flatter the American president, eager to gain favor on critical issues such as trade and defense.

As soon as he sat down in the gilded Oval Office for his meeting with Trump last year, new President Lee Jae Myung praised the room’s elaborate decor. Laying it on thick, Lee affirmed Trump’s assertion that Kim would not have pursued his nuclear ambitions had Trump won a second consecutive term in 2020, while dangling the prospect of an eventual Trump Tower in North Korea.

Trump just hours earlier had appeared to show sympathy for Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who had been ousted from office after imposing martial law in December 2024.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump’s scaling back of the exercises may prompt longtime allies to think more about their own security without U.S. help.

“They are hoping that the American umbrella is there for the future,” said Kupchan, who worked on the National Security Council under Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, “but they have to at least contemplate the idea that Uncle Sam won’t be there for them.”

‘It’s like he wants to burn it all down’
Kupchan said Trump is not mistaken in wanting to have South Korea, as well as the Europeans, contribute more to their defense. But, he said, the president’s unpredictable approach cuts through the solidarity that undergirds those alliances “because he ends up insulting allies.”

Fried said Trump seems unwilling to “take a win” after brow-beating NATO members and Asian allies into increasing their defense spending.

“NATO is building up, South Korea is building up, Japan is building up. Trump has a problem with taking the win,” said Fried, who is currently at the Atlantic Council. “It’s like he wants to burn it all down.”

John Herbst, a former ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush, said the Korea decision shows how inconsistent the Trump administration can be in its policy pronouncements. But in general, he said, the U.S. has maintained long-term alliances.

“If these things grow in frequency and in importance, obviously we will be in the process of taking apart the alliance system, which has served us so well since the end of World War II,” said Herbst, who also is with the Atlantic Council. “But despite some statements which seem to head in that direction, we have not headed there in a consistent, strong way.”

Kupchan agreed.

While the president’s language could be taken as “we’re done with you,” Kupchan said, “the reality is that, at least as of today, Trump has left intact America’s forward bases and its core alliance relationships.”

Whether Trump’s message to South Korea will amount to a meaningful policy change or a fleeting social media post is up in the air.

“He’s an unpredictable president,” Kroenig said. “If we move on and the exercises go as planned and we never hear anything about this again, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

The US is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must pick sides in the artificial intelligence race with China, warning they will be excluded from a US-led coalition if they also sign up for Beijing’s competing framework, according to a US official and an internal draft reviewed by Reuters.

Washington last year launched the Pax Silica initiative aimed at securing supply chains for AI models, semiconductors and critical minerals, amid a fierce technology rivalry with Beijing.

About two dozen countries have joined, including Kazakhstan, a key potential source of critical minerals that has also joined China’s coalition, as well as close US allies such as Japan, Australia, and South Korea.

The draft letter, prepared by the State Department, is addressed to the 35 signatories of a US “AI Opportunity Statement” signed in June, which includes members of the non-binding Pax Silica framework and other countries that have expressed a desire to align cooperation on AI with Washington.

By pressing countries to choose sides, the US hopes to starve China of resources in a race to make the most sophisticated AI, which could be used for military or economic dominance.

Jinping launches World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization

In July, Chinese President ​Xi Jinping launched a rival “World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization,” promoting his country’s open-weight technology as a challenge to US influence over ‌the fast-moving sector.

Kazakhstan is the only country so far known to have joined both initiatives, setting off alarm bells in Washington.

“To be part of everything is to be part of nothing. Signature of the Pax Silica Declaration is not merely a membership subscription, but a commitment,” the letter says, urging countries to “choose deliberately” on AI.

“It cannot be held alongside membership in duplicative initiatives whose expectations conflict with our own,” the letter said, without specifically mentioning China.

Reuters could not determine when the US intends to send the letter or whether it might be amended before sending. The draft was undated.

The State Department told Reuters it would not comment on “purportedly leaked internal documents.”

China’s embassy in Washington said the country opposes politicizing trade and technology issues. “Such actions will only stifle global AI advances and serve no one’s interests,” an embassy spokesperson said.

The Kazakh embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

The Pax Silica agreement aims to push US allies and partners toward joint projects and export controls, and ultimately reduce reliance on adversaries for critical minerals, AI models, and the semiconductor chips that power them.

The race between the US and China for technological leadership has reached a pivotal moment, as Chinese open-weight AI models have made rapid gains against proprietary systems from US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The exponential growth of the technology’s capabilities, including the ability to hack autonomously, has forced a global reckoning over its power.

Beijing is weighing restrictions on overseas access to some ​of China’s leading AI models, highlighting the growing tension with its stringent national security agenda.

The US touted Kazakhstan in June as the first country in Central Asia to join Pax Silica, bringing significant reserves of critical minerals that fuel advanced technologies.

China wielding critical mineral supply against Trump tariffs

China has used its current near-monopolies over critical minerals as a retaliatory weapon in a tariff war launched last year by US President Donald Trump, who has ramped up US efforts to source the minerals domestically and from allies.

Members of Pax Silica have access to shared investment opportunities in AI-related projects while those who sign the AI Opportunity Statement have symbolically agreed on a “common purpose” and “shared vision” with the US, according to the statement posted on the State Department’s website.

US officials drafted the letter to make clear that “you can’t have it both ways,” the US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity given ongoing internal discussions on the issue.

“It’s difficult to see how a country can credibly position themselves as trusted partners in one technology ecosystem while simultaneously signing up for an initiative designed by China to advance a competing vision for AI,” the official said.

This post was originally published on here.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is legally contesting her siblings’ plan to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% minority ownership stake in the team to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, according to a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

ESPN and The Athletic first reported that the siblings had voted to sell the family trust’s remaining interest in the 17-time NBA champion team purchased by their father, Jerry Buss, in 1979. The decision would end Jeanie Buss’ tenure as the Lakers’ governor because that job requires at least 15% ownership of the team.

Jeannie Buss’ attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to representatives for her five siblings to state that any decision to sell the family trust’s ownership stake could not be “effectuated without approval of the current co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”

The letter further states that the co-trustees “are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise, and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

Jeanie Buss has been the Lakers’ governor since Jerry Buss’ death in 2013, and she led the family’s decision to sell a controlling stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year at a valuation of $10 billion. Walter, who is under federal investigation for tax issues, abruptly reached a deal earlier this month to flip the Lakers to Kushner and Iger at a valuation of $12.5 billion, another record for a pro sports team.

Venture capitalist Kushner and former Disney CEO Iger are reportedly buying about 65% of the team from Walter. They would own about 83% if they reach a deal with the Buss siblings — and Jeanie Buss would lose the governor role that she had been slated to keep at least through 2030 under the deal with Walter.

The Buss siblings have been in frequent conflict since their father’s death, with Jeanie firing Jim from his job as the Lakers’ head of basketball operations in 2017, followed a week later by a lawsuit against her brothers amid an attempt by Jim and Johnny to oust Jeanie from her role as the Lakers’ controlling owner.

Not all of the six Buss siblings were in favor of the sale to Walter, and Joey and Jesse were fired from their front-office jobs with the team last November.

The siblings say they voted this month to sell their family’s remaining interest in the Lakers, but Jeanie Buss claims any vote is void. ESPN reported that Jeanie Buss was the only sibling who didn’t support the final sale.

“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family said in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles, but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”

In his letter, Streisand said Joey and Jesse Buss have leaked information to ESPN for many years “for the malicious purpose of doing harm to the Los Angeles Lakers so long as Dr. Buss’s chosen successor, Jeanie Buss, carries out her father’s wishes.”

Jerry Buss was a chemist and real estate investor who bought the Lakers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the Forum arena from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million. The Lakers quickly entered a renaissance in which they became known for their flashy “Showtime” style of play while winning five NBA titles between 1980 and 1988 behind Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

While the NBA and professional sports became increasingly more corporate, the Lakers remained essentially a family business despite their massive profile and steady success. Jerry Buss and the Lakers have employed many of the basketball world’s greatest players and coaches of the past five decades, and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to five additional championships between 2000 and 2010 before LeBron James added the 17th in 2020.

The sale agreement with Kushner and Iger still must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors, and the process could take months.

(AP) – A U.S. judge on Monday blocked plans to move the FBI’s headquarters to a federal office building in Washington, finding that President Donald Trump’s administration illegally tossed out a previously approved plan to build a new facility nearby in Maryland.

The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over where to house the main office for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, was picked during former President Joe Biden’s administration, but Trump appointees sought to reverse that decision last year in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office complex a few blocks from the FBI’s existing headquarters.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled that the move was “ not in accordance with law,” and blocked the Trump administration from moving the FBI to the Reagan building, renovating it for the FBI or repurposing funds.

Department of Justice and FBI officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George’s County.

“Maryland and Prince George’s County committed more than a decade of work to earn the FBI headquarters and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. “By blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, said, “Now it is time to stop the games and get to work building the world-class FBI headquarters that our public servants deserve, where it belongs: in Prince George’s County, Maryland.”

The FBI’s current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.

The Maryland location was selected over nearby Virginia following an intense competition between the two states.

Israel’s security establishment is preparing for the possibility of a renewed deterioration with Iran as the 60-day period connected to the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding draws to a close without a clear agreement on Iran’s nuclear program or the Strait of Hormuz.

Security officials told Walla that it remains unclear whether President Trump will approve another extension of the negotiating period or move toward unilateral action. Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir have therefore instructed the military to prepare for all scenarios, both defensive and offensive.

The IDF Intelligence Directorate has updated its warning models regarding Iran and refreshed its target bank, while the Operations Directorate, Planning Directorate and Israeli Air Force have sharpened their assessments and coordination with the U.S. military and countries in the region.

A senior Military Intelligence officer recently warned that the situation could deteriorate at any time, stressing that the IDF must remain prepared. The officer’s original assessment was that deterioration could come “within a few hours, days, weeks or months.”

“We were suspicious throughout the ceasefire, and we remain suspicious now,” another security official familiar with the regional tensions said.

The memorandum signed in June called for an “immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts,” but the arrangement quickly began to unravel. President Trump said on July 7 that the agreement was “over,” while Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of violating its commitments.

The 60-day period was not intended to automatically end the ceasefire, but rather served as an extendable window during which the United States and Iran were expected to reach a broader final agreement, including on the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Zionist Organization of America National President Morton A. Klein is sharply condemning Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation over millions of dollars in grants to progressive Jewish organizations that Klein says undermine Israel and place Jews at risk.

Klein, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, issued the criticism following an exposé by Israeli-American activist, Betar leader and ZOA Coalition member Ronn Torossian titled “Where Schindler’s List Money Went.”

Torossian’s report examined IRS Form 990 filings from the Righteous Persons Foundation and detailed millions of dollars distributed to various organizations. Spielberg established the foundation with profits generated by Schindler’s List, his acclaimed film about the Holocaust and German industrialist Oskar Schindler’s rescue of Jews during World War II.

“This misuse of monies from Spielberg’s Holocaust film is despicable, shameful and frightening,” Klein charged.

Klein said the origins of the foundation’s money make the grants particularly disturbing, arguing that some of the organizations receiving the funds are pursuing agendas that threaten the very people whose survival was chronicled in Spielberg’s film.

“The brave German industrialist Oskar Schindler and the Jews whom Schindler saved must be rolling over in their graves,” he added. “The descendants of ‘Schindler’s Jews’ are now endangered by the organizations funded with Spielberg’s profits.”

Among the organizations identified in Torossian’s report, according to Klein, are Bend the Arc, which reportedly received $1.2 million; Jews United for Justice, which received approximately $925,000; T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, which received roughly $690,000; and the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, which received about $250,000.

Klein singled out Bend the Arc for particularly strong criticism, pointing to the organization’s opposition to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism as well as its political activism. He noted that Bend the Arc’s political arm endorsed Zohran Mamdani during his campaign for New York City mayor and assisted his candidacy through fundraising, canvassing and advertising.

The ZOA leader also attacked T’ruah, accusing the organization of repeatedly adopting positions antagonistic toward Israel. Klein pointed to its criticism of Israeli military operations in Gaza, opposition to the IHRA antisemitism definition, partnership with Breaking the Silence and activism involving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Klein further charged that T’ruah and similar organizations supported wartime campaigns aimed at preventing weapons sales to Israel, arguing that efforts to restrict Israel’s access to arms endangered Israeli and Jewish lives.

He additionally took aim at T’ruah’s campaign challenging the tax-exempt status of pro-Israel Jewish charities and its emphasis on what the organization calls “settler violence” in Judea and Samaria. Klein vehemently rejected that description, calling it a “blood libel” that he said misrepresents incidents surrounding attacks on Jews.

According to Klein, his review of the Righteous Persons Foundation’s tax filings uncovered financial support for other organizations that he considers hostile to Israel, including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Klein criticized the JCPA for leading a letter opposing Trump administration measures directed at anti-Israel activity on American college campuses. He described the administration’s actions as attempts to stop Hamas supporters from targeting Jewish students.

Klein argued that the controversy is made especially troubling by the history behind the money used to establish the foundation. Spielberg has said that he did not personally take a salary for Schindler’s List, with profits connected to the movie instead helping fund charitable projects focused on Jewish causes and Holocaust remembrance.

The ZOA president contrasted the grants documented in Torossian’s report with what he described as a lack of financial support for organizations dedicated to publicly defending Israel, protecting Jewish college students and combating attacks on the Jewish state.

Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation “apparently gives no grants to Jewish organizations that defend Israel against libels and demonization, protect Jewish students on college campuses, protect Jewish safety, and truly stand up for the besieged Jewish descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors,” Klein charged.

“Shameful,” he concluded.

{Matzav.com}

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the US war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday.

Just 33% of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 64% disapproved. Trump’s approval rating, down from 35% in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower than at any point in his current term, has now tied the lowest level of his prior term reached in December 2017.

After returning to the White House last year with just under half the country approving of his presidency, Trump’s popularity this year took a hit after he ordered strikes on Iran alongside US ally Israel.

The ensuing conflict paralyzed a fifth of the global oil trade, triggering a surge in the price of gasoline which is weighing on US households – and on Trump’s Republican allies defending congressional majorities in November midterm elections.

Trump pledged no long-lasting wars in his presidential campaign

Trump, who campaigned on promises to keep inflation in check and avoid long-lasting wars, initially pledged the conflict with Iran would take a few weeks, and argued the war was the only way to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon that could threaten the world.

But Iran has proved resilient and has kept the oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz largely bottled up even as the conflict has cooled.

Some 80% of Americans – including 87% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans – think US involvement in Iran “will go on for an extended period of time,” the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Just 16% said the conflict would likely end in a few weeks.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 1,166 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

This post was originally published on here.

A ceiling fan spinning overhead is supposed to disappear into the background. This one can send a blade into the room.

About 9,460 Hampton Bay Halwin 52-inch indoor/outdoor ceiling fans are being recalled because the fan blades can separate from the motor assembly while the unit is running, creating an impact hazard for anyone underneath.

The affected models are AK396H-MBK and AK396H-BN, sold through Home Depot. Federal safety regulators are telling consumers to stop using the fans immediately and contact the company for a refund or Home Depot store credit.

The danger is straightforward. A ceiling fan operates under constant rotational force, and even a relatively lightweight blade becomes a fast-moving object once it breaks loose. That turns a hardware defect above a dining room, bedroom, patio or family room into a direct injury risk.

The recall is especially important because there may be no obvious warning before failure. A fan can appear to be working normally until the connection holding a blade to the motor assembly gives way.

That makes this different from a defect consumers can reasonably monitor while continuing to use the product.

Owners should first check the model number on the fan and compare it with the recall information. If the unit matches one of the affected models, the safest response is to shut it off and leave it off until the recall remedy is completed.

Consumers should also avoid standing beneath the fan while inspecting it and should not attempt to reinforce or repair the blade connection themselves unless the manufacturer specifically provides an approved repair procedure.

The recall reaches beyond indoor rooms because the Halwin model was marketed for both indoor and outdoor use. That means affected fans may be installed on covered patios, porches and other spaces where families spend long periods directly beneath them.

For homeowners, landlords and contractors, there is another practical consideration: recalled fixtures can remain installed long after purchase records are lost. Anyone managing multiple properties should check the fan itself rather than assume an older installation is not covered.

Home Depot customers with an affected unit are eligible for a refund or store credit under the recall remedy.

The key point is simple: this is not a cosmetic defect and not a product consumers should continue using until it becomes inconvenient to replace.

A fan blade that can detach at full speed belongs off, not overhead.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

The Trump administration established a secret line of communication with senior figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after US officials concluded that the Iranian representatives participating in negotiations did not have the authority to make a binding agreement, according to a report.

The outreach came as American negotiators grew increasingly frustrated during discussions with Tehran and began questioning whether their Iranian counterparts actually represented the views of the IRGC, Axios reported.

Seeking a direct path to those wielding power inside Iran, the administration turned to Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Barzani was considered a trusted figure by both Washington and the IRGC and was asked to help connect the United States with Iran’s true decision-makers, three sources told Axios.

The effort highlighted a central challenge confronting the White House as it seeks to negotiate an end to the war: determining who inside Iran has the authority to make commitments and finding intermediaries trusted by both Washington and the increasingly powerful IRGC.

The conflict has severely depleted Iran’s senior leadership while further consolidating the Revolutionary Guard’s influence. When the White House initially pursued an agreement in May, US officials reportedly discovered that the Iranian negotiators with whom they were dealing lacked the authority to finalize a deal and could be overruled by the IRGC.

Tulsi Gabbard, who was serving as director of national intelligence at the time, sought Barzani’s assistance because of his extensive connections inside Iran. According to the report, she wanted him to determine whether IRGC Commander Ahmad Vahidi supported the proposals being presented by Iranian negotiators or whether the Revolutionary Guard chief was demanding different terms.

Gabbard had previously been unable to establish direct contact with Vahidi. Barzani subsequently convinced the IRGC to facilitate communication between the two.

American officials also sought Barzani’s help in arranging secret face-to-face negotiations between high-ranking US and Iranian representatives in Erbil, Iraq.

Those clandestine talks ultimately never occurred because Iranian officials were reportedly concerned that Israeli intelligence could discover the meeting and attempt to assassinate them.

Barzani has continued his efforts to facilitate diplomacy, sending messages to the White House indicating that he is prepared to assist in restarting negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

US-Iran discussions have continued through other channels, with Pakistan and Qatar acting as intermediaries between the two countries. Despite those ongoing diplomatic efforts, however, the negotiations have so far produced little substantive progress.

Swig, the Utah-born beverage chain that helped popularize “dirty soda,” is finding some of its strongest growth well beyond its home state.

Andrew K. Smith, managing director and co-founder of restaurant-focused private equity firm Savory Fund, told FOX Business that Swig locations outside Utah are performing roughly 40% to 50% better than stores within the state.

The chain now operates in 23 states and expects to reach about 200 locations by the end of the year, Smith said, with additional expansion planned for next year.

Swig is best known for highly customizable drinks, particularly “dirty sodas” — fountain drinks mixed with flavored syrups, cream and other add-ins. The concept has surged in popularity in recent years, fueled in part by social media and pop culture.

Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which puts Utah culture in the national spotlight, also helped introduce dirty soda to a broader audience.

“We actually were doing very, very well before ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,'” Smith said with a laugh. “But ’The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ definitely made, I think, the appeal and the interest and the mystique of dirty soda much more broad.”

Smith said Savory Fund’s investment in Swig was not simply a bet on soda. Instead, he sees the company benefiting from a broader shift in how Americans purchase their beverages.

Coffee followed a similar evolution, he said, going from something consumers routinely made at home to a premium and customizable product that they increasingly purchased from chains like Starbucks.

“Really what Swig is, and what it was, was the ‘Starbucksification’ of soda, teas and lemonades,” Smith said.

Savory Fund manages more than $750 million in assets and has invested in restaurant brands including Swig, R&R BBQ, Mo’ Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food, Via 313 Pizzeria and PINCHO.

More recently, the firm invested in Zao Asian Grill, a 23-location Mountain West fast-casual chain that Smith believes could also expand well beyond its current footprint.

For Savory Fund, the goal is not simply to find the next trendy concept, according to Smith.

“As investors, and other investors that I would speak for, we don’t chase concepts, and we’re not chasing the right brand,” Smith said. “We’re backing exceptional founders, and we help them build enduring brands for our consumers.”

Smith also said consumers across Savory Fund’s portfolio have not stopped spending, but they are looking more closely at whether the food, service and overall experience justify the price they are paying.

“If you paid $20 for a meal, and you sit down, and you’re like, this looks more like $11, they feel like they got kind of scammed,” he said. “…You’ve got to make sure that your value on the plate is the same as the dollars that they’re giving.”

Smith added, “Restaurants are one of the best real-time indicators of consumer confidence, because millions of decisions happen every day in this industry.”

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Google is purchasing a large collection of internal business data from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million, according to court filings and statements from the company.

The deal covers employee emails, calendar information, chats, documents, spreadsheets, marketing records, operations data, software code and related enterprise materials. The information will be thoroughly deidentified by a third party to remove any personal details before the transfer. The purchase excludes passenger profiles, loyalty records and other customer information.

Google said it plans to use the dataset to improve its products and train artificial intelligence models. “We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models,” a Google spokesperson said. “We will not receive any personal information from this dataset. Any data we receive will be rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt.”

Spirit Airlines ceased operations in May after failing to recover from high debt and elevated fuel costs. The carrier has been liquidating remaining assets through bankruptcy proceedings. Google’s successful bid exceeded a competing $7.5 million offer from Mercor, an artificial intelligence-focused firm.

A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to approve the sale.

A sacred silence filled the room, broken only by the Rebbe’s voice. Sefarim were piled on the table, from which the Rebbe, the Chukei Chaim of Shomrei Emunim, cites sources supporting his remarkable predictions about what would unfold during the period of Ikvesa D’Meshicha. Ahead of his yahrtzeit on Monday evening, the fifth of Elul, when masses of Jews are expected to visit his kever on Har Hazeisim, HaRav Yisrael Pinchas Tirnauer shares revelations from the Rebbe’s sichos delivered from 2010–2012.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 97b) mentions the “Wars of the Taninim” that will take place ahead of the Geulah. Based on the Yalkut Shimoni regarding Mordechai’s dream, the Rebbe explained that this refers to a worldwide religious war that will erupt before the war of Gog and Magog.

The central force behind this war, as the Rebbe foresaw many years ago, would be Persia — modern-day Iran. The Rebbe noted that the gematria of “Milchemes Tanninim” is exactly equal to “the war between Yishmael and Eisav.” Explaining the words of Targum Yonasan ben Uziel — “This is Persia, which is destined to fall and will have no standing” — he said that Persia would suffer a decisive defeat from which it would not recover, and that from there the yeshuah of Klal Yisrael would emerge.

The Rebbe added a remarkable point: The country had always been known as “Persia,” until one day its name was changed to “Iran.” The Rebbe explained that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought about the name change in order to sweeten the decree, since the harsh nevuah was stated specifically about “Persia.” Therefore, he said, “B’ezras Hashem, they will have no power over Israel.”

In a sichah on Erev Rosh Hashanah 2012, his final year in this world, the Rebbe called upon Jews in the Diaspora to move to Eretz Yisrael. “It is true that in Eretz Yisrael we need rachamim, but outside Eretz Yisrael we need much more rachamim. After all, it is written, ‘On Har Tzion there will be refuge, and it will be holy.’”

The Rebbe recommended that even those unable to move to Eretz Yisrael purchase apartments there so they would have a place of refuge at the time of the Geulah.

The Rebbe emphasized complete confidence that there would be no further Galus or destruction of Klal Yisrael, chas v’shalom. He pointed to the open nissim in Eretz Yisrael, where thousands of missiles and bombs had fallen while causing relatively little damage, compared with the 1948 War, when much smaller bombs fell and caused severe casualties.

“At the time of the Geulah, we will see even greater nissim,” he promised. “Even if they drop atomic bombs, the bomb will remain suspended in the air in order to show Hashem’s power to the world.”

The Rebbe closely followed world events, viewing them as signs of the collapse of the spiritual powers of the nations. He pointed to the fall of the rulers of Iraq and Egypt as a clear fulfillment of the words of the Baal HaTurim on the passuk, “Before all his brothers he fell” — when Yishmael falls at the End of Days, Ben Dovid will arise.

Regarding regional tensions, Rav Chaim Tzvi Feldman related that the Rebbe told him that he was not afraid of Egypt or Turkey, although he foresaw that there would yet be a “big game” with Turkey and warned of tunnels from Egypt. The Rebbe repeatedly emphasized: “Whoever is in Eretz Yisrael will be saved from all harm.”

The Rebbe concluded his words with a stirring call: The air is already fragrant with the scent of Moshiach, and our task is to hold fast to the craft of our forefathers — tefillah, teshuvah and strengthening our emunah — so that we may merit to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu with rachamim and revealed chesed.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Heading off to college is exciting, but it also involves new adult responsibilities. That makes it a great time to start getting comfortable with credit, building healthy spending habits and learning how to manage money.

It’s important for all students to build a solid foundation in managing their finances, said Sara Wilson, director of product innovation at Student Connections, an organization that helps students overcome financial barriers.

“You have to consider the financial decisions you make in college because they impact what your financial security is going to be once you enter your first job,” Wilson said.

If you’re starting college this fall or you’re currently a student, here are some expert recommendations:

1. Start building your credit

College is the perfect time to start building your credit score, said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. A credit score is a mathematical formula that helps lenders determine how likely you are to pay back a loan. Credit scores are based on your credit history and range from 300 to 850. A low credit score makes it more complicated or more expensive to obtain car loans, mortgages, credit cards, auto insurance, and other financial services.

“College is an ideal time to start building a credit report, because the earlier you start, the more time you have for that credit to build and then work in your favor when you eventually need it, whether it’s for a loan or an apartment,” Alev said.

Alev recommends starting your credit card journey with secured credit cards. These credit cards are opened with a one-time deposit that serves as collateral. This first deposit is usually returned when the user closes the account with zero balance or when they move to an unsecured credit card with the same bank. Another starting option is student credit cards, which are easier to qualify for and tend to come with lower credit limits.

Regardless of the type of credit card you open, the No. 1 goal is to only spend what you can afford to pay off each month, Alev said.

2. Budget as much as you can

During college, you might have multiple sources of income, whether from a part-time job, a financial aid stipend or family support. Having multiple or irregular streams of income might make it difficult to manage your finances, but budgeting is still a crucial step toward achieving financial stability.

You can budget by using an app, creating a spreadsheet or simply writing your expenses down on paper. No matter the format, it’s important for your budget to include your earnings and spending each month. Having a specific financial goal in mind can help you stay motivated to budget.

“Budgeting is simply creating a plan to get what you want with your money,” Wilson said. “Figuring out what you want, then the plan that you need to follow to get there.”

To help juggle multiple sources of income, students should divide their monthly bills by four so they have a target for the amount they need to set aside each week, said Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance, a financial wellness service.

For example, if rent is due on the first of the month and it’s $1,000, that means you need to save $250 each week. Dividing your bills can help you manage your money when your income is inconsistent throughout the semester.

3. Start saving

While it might be difficult to earn extra income while you’re in college, creating an emergency fund can save you a headache down the road. Many students can get excited about the idea of investing, but before diving fully into it, Alev recommends that you have a savings cushion.

“The power of that compounding interest and the growth of the economy can really pay off over time, and it’s so important, but an emergency fund is going to serve your immediate needs,” Alev said. She suggests that you aim to have enough savings to cover rent and other essentials for a few months before starting to invest.

4. Talk about money with your friends

One of the most exciting aspects of college is the new friends you meet. As you’re building new friendships, Bryan-Podvin recommends that you practice open communication about your financial journey.

“It can feel really hard to say ‘I can’t afford that or that’s not a priority for me,’” Bryan-Podvin said.

Being transparent about your finances can help you avoid feeling pressured to spend above your means.

Bryan-Podvin recommends that you clarify your spending priorities to make it easier to avoid overspending. For example, if you pay for a gym membership because it makes you feel better, keep this expense in mind when you have to say no to ordering takeout with your roommates.

5. Have a plan for your student loans

While paying back student loans begins after graduation, it’s crucial that you have a plan while you’re still in college. Having a plan includes knowing how much you’re borrowing each semester, what your expected total repayment amount is and how much your monthly payments will be once you graduate.

“As long as you understand what you’re getting into and you’re making a plan for how to navigate and manage it, you’re an informed consumer of that debt,” Wilson said.

How much you borrow in student loans will affect your financial life after graduation, so it’s crucial that you don’t put off understanding the cost of the loans.

6. Take advantage of the resources that your school provides

Universities typically have a number of resources, so it’s best to take advantage of them while you’re in school, said Phil Schuman, executive director at the Higher Education Financial Wellness Alliance.

“The nice thing about the system that you have on your campus is the people aren’t going to judge you,” Schuman said. “Their job is to help you figure out what the solution is to your question, and they’re going to point you in the right direction.”

Whether your question is about financial aid or budgeting, making sure you’re tapping into the free resources on campus can help smooth your financial journey. You can typically find resources at your school’s library, student life office or recreation center.

7. Don’t panic if you make a mistake on your financial journey

Mistakes happen to everyone, not only students. But what is important is that you know how to cope when you make a mistake, Schuman said.

Managing your finances is a learning process that will continue well beyond your college years. But starting your journey in college can help you kickstart that learning process.

“Mistakes will happen,” Schuman said. “Give yourself grace. Nobody is perfect when it comes to their finances, so don’t feel like you have to be as well. Talk to somebody, acknowledge it, and then figure out what you can do moving forward to right the wrong next time.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing legislation that would effectively dismantle Amazon’s network of independent delivery contractors in New York City, even as his own administration relies extensively on outside companies to provide workers for essential city services, the NY Post reports.

Mamdani has argued that Amazon’s use of delivery contractors amounts to exploitation. Yet when City Hall obtains workers through private employers to carry out government functions, the administration treats the arrangement as ordinary contracting.

The Delivery Protection Act, sponsored by City Council Member Tiffany Cabán and backed by Mamdani, would require Amazon and other companies operating last-mile facilities to directly employ workers performing core warehouse and delivery functions.

If enacted, the measure would effectively eliminate Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner program within the five boroughs.

Amazon says it currently works with more than 40 locally operated delivery companies that collectively employ over 5,000 New Yorkers.

Under Amazon’s current arrangement, the retailer contracts with those independent businesses, which then employ their own drivers. Most of those drivers are traditional employees rather than independent gig workers.

Cabán’s legislation would terminate the Amazon arrangements on which those delivery companies depend, potentially putting some of the businesses themselves at risk of closure.

Amazon would be required to offer positions to affected drivers, but the legislation would not guarantee that those workers retain their existing schedules, routes, benefits or level of job security.

Critics contend that the legislation also exposes a significant contradiction in Mamdani’s position because New York City itself routinely uses outside employers to supply workers.

The Mamdani administration, for example, contracted with an outside company to provide 109 temporary professionals for homeless services under an $8.46 million renewal that remained in effect through June 30.

City Hall also renewed an $11 million citywide trucking agreement under which an outside contractor supplies drivers and other labor.

Both arrangements operate on essentially the same structure being targeted at Amazon: A large entity contracts with an independent business, which employs workers who then perform the required services.

In City Hall’s case, such an arrangement is classified as government procurement. Mamdani, however, has characterized Amazon’s version of subcontracting as exploitation.

Supporters of the Amazon restrictions have cited workplace injuries and traffic safety problems associated with last-mile delivery operations, but critics argue that the evidence does not establish subcontracting itself as the cause.

The city comptroller’s office found a rate of 9.2 injuries per 100 full-time-equivalent workers among Amazon delivery contractors. However, the analysis did not compare that figure with injury rates among directly employed delivery workers or establish that changing the workers’ employer would improve safety.

Traffic data cited in support of the measure has similarly drawn questions. The comptroller found that crashes resulting in injuries increased near 14 of 18 last-mile facilities following their opening, but the study did not determine that vehicles associated with those facilities were responsible for the crashes.

Critics therefore argue that even if legitimate problems exist within last-mile delivery operations, there is insufficient evidence that the subcontracting structure causes them — particularly enough evidence to justify eliminating dozens of independent delivery companies.

Amazon, meanwhile, says its rate of serious crashes in New York City declined 35.7% between 2024 and 2025 after its delivery contractors implemented camera-based warning systems and driver coaching.

Opponents of the legislation contend that Mamdani is using concerns about safety to justify a fundamental restructuring of the employment model despite failing to demonstrate that the two issues are connected.

The proposed law would nevertheless impose sweeping changes on delivery operators.

Companies covered by the measure would be barred from outsourcing core warehouse and delivery operations and would be subject to extensive requirements governing worker retention and training. During the transition, operators could also face a $500,000 bond for every covered delivery worker not placed directly on their payroll.

At the same time, the legislation provides no comparable protection for owners of the independent delivery companies whose Amazon business could disappear under the new rules.

One such operator is Rudy Cazares, who runs an Amazon Delivery Service Partner business while also contracting with FedEx.

Cazares told The Post that his company employs approximately 130 W-2 workers, with starting wages of $23.75 per hour.

Under the Cabán-Mamdani proposal, his Amazon delivery business would not simply face additional regulation; its existing business model would effectively cease to be permitted.

Critics also point to a significant exemption written into the legislation: Government entities are excluded from its definition of a “facility operator.”

That exemption is particularly consequential because New York City depends heavily on outside contractors to carry out a vast range of public functions.

During fiscal year 2025, the city comptroller registered approximately 12,500 new procurement contracts with a combined multiyear face value of $42.3 billion.

In fiscal year 2024 alone, New York City spent approximately $8 billion on contractors providing human services.

Those agreements extend well beyond peripheral government work. City Hall relies on outside organizations to provide services that the city itself considers fundamental public responsibilities, including homeless shelters, mental-health programs and foster care.

Even Mamdani’s signature proposal for government-backed grocery stores is expected to rely on private operators contracted to manage the locations for the city.

Supporters of subcontracting argue that specialized outside businesses — including delivery companies — can offer expertise, flexibility and knowledge of local communities that large centralized organizations may struggle to provide.

Critics say Mamdani’s approach instead assumes that eliminating the intermediary employer automatically benefits workers, without adequately accounting for the independent businesses and jobs that could disappear in the process.

The economic consequences could also extend directly to New York City households. Estimates cited by opponents suggest the legislation could increase costs by as much as $664 per household annually.

Because the requirement would apply only within New York City, delivery companies could also find neighboring New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester County more attractive locations for their operations.

Warehouses located outside the five boroughs could continue delivering packages to city residents, but from greater distances.

That could produce longer delivery routes, additional vehicle mileage, higher operating expenses and increased traffic and emissions — potentially undermining the environmental arguments being made in favor of the legislation.

Small businesses, working-class customers and delivery employees could ultimately bear much of the cost and disruption created by those changes.

Critics argue that City Hall has a less disruptive alternative: directly regulate unsafe or abusive practices wherever they occur while permitting subcontracting arrangements that meet appropriate labor and safety standards, much as the city does with its own contractors.

The central challenge for Mamdani, they contend, is consistency. If subcontracting is inherently exploitative, the same principle should apply to New York City government. If it is not, City Hall should not selectively prohibit the practice when private companies such as Amazon use it.

We can no longer remain silent while the kavod of our shul is publicly trampled. The behavior taking place in our shuls during davening has crossed every line of decency. It is shocking, disgusting, and an absolute chillul Hashem.

Have we fallen so incredibly low that people are no longer embarrassed to commit a blatant dvar issur  in public for all to see?

To stand in a Tallis (and tefillin on weekdays) facing the Shechinah, while casually holding and sipping a hot drink is a total slap in the face to the Ribono shel Olam. We are supposed to be accepting the ol malchus Shamayim, but instead, we are treating the shul like a boardwalk cafe.

Look in the Mirror:

• • No Shame in a Public Aveirah: The poskim state explicitly that drinking after Baruch She’amar is an issur. Yet, people openly parade their coffee down the aisles, completely unbothered that they are doing an aveirah in front of the entire kehillah. Where is the basic boosha (shame)?
  • Zero Self-Control: Is the addiction to caffeine so severe that you literally cannot finish your coffee before davening? If you cannot wake up ten minutes earlier to drink your coffee like a civilized person, stay in the coffee room.
  • A Complete Zilzul: You would never dare walk into a courtroom or a meeting with a king holding a cup of coffee. Yet, standing before the Melech Malchei HaMelachim, you feel entirely comfortable sipping a latte. It is a sickening display of disrespect.

This massive Chillul Hashem must stop today. If you cannot respect the Ribono shel Olam, at least respect the tzibbur trying to daven. Leave the coffee outside the doors, or do not come inside until you are done.
A Pained Member of the Kehillah

The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are planning to move after the Likud primaries to remove Chareidi party members who are not viewed as genuine Likud supporters, Kan News reported Monday evening.

The move follows cooperation between Chareidi Likud membership organizers and MK David Bitan in arranging voting “deals” during the primaries. Netanyahu had until now remained silent about the activity, but his associates are now expected to identify groups of registered members who have expressed support for other parties, and could even seek to invalidate entire registration drives on the grounds that those involved are not genuine Likud voters.

The effort is reminiscent of previous Likud campaigns against organized groups that joined the party’s membership rolls without being considered loyal party voters.

At the same time, several ministers and MKs appeared on recommendation lists circulated by prominent Chareidi organizers, whose support can provide candidates with significant backing and organized transportation to polling stations.

Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen appeared on a Gur list due to his support regarding travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Hanoch Milwidsky appeared on several Chareidi organizers’ lists because of his position on the Finance Committee and his public support for the Chareidi community.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin also appeared on several lists, with the report linking his support among Chareidi organizers to their backing for the judicial reform and his criticism of the judicial system.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Less than one week after Mark Walter shockingly sold the Los Angeles Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, the Buss family is now relinquishing its own shares to the new majority owners. 

At least, most of the Buss family wish to do so. 

Earlier on Monday, ESPN reported the Buss family decided to sell the remaining 17.8% ownership stake in the iconic NBA franchise to Kushner and Iger. 

The family’s trust, which includes siblings Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse, “received majority votes to allow trustees to execute the sale.” The vote required four of six to agree to sell to “enact the tag-along provision of Mark Walter’s sale to Kushner and Iger, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion.”

The outlet added that, once the transaction has been completed, Jeanie Buss will no longer have a required ownership percentage to remain the governor of the Lakers. 

“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family told ESPN in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles; but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”

“As a family” doesn’t seem to be the case now. Jeanie Buss’s lawyer wrote a letter to the lawyers of her siblings explaining why she believes they can’t sell their minority stake to the new Lakers majority owners, according to CNBC.

In the last paragraph of that letter, the attorney writes, “On behalf of Jeanie Buss, I demand that your clients make clear publicly that Jeanie Buss is the Controlling Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and that your clients shall take no action on this supposed ‘vote’ to sell the 17.8% stake.”

ESPN added later Monday night that Jeanie Buss “was the lone family member not in favor to sell as the five siblings voted 5-0 – including two of the three trustees – to sell the Buss stake.” 

Walter’s time as majority owner came to an end a year after purchasing the stake from the Buss family. 

In June 2025, the Buss family decided to sell the Lakers to Walter for a then-record $10 billion. There was, however, some in the Buss family who felt misled by Jeanie in what they characterized as a rushed sale, per ESPN. They felt pressured to vote for the sale to go through. 

In the end, all six siblings said “yes” to the sale, which closed in October 2025. The sale gave each sibling $500 million post-tax. 

Within the sale to Walter, Buss was allowed to remain the governor of the Lakers given the 17.8% ownership stake still intact. 

But Walter’s surprise sale of the Lakers comes amid a federal investigation into the Guggenheim Partners CEO. It was reported that the FBI recently seized Walter’s phone and laptop, as well as a high-ranking Guggenheim Investments executive’s this past year. 

Some are viewing the Lakers’ sale as a quick way to liquify assets for Walter with potential legal problems ahead. 

The Financial Times also reported Monday that Walter and his business partner, Todd Boehly, are looking to sell their stakes in the English Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club.  

As part of this new addition to the deal that includes the Buss family shares, Kushner and Iger will roughly control 83% of the Lakers. They were slated to have 65% of control with just Walter’s shares. 

Kushner, 41, is the founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, as well as co-founder and vice-chairman of Oscar Health. He is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump. 

Iger, 75, is the former CEO of Disney, where he led the company to the acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox, to name a few.   

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Flock cameras have been getting increasing attention nationwide, with police departments touting the technology as another tool to help solve crimes, while others have raised concerns about privacy and the growing use of automated license plate readers. The cameras are designed to capture license plates and vehicle information, which can then assist law enforcement in investigations.

The debate has also made its way into the local spotlight, as reported on TLS last week: Brick Police arrested a 32-year-old Brick man accused of cutting down a Flock camera.

With these cameras becoming more common in communities across the country, the debate over their use is likely to continue.

What do you think: are Flock cameras an important tool for keeping communities safe, or do they go too far when it comes to privacy and surveillance?

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged US President Donald Trump in a call to continue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, and offered Ankara’s support in peace efforts, the Turkish presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The two discussed the wars in Iran and Gaza, the defense pact signed between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and bilateral ties.

Cumhurbaşkanımız Sayın Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Başkanı Donald Trump ile bir telefon görüşmesi gerçekleştirdi.

Liderler görüşmede, Türkiye-ABD ikili ilişkileri ile bölgesel ve küresel gelişmeleri ele aldı.

Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan, İran ile ABD arasındaki…

— T.C. İletişim Başkanlığı (@iletisim) August 17, 2026

During the call Erdogan reportedly told Trump to continue talks with Iran, saying that “it is of great importance to make the utmost use of diplomacy in the tensions between Iran and the United States, that we hope the talks will continue,” and adding that Turkey will support peace efforts.

Additionally, Turkey’s foreign minister spoke with his Iranian counterpart in a call on Tuesday, with the pair discussing efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz and to continue the US-Iran ceasefire.

Erdogan condemned continued IDF operations in Gaza

Speaking about the war in Gaza, Erdogan said that Israel was continuing to attack Palestinians when the second phase of Trump’s peace plan was supposed to have taken effect.

“At a time when we aim to move to the second stage in the Gaza peace process, there has been an increase in actions by the Israeli administration targeting Palestinians, and that Turkey will continue to support steps toward lasting peace in the region and the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said.

Erdogan also spoke with Trump about the recent Joint Defense Agreement that was signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan earlier this month. This “demonstrated a strong stance for ensuring regional stability and security,” he said.

On Sunday, Trump took to Truth Social to commend the three countries on the signing of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, adding that it “shows how the Middle East is coming together, and how Countries will finally be able to defend themselves in a more meaningful way.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here.

As an exhausting primary season begins to wind down, voters in Florida, the last remaining big state yet to hold its primaries, head to the polls Tuesday with several races on the Jewish community’s radar.

The conservative state is home to large numbers of Jews, including a growing number of Jewish emigres from more liberal enclaves, and features several marquee matchups on both sides of the aisle.

The state has faced some political turmoil, including last-minute Republican-led redistricting that could hurt the chances of some pro-Israel Jewish Democrats at a moment when such figures are an endangered species in the US House.

On the GOP side, the right’s civil war between hardline pro-Israel figures and a growing crop of white nationalist-adjacent Israel skeptics will be laid bare in multiple races.

Here are some of the storylines for Jews to watch for on Florida’s ballot:

The ‘groyper’ governor’s race

No other low-polling candidate this cycle has grabbed as much attention as James Fishback, the former investment banker running for governor in Florida. 

Despite consistently trailing his rival, US Rep. Byron Donalds, in the GOP primary, Fishback has raised concern among both Jewish conservatives and party elites. He has embraced online far-right figures including Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist and antisemitic influencer, and uses memes and coded phrases such as “goyslop” to court Fuentes’s “groyper” movement of young men who spread irony-laced antisemitic talking points online.

Asked earlier in the campaign about “goyslop,” a term that refers to low-quality food supposedly promoted by Jewish elites, Fishback told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he employed it in a speech “because it’s funny. Get a life.”

Much of Fishback’s campaign has focused on the youth vote, fueling concerns that antisemitism could be a building block of the next generation of the right. His college campus visits have boasted high turnout, and young Republican groups that have hosted him have themselves been criticized for antisemitic behavior. 

Few analysts expect Fishback to win the primary. His campaign has been mired by scandal and odd behavior, and Donalds, the Trump-endorsed frontrunner, leads most polls by comfortable margins. But Fishback is polling in the double digits in some recent analyses of likely voters from polling outlets including Cygnal, which also has him outpacing two other establishment candidates, and primary polling in Michigan and Wisconsin that turned out to be inaccurate further complicates the prognosis. 

Even a reasonably strong performance from Fishback, particularly among the youth vote, would be met with alarm in some Jewish conservative corners.

A Jew who insults Muslims takes on a rival who insults Jews

Elsewhere in Florida’s Republican field, tensions between rising antisemitic and anti-Islamic sentiment within the party are mounting.

US Rep. Randy Fine, the incumbent in the state’s deep-red 6th District, has prompted considerable ire on Capitol Hill for comments denigrating Muslims, including comparing them to dogs, and saying that Gazans should “starve away” until the Israeli hostages were released. As a hardline pro-Israel voter who also wears a kippah on the House floor, Fine has made his Judaism central to his political identity, making him a litmus test for both the right and organized Jewry. 

Some of that ire has made it back to his home district, where Fine is facing primary challenger Dan Bilzerian, a celebrity poker player and Instagram influencer who routinely promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories. He has said he wants to “kill Israelis,” has called Fine a “fat Jew” and called antisemitism “a made-up term.”

He has further claimed that Israel “wanted Oct. 7 to happen” and called reports of Hamas raping victims that day “bull—t.” Bilzerian has spent at least $1 million of his own money on the race.

The primary has been marked by inflammatory rhetoric and personal attacks. Fine responded to Bilzerian’s entry into the race by declaring that “we don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress” (Bilzerian is Armenian), prompting anger from Armenian-American groups.

Last week a Fine campaign sign was defaced with a swastika, an act condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups. In a release, Fine accused Bilzerian’s supporters of having painted the swastika, a charge Bilzerian has denied and labeled “the most jew move of all time.” 

On Friday, Fine’s campaign said the candidate had referred Bilzerian to federal investigators for allegedly receiving unreported campaign donations from China. Bilzerian’s pitch to voters heavily centers around antisemitism: “District 6 understands the jewish problem,” he wrote on social media over the weekend, accompanied by pictures of his campaign stops.

Some Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, have condemned Fine’s rhetoric on Gaza and other matters. He still receives support from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, as well as the Republican Jewish Coalition, whose PAC has given his campaign thousands of dollars this cycle, according to federal election filings. In recent days, Republican leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had declined to condemn Fine’s earlier remarks about Muslims and dogs, have condemned Bilzerian’s antics as antisemitic. 

The combined presence of Bilzerian and Fishback on the ballot is leading at least one GOP group to lump them together as similar threats. The Front Line, a Republican PAC aligned with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and formed with the goal of curbing antisemitism within the party, released an ad during the World Cup that attacked them both. 

In the ad, which was generated with artificial intelligence, the two candidates are shown hosting a party with media personalities Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the pro-Palestinian group Code Pink and Iranian clerics who cut a giant cake made to look like a crossed-out Israeli flag.

One pro-Israel Dem faces a left-wing challenger…

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, one of the most pro-Israel Democrats in Congress, is finding himself in a familiar predicament this election cycle: fending off an anti-Zionist democratic socialist.

Activist Oliver Larkin is running against Moskowitz for the seat in the state’s 25th District, which is about 25% Jewish and is considered a toss-up in November after being redrawn this year. Moskowitz currently represents the 23rd District, which covers much of the same ground.

Moskowitz has outraised his challenger 11-to-1, according to local media estimates, and has refused to debate him. He has the support of AIPAC, which has raised at least $667,000 for him, according to analyses of federal campaign reports. 

He also has a groundswell of Jewish support in the district, even from some unlikely corners: The rabbi of a large Orthodox synagogue in Boca Raton has encouraged his congregants to change their voter registrations from Republican to Democrat in order to cast votes for Moskowitz.

Polling from Moskowitz-aligned firms has shown him with a considerable lead, while a poll from a Larkin-aligned outlet this month put the two in a statistical dead heat.

Moskowitz has also outright accused Larkin of fomenting antisemitism, telling the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board in a letter that his opponent “has embraced the support of individuals and organizations that have repeatedly trafficked in antisemitic rhetoric and hostility toward the Jewish community.” 

Moskowitz has also claimed that Larkin is “running against me solely on my religion.” The Sun Sentinel board rated Moskowitz’s claim “demonstrably untrue” and, in an unusual move, said it would not endorse him for reelection after he declined a joint interview with Larkin. The paper decried what it described as Moskowitz’s “lack of respect for voters.” 

But Larkin’s own language has alarmed some Jews, including his labeling of modern-day Israel as a “religious supremacist” country and his call for Israel to become a “secular” state. Asked by Fox News if he supports selling defensive weapons to Israel, Larkin responded, “I do not make a distinction between offensive and defensive weaponry.”

A rally he and other progressive candidates were scheduled to participate in with Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan on Friday was moved at the last minute after the venue, citing Jewish leaders’ concerns over Tlaib’s anti-Israel rhetoric, cancelled. 

Larkin has denied charges of antisemitism and spoken positively about Judaism on the campaign trail. In a statement to JTA, his campaign said he would advocate for “the liberation of Jewish South Floridians and Jewish people the world over from antisemitism,” and said an arms embargo on Israel should be “the minimum standard for anyone claiming to support democracy.”  

He also has the support of Jewish figureheads on the anti-Zionist left. Author and trans activist Abby Stein was among a group of progressive figures who hosted a fundraiser for him in Brooklyn earlier this month.

Redistricting controversy surfaces amid primary race

Things once seemed simpler for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an establishment Jewish Democrat and former chair of the Democratic National Committee who has comfortably served in Congress since 2004 from a safe blue seat.

But after a late GOP-led redistricting push in Florida earlier this year, prompted by President Donald Trump’s demands for Republicans to redraw their districts to help them hold the House, Wasserman Schultz’s future is suddenly a lot less certain.

Instead of the district she has represented for decades and which many Democratic observers believed she could still win despite the gerrymandering, the congresswoman decided to run in the neighboring 20th — a heavily Black district that for three decades has been represented by a Black lawmaker. 

And Wasserman Schultz’s primary opponents, including a former congresswoman facing a federal fraud trial and 2 Live Crew rap star “Uncle Luke” Campbell, aren’t happy she’s gunning for the seat. Critics accuse Wasserman Schultz of carpetbagging and say her decision to run in an easier seat will harm Black representation in government. Campbell has said her decision to run would harm Black-Jewish relations.

Even congressional leaders normally in Wasserman Schultz’s corner have balked at her decision. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries withheld an endorsement in the race, citing what he called the “sensitivities of the moment.”

Florida’s third Jewish Democratic mainstay in the House, Rep. Lois Frankel, is facing her own primary challenge in a new district, though in her case, the boundaries are similar to her old district. Frankel, a staunch Israel supporter, will have to defeat progressive challenger Victoria Doyle, a retired attorney.

The close resemblance to her old district and lack of substantive groundswell support behind Doyle likely means Frankel will retain the party’s nomination.

Besides redistricting, Wasserman Schultz and Frankel, as with other institutional Democrat figures, are also facing a voter base unhappy with the party’s status quo. This year the state’s LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus withheld endorsements in both races, despite Wasserman Schultz’s and Frankel’s historically good relationships with the caucus. Rep. Jared Moskovitz, meanwhile, did receive the caucus’s endorsement.

DSA vs. Soviet refugee in Dem Senate primary

Democrats haven’t held a U.S. Senate seat in Florida since 2019. But in a midterm environment expected to favor the party, the state could prove pivotal, and the primary to replace former Sen. Marco Rubio is putting one of the party’s biggest division points, “socialist” branding, in the spotlight.

The frontrunner for the nomination, retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, is a Kyiv-born Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union. Vindman, whose twin brother is a congressman in Virginia, attained broader name recognition during the first Trump administration, when he publicly testified about a controversial phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Vindman’s opponent is state Rep. Angie Nixon, who, in contrast to her opponent’s family history of fleeing from socialism, recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. Nixon has made noise in her party for pushing pro-Palestinian legislation on the state level, including a push, less than a month after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, for “de-escalation and cease-fire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine.” 

Nixon has campaigned alongside Oliver Larkin, as well as far-left elected figures in the party including Tlaib, and her pro-Palestinian positions are a big point of worry for some Jewish figures. But in a state with high numbers of voters, particularly Latinos, who have fled socialist or Communist regimes, it’s the candidates’ associations with the “S”-word that may prove the deciding factor.

Vindman has far outraised Nixon to date, and leads in the scant polling that has been conducted so far. A July poll from the University of North Florida, however, suggests that Nixon fares slightly better against the Republican nominee, appointed Sen. Ashley Moody.

Joseph Strauss contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here.

AUBURNDALE, FLORIDA (VIN) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that electric air taxis, often called flying cars, could begin commercial operations in the state as early as 2027, following the start of active testing later this year.

Speaking at the SunTrax transportation testing facility in Polk County, DeSantis stood beside an AIR ONE electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and outlined the state’s push into advanced air mobility.

“We are turning this somewhat dream into a reality,” DeSantis said. He envisioned passengers eventually flying from Tampa International Airport to Disney World, completely bypassing congested Interstate 4.

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue said testing of eVTOL aircraft will begin by the end of 2026 at the 775-acre SunTrax site, which features the nation’s first dedicated advanced air mobility aerial test track and two vertiports. The facility, originally focused on autonomous ground vehicles, has expanded to support air technology research under real-world conditions in a controlled environment.

eVTOL aircraft take off and land vertically without traditional runways, run on electric power (or hybrid systems in some models), and are designed to be significantly quieter than helicopters. Officials say potential uses include passenger air taxi service, medical transport, cargo delivery, emergency response and law enforcement.

An Israeli company developing the AIR ONE eVTOL plans to establish manufacturing and operations in Polk County, becoming the first advanced air mobility firm to produce and operate such aircraft in Florida.

DeSantis and state officials emphasized that Florida is positioning itself as a national leader in the technology, partnering with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Polk State College on workforce training for pilots, technicians and engineers. Federal Aviation Administration certification remains a key step before commercial service can begin.

Commercial air taxi options could launch in select Florida markets in the coming years once testing and regulatory approvals are complete, according to DeSantis.

China is suspected of funding pro-Palestine marches in the UK, The Telegraph revealed exclusively last week.

According to the report, US politicians investigating alleged secret Chinese backing of Code Pink, a far-Left feminist protest group, are also examining its activities in Britain as part of an inquiry into foreign interference.

Code Pink has organized many protests in the UK against Britain’s involvement in “the genocide in Gaza”, and issued statements claiming that Britain’s leaders have been “bought by Zionism.”

The Telegraph revealed that the US investigation is examining £250,000 in alleged payments to a UK company linked to Code Pink from firms connected to Neville Roy Singham, a tech tycoon accused of financing Chinese propaganda worldwide.

“The committee is well aware that Singham’s funding is supporting pro-Hamas and pro-communist causes not only in the United States, but also overseas, including in the United Kingdom,” Jason Smith, the chairman of the US Congress Ways and Means Committee, told The Telegraph.

Congressional source: China funding pro-Hamas groups in US, UK under investigation

“We are aware that China is funding pro-Hamas and leftists in the UK and the US. That is why we are investigating it and will continue to do so,”  a congressional source told The Telegraph.

Code Pink in the US has received millions of dollars from Singham, who is facing multiple inquiries into his network and whether it disseminated pro-China propaganda on behalf of the communist regime in Beijing.

Committee links Code Pink funding and influence to Singham, Chinese government

A congressional committee has claimed that Code Pink – which was founded by Jodie Evans, Singham’s wife – appeared to have been “funded and influenced by Mr Singham and the communist Chinese government”.

Code Pink also runs a campaign called “China is not our enemy”. 

The Telegraph said Code Pink did not respond to a request for comment but has previously called the allegations against it “a big fat lie”.

Medea Benjamin, a co-founder, told the Washington Times: “We get zero money from the chinese communist party.”

This post was originally published on here.

Former hostage Yosef Haim Ohana, who endured nearly two years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, made an emotional visit to the Gush Katif Museum together with his father, Avi, where the two were given a look back at the thriving Jewish communities that once stood in the Gaza Strip.

Museum director Shai Gefen led the visit together with Avner Franklin, whose daughter Michal Franklin was murdered in a 2002 terror attack in French Hill, Yerushalayim. The Ohana family viewed photographs and exhibits recalling the communities, agriculture and Jewish life that existed in Gush Katif before the 2005 Disengagement.

For Ohana, seeing that history after his own harrowing experience inside Gaza carried particular meaning.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva during the visit, he described the emotions as deeply mixed. “There are many mixed emotions. To see what beauty, how Jews lived there and how much the land flourished; and on the other hand to see how the place looks now, it really hurts.”

But Ohana also described the museum as a place of remembrance, telling Arutz Sheva that remembering the past is something the Jewish people know how to do well. He said the museum preserves the story of an especially significant chapter of Jewish life in Gaza and noted that he had always been interested in learning what had taken place there.

Perhaps his most striking comments came when reflecting on the years he spent as a hostage.

“If you would tell me: ‘Yosef, take any two years of your life, when you were a baby, in elementary school, in high school, or when you were a hostage, which would you give up?’ The last years I would give up are my two years in Gaza,” Ohana said.

The visit also brought back a deeply personal moment shared by Ohana and his father following his release.

Avi recalled what he calls “the miracle of the Four Species.” Before Yosef Haim was taken captive, his father had given him a bracha that the zechus of the Arba Minim should protect him from mortal danger.

Then, after Yosef Haim finally returned home near the end of Sukkos, Avi was able to place the Arba Minim into his son’s hands and watch him perform the mitzvah himself.

For the father and son, the moment represented an emotional closing of a circle — a bracha given before captivity and a mitzvah ultimately performed together after Yosef Haim returned home alive.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Trump said Monday that he will not extend the 60-day framework agreement with Iran, signaling that the negotiating period established in June will be allowed to expire without a broader settlement while insisting that the United States now exercises “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked by reporters whether his administration was seeking additional time for the Iranian framework arrangement, which was brokered by Pakistan in June, Trump gave a one-word answer.

“No,” Trump responded when questioned by reporters on whether he was pursuing an extension to the Iranian arrangement brokered by Pakistan in June.

Trump says the U.S. is not seeking an extension of the Iran MOU. pic.twitter.com/vO1fqS82vc

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 17, 2026

The agreement had provided Washington and Tehran with a 60-day window to pursue negotiations toward a more comprehensive resolution of the conflict. That period is now nearing its end without the two countries reaching the wider agreement envisioned when the framework was established.

Trump said Iranian officials remain interested in reaching an accord but maintained that Tehran has yet to accept the conditions that he considers essential for any final deal.

“They want to make a deal, but they are not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary,” Trump said.

The president reiterated that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains the central American objective and said there would be no compromise on that point.

“Look, we’re in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added.

Trump was also asked about his comments last week suggesting that the United States could declare the Strait of Hormuz American territory. Rather than retreating from the idea, he again embraced it, arguing that the US blockade has effectively placed the strategic waterway under American control.

“Well, I just think it’s a great idea,” the president said.

“I mean, we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We have total control over the Strait. Now, they can be a nuisance … But the blockade has been very effective.”

Trump said the American naval operation has succeeded in keeping oil moving through the region, with millions of barrels passing through the strategic shipping route each week.

“We are taking out – maybe that will stop, or maybe it will open up even further – we are taking out millions of barrels of oil a week,” he said.

The president tied the situation in the strait to declining oil prices and suggested that Washington still has the option of dramatically escalating its actions against Iran if circumstances require it.

“The strait is open, and the oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we are doing,” he said, noting that Iran is “in big trouble.”

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have strongly rejected Trump’s assertions about American control of the Strait of Hormuz. After Trump raised the issue at a rally Friday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi insisted that Tehran remains in command of passage through the waterway and said Iran’s restrictions would continue until the United States acknowledges its “strategic defeat.”

Gharibabadi directly challenged Trump’s claims in a social media post, asserting that the strategic waterway belongs to Iran and will remain under Iranian control.

“Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.”

The rhetoric escalated further on Shabbos when senior Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi mocked a recent security precaution involving Trump. The president had been transferred between aircraft inside a catering vehicle because of security concerns, and Azizi invoked that episode while issuing a warning.

“The US President ought to worry about his own security rather than his endless bluffing regarding the Strait of Hormuz; before he ends up hiding in a food truck,” posted Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission.

Trump also addressed Oman on Monday amid its involvement in diplomatic efforts concerning Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

Asked whether he had grown frustrated with Muscat, Trump criticized Oman’s conduct but suggested that dealing with the US ally would pose little difficulty for Washington.

“No, I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do other things,” Trump stated.

The accident happened approximately 6:15 PM on Route 9.

No serious injuries were reported.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, reportedly sought a detailed briefing on Israel’s upcoming elections during his current visit to the country, asking about Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s chances of victory and the possible coalition scenarios that could emerge after Israelis go to the polls.

Kushner arrived in Israel against the backdrop of regional tensions with Iran, the situation in Gaza and the ongoing fighting in Lebanon. But according to a report by Moriah Asraf of Channel 13, Israel’s domestic political landscape was another issue drawing considerable interest behind the scenes.

During a meeting with President Isaac Herzog, Kushner and members of his team reportedly requested an overview and analysis of the Israeli political map ahead of the election.

The American delegation sought information about the current balance of power between the parties, Netanyahu’s prospects of winning another term and the various political alliances that could determine the composition of the next government.

Kushner’s team was also reportedly interested in which parties would be prepared to join forces with one another and what types of governing coalitions could realistically be assembled following the election.

The assessment presented to the American officials was that, at this stage, there is no clear-cut outcome emerging from Israel’s political landscape and the election remains unsettled.

Meanwhile, President Trump himself addressed the possibility of becoming involved in Israel’s election during a conversation Monday with an American reporter.

Despite expectations among some Netanyahu allies — as well as speculation from the prime minister’s political opponents — that Trump could publicly throw his support behind a candidate, the president indicated that he has not yet made such a decision.

“Maybe I’ll support someone; for now, it’s appropriate that I don’t interfere,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments come after considerable speculation across Israel’s political spectrum that he would ultimately make a public endorsement in the campaign. For now, however, the president indicated that such an intervention is not currently planned.

MEDINA, OHIO (VINnews) — Democratic U.S. House candidate Brian Poindexter accused Republican Rep. Max Miller of prioritizing benefits for Israeli soldiers over support for the U.S. military during a recent town hall.

Poindexter, a union ironworker and Brook Park city council member challenging Miller in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, criticized the incumbent while discussing the Pentagon budget.

“He’s fighting for Israeli soldiers to get the benefits that our military members get,” Poindexter said of Miller, according to video of the event released by C-SPAN.

The remarks referred to legislation Miller co-sponsored in 2024 with Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa. The bill, H.R. 8445, sought to amend Title 38 of the U.S. Code and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to extend certain employment and civil protections — including job reinstatement rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and foreclosure and interest rate protections under the SCRA — to U.S. citizens serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

Supporters of the measure said it would assist more than 20,000 American citizens who have chosen to serve in the IDF. The bill did not advance in the previous Congress.

Poindexter framed the effort as evidence that Miller does not prioritize the needs of American service members amid debates over the size of the Pentagon budget. C-SPAN footage showed Poindexter addressing a small audience in a wood-paneled room as he made the comments.

Miller, a former Trump administration aide serving his second term, has been a consistent supporter of Israel. He has received significant backing from pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC-affiliated donors. His office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Poindexter’s remarks.

The 7th District, which includes parts of Cuyahoga, Medina, Wayne and Holmes counties, has leaned Republican in recent cycles. Miller won reelection in 2024. The race has drawn increased attention this year amid personal allegations against the incumbent, which he has denied, and polls showing a competitive contest.

Poindexter has centered his campaign on working-class issues, labor rights and criticism of Miller’s voting record on economic and foreign policy matters. The general election is scheduled for November.

European Central Bank researchers are warning that the extraordinary rise in artificial-intelligence stocks is likely to produce a market correction — even if AI ultimately delivers the productivity and profits investors expect.

In a research post published Monday, ECB economists said U.S. technology valuations have climbed to levels last seen around the dot-com era and argued that history suggests the current boom will not move higher indefinitely.

The warning is unusual because it does not depend on AI turning out to be a failure.

The researchers argue that transformative technologies often produce an early surge in valuations because investors place enormous value on the possibility that a small number of companies could dominate the new industry.

That happened with railroads, electricity, radio and the internet.

As the technology matures and spreads throughout the economy, however, the nature of the risk changes.

Investors are no longer betting on a handful of companies succeeding or failing. They become exposed to the technology across the economy, making the risk harder to diversify and increasing the return investors demand for owning stocks.

That can push valuations lower even while corporate profits continue growing.

Investor psychology could make the adjustment more severe.

The ECB researchers said excessive optimism can push prices beyond what fundamentals justify. When that confidence breaks, markets can fall much more sharply than they would under a purely rational repricing.

The concern is particularly important because U.S. technology companies have become a huge part of global investment portfolios.

Euro-area households have approximately €440 billion invested in U.S. technology stocks, much of it through investment funds. European insurers and pension funds also carry substantial exposure to the largest American technology companies.

That means a major decline in Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and other AI-linked stocks would not remain confined to Wall Street.

European markets have historically moved closely with U.S. equities, giving a sharp American technology correction the potential to reduce household wealth, pressure investment funds and tighten financial conditions across Europe.

There is another difference from the dot-com crash.

Governments and central banks today have less room to respond aggressively.

Interest rates are already constrained by persistent inflation, while government debt and deficits limit the ability of many countries to launch massive fiscal rescue programs without increasing borrowing costs.

That could make a future technology selloff more economically damaging than investors expect.

The researchers stopped short of saying AI is a bubble or predicting when a correction will occur.

They also acknowledged that AI stocks could eventually reach valuations substantially above today’s levels if the technology proves transformative enough.

The message is more nuanced — and potentially more important.

AI can change the world.

AI companies can generate enormous profits.

And investors can still lose substantial amounts of money along the way.

JBizNews Desk | Frankfurt

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Associates of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu are reportedly preparing to launch an effort immediately following the Likud primaries to remove Chareidi party members who do not actually support or vote for Likud, amid growing concern over organized voting blocs influencing the party’s internal elections.

According to a report by Daniel Grovais on Kan 11, the planned “Likud cleanup” would seek to identify groups of registered party members who have expressed support for other political parties. The effort could also include invalidating entire organized membership drives.

The move is reportedly taking shape following cooperation between Chareidi Likud membership organizers and MK David Bitan involving voting “deals” in the party primaries. Netanyahu had until now reportedly allowed the practice to continue without publicly intervening.

At the same time, several prominent Likud ministers and MKs appeared on voting lists circulated by major Chareidi organizers who direct their members on how to vote and operate transportation networks bringing voters to polling stations.

Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen, for example, appeared on a list associated with the Gerer chassidus, reportedly because of his support for facilitating travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.

Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Hanoch Milwidsky was included on lists distributed by several organizers, reportedly due to his work on the committee and his public support for the Chareidi community.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin also appeared on several recommended voting lists, reflecting Chareidi support for his judicial reform agenda and his campaign against Israel’s current judicial system.

{Matzav.com}

A burglary at a Lakewood warehouse resulted in approximately $45,000 worth of electronics being stolen, TLS has learned.

The incident occurred over the weekend at a warehouse on the west side of town.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lakewood Police Department.

The median rent on a new Manhattan lease hit $5,000 in July, the highest figure ever recorded, and the reason is not that New Yorkers suddenly got richer. It is that there is almost nothing to rent.

The median on new market-rate leases signed last month rose 6.4% from a year earlier, according to appraiser Miller Samuel and The Real Deal — roughly double the 3.2% annual increase in shelter costs nationwide reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average Manhattan rent reached $6,306 and the average price per square foot passed $101, both records as well.

Listings fell 39% in July. Manhattan’s record-setting streak began in February 2025, and inventory has been nearly cut in half over the past year and a half.

The mechanism is a chain that starts in the sales market. High mortgage rates make buying expensive, so households who would normally purchase a first apartment stay in their rentals instead. Those units never come back onto the market. Fewer vacancies means fewer listings, and the listings that do appear draw more applicants than there are apartments. Landlords price accordingly.

“The growth rate of the median is double the rate of inflation,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, who called the odds of the trend continuing high, and attributed much of the pressure to would-be buyers staying put in rental units.

The squeeze shows up in transaction counts as clearly as in prices. Only about 6,000 new leases were signed in Manhattan in July, down 20% from a year earlier. Brooklyn’s roughly 3,000 new leases were down by nearly a third, and Brooklyn set records across all three measures too, with a median of $4,500 — up 17% year over year. Falling volume alongside rising prices is the signature of a supply problem rather than a demand boom: fewer deals are getting done because there is less to rent, not because more people are competing.

Apartments are also moving faster. Days on market for vacant units fell roughly 30% from a year earlier, to about 36 days in Manhattan and 37 in Brooklyn, with well-priced listings disappearing almost as soon as they post, according to Corcoran’s Gary Malin.

Set the number against income and the arithmetic explains the political temperature. A $5,000 median works out to $60,000 a year, against a median household income in the city of roughly $87,640 — meaning the typical household would spend something close to seven of every ten dollars it earns before taxes on rent at the median. The standard affordability benchmark is three in ten. The gap is why the market rate is effectively out of reach for the median New York household, and why the tenants paying it skew heavily toward finance, tech and dual-income professionals.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has capped rents for tenants in stabilized apartments, but the roughly two-thirds of the housing stock outside that system continues to climb. Some in the industry argue landlords who own buildings containing both regulated and market-rate units raise the unregulated rents to offset the freeze on the regulated ones — a claim advanced by real estate interests and disputed by tenant advocates, and one the July data can neither confirm nor refute on its own.

The FARE Act, which bars landlords from passing broker fees to tenants who did not hire the broker, passed its one-year mark in June, and its effect on rents remains contested among brokers, lawmakers and housing advocates. The argument is that fees once charged upfront have simply been folded into monthly rent.

Rents in the city normally rise through the summer moving season and flatten in the fall. Miller said he is not confident that happens this year, pointing to expectations that mortgage rates rise further — driven by tariffs, higher energy and transportation costs tied to the Iran war, and a new Federal Reserve chair signaling rates may need to go up. Higher mortgage rates keep more would-be buyers renting, which keeps supply tight, which keeps rents climbing. The loop reinforces itself.

For employers, that is the number worth watching. Manhattan rent is now a fixed cost in every hiring conversation the city’s businesses have, and it is rising at twice the national pace for housing.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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Kuwait is preparing for the possibility of a high-intensity war with Iran amid indications that Tehran and its regional proxies are preparing to shift from defensive operations to offensive action, Kan News reported Monday evening.

A Kuwaiti source close to the government said Iran’s excessive demands, increasingly extreme statements from the regime and the growing influence of hardline elements within the leadership of the Islamic Republic indicate that Tehran is moving toward further military escalation and war.

The source said Kuwait is actively consulting with its allies and other Gulf states over the developments and the possibility of a wider confrontation with Iran.

Concern across the Gulf comes amid indications of increasing Iranian-backed activity throughout the region. Kan News reported Sunday, citing a Lebanese political source, that Hezbollah has been intensifying its operations against Israel at Iran’s direction, with the goal of disrupting direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

In another unusual development Monday, Iranian drones struck the office of the Kurdish prime minister in northern Iraq.

International media reports over the past 24 hours have indicated that Iran and its regional proxies are preparing for an escalation in the coming period and a transition “from defense to offense,” including operations carried out on enemy territory.

The developments have raised concern among Gulf states, with particular attention in Kuwait, which was at the center of the previous round of escalation.

Kuwait’s preparations and consultations with its allies come as officials assess whether Tehran’s rhetoric and activity signal that the Islamic Republic is preparing to move beyond its current posture toward a significantly more aggressive phase of operations across the region.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

BROWARD COUNTY (VINnews)-A Florida Democratic congressional candidate who describes himself as a socialist said illegal immigrants who enter the country with murder charges should be jailed in the United States rather than deported, dismissing deportation as a “vacation.”

Elijah Manley, a candidate in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, made the comments during a recent Fox News interview. Manley, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, is competing in the Democratic primary for the South Florida seat.

“If you’re a murderer coming to this country, put you in jail,” Manley said.

He argued against deportation, saying, “Republicans want to give these folks a vacation.”

Host Martha MacCallum reacted with disbelief: “That’s ridiculous. I don’t know what you’re talking about. A vacation??”

Manley, a substitute teacher and community organizer, has centered his campaign on progressive economic and social policies. He previously sought the Socialist Party USA presidential nomination and has drawn attention for positions including calls to abolish ICE.

The exchange circulated widely on social media Monday. Manley’s primary is scheduled for Tuesday.

So one of the political lessons of the primary election season is how badly polls have been wrong. Comrade Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan was supposed to win by more than 20 percentage points, but instead barely escaped by a thin cat’s whisker.

And the extremist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin was also supposed to win by 20 points or so. But she lost by an even thinner cat’s whisker.

And there are plenty of other examples. Where am I going with all this? Well, all these polls show President Trump’s supposed unpopularity on Iran or the economy or the much-abused term affordability may turn out to be very wrong in the midterm elections. 

Now, true enough, Mr. Trump’s not on the ballot, but I think when he really gets revved up on the campaign trail, and the GOP House and Senate people nationalize the election, we’re gonna find out that actual voters will reject big-government socialism and un-American values, as Newt Gingrich calls them.

Most of the recent polls don’t get likely voters. Instead they ask adults or registered voters and they’re frequently asking loaded questions. Now, one exception is my pal John McLaughlin, whose likely voter polls show that actually, people want Mr. Trump to finish Iran off. And additionally, a large majority prefers free market capitalism to socialism.

What’s more, the economy is doing far better than the mainstream press is telling us. Mr. Trump has always scored well with working class voters of all shapes and sizes. We are in a manufacturing boom. It is the strongest in years, probably decades.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent keeps telling people about the 105,000 hard goods producing jobs added this year alone. And since Mr. Trump came into office, the economy has produced 93,400 factory construction jobs. Think hard hats, think working folks.

Meanwhile, financial journalist John Carney reports that manufacturing wages have increased by nearly 5 percent so far this year. And that’s twice the inflation rate. 

On top of that, we’ve seen almost 400,000 federal jobs drop, and almost 900,000 private sector jobs created, which shows the Trumpian reconstruction of Biden’s big-government socialism.

Now, speaking of affordability and inflation, the democratic socialists love to talk about it. But it was under President Biden’s big-government socialism that the consumer price index cumulatively rose 21.4 percent during his four years.

Now, recently, even with the temporary bump up in energy prices from the Iran War, Mr. Trump’s new Federal Reserve chief, Kevin Warsh, has brought the inflation rate down to near zero in the last couple of months. And frankly, just over the past six months only 2.4 percent at an annual rate, which is nearly akin to the Fed’s 2 percent target.

Also, talking about affordability, Here’s one: Prescription drug prices have been plunging. Over the past year, they have declined 3.4 percent. And during Mr. Trump’s second term, they have not increased in any single month.

Now, these are just snippets of potential national messaging. Clearly, though, Mr. Trump’s free enterprise capitalism is powering a prosperous economy. And, hopefully, it will be buttressed with some middle class tax reform as part of the midterm election package.

Now, just as clearly, Democrats favor Medicare for All and huge tax increases and a state-run economy and open borders and defunding the police and defunding ICE and packing the Supreme Court and ending the Senate and other crazy notions that I think are gonna be very unpopular with real likely voters.

So don’t pay much attention to these early polls.

Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are blasting Dr. Anthony Fauci and ABC News following claims by a former network correspondent that Fauci may have been involved in reviewing a 2021 report about the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory.

The controversy erupted after former ABC correspondent Terry Moran described how a report he prepared examining the lab-leak theory was substantially altered before it reached the air. Moran said his reporting included conversations with molecular virologists and officials from the Trump administration, along with an examination of evidence connected to the Wuhan laboratory.

Moran said that when the segment was returned to him following an internal review on the day it was supposed to air, the version he received bore little resemblance to what he had submitted.

“And it comes back to me and it is incomprehensible,” Moran said.

Asked during an appearance on “The Fifth Column” podcast who had been involved in reviewing his work, Moran responded: “Lawyers, standards, and — I was told — Fauci.”

Moran cautioned that he cannot independently confirm that ABC actually provided Fauci with the script. His assertion, he explained, was based on what he was told at the time about who participated in the review process.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who repeatedly confronted Fauci during congressional hearings over the federal government’s pandemic response, quickly seized on Moran’s account as evidence of improper influence over the network’s reporting.

“The former Senior National Correspondent of ABC News recently admitted the network’s editorial independence took a back seat to the Anthony Fauci-led cover-up,” Paul wrote Saturday on X.

DeSantis also sharply criticized ABC over the allegation that Fauci was involved in the process.

“What a pathetic indictment of ABC News,” the Florida governor posted on X. “Letting Fauci of all people dictate coverage.”

According to Moran, ABC’s standards department had adopted the position at the time that raising the possibility of a laboratory origin for COVID-19 was potentially dangerous, making it exceedingly difficult to seriously explore the theory in the report.

Moran said the segment was ultimately loaded with so many disclaimers, caveats and legal qualifications that he chose not to watch the final version after it aired.

The possibility that COVID-19 emerged from a laboratory has remained the subject of intense scientific and political debate years after the pandemic began.

Subsequent congressional investigations revealed that Fauci was provided with drafts of a 2020 scientific paper supporting a natural origin for the virus after scientists had privately discussed the possibility that it could have originated in a laboratory.

Moran’s account is now fueling longstanding criticism among conservatives who contend that major news organizations were too willing during the pandemic to accept the conclusions of government public-health officials while dismissing or marginalizing competing theories.

Moran departed ABC in 2025 after publishing a social media post attacking White House adviser Stephen Miller. Since leaving the network, he has also acknowledged what he viewed as political bias in ABC’s coverage.

Writing in an essay, Moran said the network frequently failed to adequately represent pro-Trump viewpoints and acknowledged that ABC was biased, though he characterized that bias as largely inadvertent rather than deliberate.

For Paul and DeSantis, however, the latest allegations go beyond the broader question of ideological bias in the media. Moran’s account raises the question of whether one of the federal government’s most prominent public-health officials was permitted to influence how a major television network presented one of the central controversies surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

{Matzav.com}

The long-term impact of AI is one of the most hotly debated topics in Silicon Valley. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts every job will be transformed—and likely lead to a four-day workweek. Other tech titans go even further: Bill Gates says humans may soon not be needed “for most things,” and Elon Musk believes most humans won’t have to work at all in “less than 20 years.”

While those predictions might sound extreme, they’re not just plausible, they’re likely, said Geoffrey Hinton, the British computer scientist widely known as the “Godfather of AI.” The transition, he warned, could trigger a sweeping economic reshuffling that leaves millions of workers behind.

“It seems very likely to a large number of people that we will get massive unemployment caused by AI,” Hinton said in a November 2025 discussion with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at Georgetown University.

“And if you ask where are these guys going to get the roughly trillion dollars they’re investing in data centers and chips…one of the main sources of money is going to be by selling people AI that will do the work of workers much cheaper,” he continued. “And so these guys are really betting on AI replacing a lot of workers.”

Hinton has grown increasingly vocal about what he sees as Big Tech’s misplaced priorities. The industry, he previously told Fortune, is driven less by scientific progress than by short-term profits—fueling a push to replace human workers with cheaper AI systems.

His warnings come as the economics of AI face new scrutiny. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, isn’t expected to turn a profit until at least 2030 and may need more than $207 billion to support its growth, according to HSBC estimations published in November 2025.

The future of AI is behind a fog of war

Hinton’s journey from AI insider to outspoken critic underscores the high stakes of the technology he helped create. After quitting his Google job in 2023 to speak more freely about AI’s risks, he has become one of the most prominent skeptics. Last year, his pioneering work in machine learning earned him the Nobel Prize.

He also acknowledged AI will create new jobs, as many tech leaders predict. But he added he does not expect the number of new roles to come close to the number eliminated. Even so, he cautioned that all predictions—including his own—should be treated with heavy skepticism. 

“Trying to predict the future of it is going to be very difficult,” Hinton told Sanders. “It’s a bit like when you drive in fog. You can see clearly for 100 yards and at 200 yards you can see nothing. Well, we can see clearly for a year or two, but 10 years out, we have no idea what’s going to happen.”

What is clear, however, is that AI isn’t going away, and experts say workers who adapt—and use the technology to amplify their skills—will stand the best chance of navigating the coming upheaval.

100 million jobs are at risk, Bernie Sanders warns

Sanders has attempted to quantify the stakes. In a report released in October 2025—based partly on estimates generated by ChatGPT—he warned nearly 100 million U.S. jobs could be displaced by automation. Workers in fast food, customer service, and manual labor face some of the highest risks, but white-collar roles in accounting, software development, and nursing could also see significant cuts.

“It’s not just economics,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. “Work, whether being a janitor or a brain surgeon, is an integral part of being human. The vast majority of people want to be productive members of society and contribute to their communities. What happens when that vital aspect of human existence is removed from our lives?”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has raised similar alarms, warning the disruption could hit young people first and hardest—potentially driving unemployment among recent college graduates to as high as 25% in the next two to three years.

“Let’s look at the fact we never did anything on social media,” Warner told CNBC. “If we make that same response on AI and don’t put guardrails, I think we will come to rue that day.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on December 4, 2025.

More on the future of work

• Jensen Huang says this is the greatest time in history to start a business—and his advice is to stop overthinking it: ‘How hard can it be?’
• Crypto billionaire Michael Saylor says he made $15 billion last year with ChatGPT—and has one rule: ‘Don’t try to outwork the robots’
• Mark Zuckerberg says the future will have an ‘abundance of jobs’—and predicts a wave of new careers like world builders and personal biologists

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

BALTIMORE (VINnews)— The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents more than 2,500 traditional Orthodox rabbis in American public policy, announced Monday the appointment of former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Irit Tratt to its Advisory Board, along with three new professional staff members.

Friedman, who served as ambassador during the Trump administration and worked to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance, said he was proud to join the board.

“CJV represents a unique voice in public policy, articulating Jewish values with clarity and authenticity,” Friedman said. “I believe what they are doing is critical for America’s future, and I am proud to join its Advisory Board.”

Also joining the Advisory Board is Irit Tratt, a national board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a board member of the Jerusalem News Syndicate and the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. She also serves on the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

“At this pivotal moment for Jews in America and around the world, principled leadership is essential,” Tratt said. “I am proud to join the CJV Board and to help advance an agenda rooted in traditional Jewish values, moral clarity and an unwavering commitment to Israel.”

The organization also named Isabella Brannon as director of legal affairs, Shaya Gedz as director of federal affairs and Rabbi Meir Levin as director of external relations.

“These appointments represent an important step forward for CJV as we expand our national presence and strengthen our ability to advocate for Jewish values and the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, CJV’s executive vice president. “Our new staff bring valuable experience, energy and commitment to our work, while Ambassador Friedman and others are now offering their extraordinary insight and leadership to our Advisory Board. At a time of rising antisemitism and growing hostility toward both Israel and Jewish values, their voices and counsel will be invaluable.”

Senior military officers from Uganda and Burundi visited the American command center in Kiryat Gat on Monday as efforts advance to establish the multinational International Stabilization Force that would operate in the Gaza Strip.

Both African countries have given preliminary approval to send troops to Gaza as part of the ISF, Kan News reported. The officers arrived at the American command center Monday morning amid advanced discussions with the two countries over their potential participation in the force.

During the visit, the Ugandan and Burundian officers met with American representatives at the command center as well as IDF officials, who briefed them on the plans being developed for Gaza.

The visit marks part of a broader American effort to recruit countries for the multinational force envisioned under President Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza. Washington is currently working to bring additional countries into the force and secure the personnel needed for its deployment.

Morocco has been selected to train the multinational force, while discussions are also underway with Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan regarding their potential participation.

Indonesia, despite previous reports that it could contribute personnel, does not currently intend to send forces. The Americans are therefore seeking additional troops from other countries, including nations in Africa, with the discussions involving Uganda and Burundi now described as being at an advanced stage.

The International Stabilization Force was included as a key component of President Trump’s 20-point plan announced last September for the release of the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.

Under Section 15 of the plan, a temporary International Stabilization Force would be established in cooperation with the United States, Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan. The force is intended to train and work alongside Palestinian police forces in Gaza and secure the Strip’s borders.

When the plan was unveiled, President Trump said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to its provisions and that additional regional leaders, including those from Turkey and Indonesia, had been involved.

The latest visit to Kiryat Gat comes as the American administration continues working to move toward implementation of the second stage of President Trump’s Gaza plan, with the formation of the multinational stabilization force among the major components now being pursued.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

[Video below.] President Trump welcomed 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai and the 16-year-old lifeguard who saved him from powerful waves off the California coast to the Oval Office, where the president praised the teenager as a hero — while joking that Rai was fortunate Trump himself had not been on duty that day.

Speaking directly to Rai about his rescuer, Ryder Williams, Trump said: “He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it.

“I wouldn’t, probably. You’re lucky I wasn’t on the service that day.”

Rai, dressed in a dark suit and maroon tie, sat on a gold couch alongside his father and Trump during the White House meeting. Williams sat across from them as the president recounted the dramatic rescue that captured widespread attention after video of it circulated online.

Trump arranged the meeting after publicly saying Williams deserved to receive a civilian honor for his actions. The president had previously announced on social media that he intended to invite the teenage lifeguard to the White House in recognition of his bravery.

Video of the late-July rescue showed Williams holding tightly to Rai as powerful waves repeatedly crashed over the two of them. At one point, both disappeared beneath the water before becoming visible again several seconds later as the wave pulled away.

Another lifeguard, Aaron Bohnen, eventually joined the rescue effort and helped Williams and Rai safely reach shore at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz.

Trump first weighed in on the dramatic footage after his son Eric Trump shared a post about Williams and said the teenager deserved “the highest civilian honor”.

Rai’s father, Sumit, has also expressed profound gratitude to the teenager who saved his son.

“What he did, I can never repay. I’m forever grateful.”

The rescue occurred as California lawmakers were considering legislation that would formally classify lifeguards as first responders, according to NBC Bay Area.

Supporters of such a designation argue that officially recognizing lifeguards as first responders could provide them with greater professional recognition and resources, along with stronger workplace protections and improved benefits.

NBC Bay Area reported that some people it interviewed were surprised to discover that lifeguards did not already have official first-responder status. A Santa Cruz state senator, however, cautioned that formally establishing such a classification would involve a number of complicated questions.

“Of course, lifeguards are first responders, but first responders also go through this rigorous training, so you’d have to decide – because in the peace officer standards training you go through eight months of training – so you’d have to decide what’s appropriate here,” NBC Bay Area quoted Laird as saying.

“How does it work? How does it get designated? What training comes with it? Who pays for it?”

Newly released FBI data shows that 2025 was the third-highest year on record for reported anti-Jewish hate crimes in the United States, with Jewish people continuing to account for the overwhelming majority of religion-based hate crime victims nationwide.

According to the FBI, 1,528 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents were reported in 2025, accounting for 63 percent of the 2,408 religion-based hate crimes reported across the country.

Overall, reported hate crime incidents decreased from 11,679 in 2024 to 10,881 in 2025. Anti-Jewish incidents also declined from a record 1,938 in 2024, representing a 21.2 percent decrease.

Despite the decline, the 2025 figure remains the third-highest number of reported anti-Jewish hate crime incidents on record, with such incidents increasing significantly following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attack against Israel.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks both criminal and non-criminal antisemitic incidents, also reported that 2025 was the third-highest year on record for antisemitic incidents.

The FBI data shows that Jewish Americans remain disproportionately targeted. While Jews make up approximately 2 percent of the U.S. population, they were the victims of 14 percent of all reported hate crimes nationwide.

Violence against Jewish victims also continued in 2025. Law enforcement recorded 162 anti-Jewish assault offenses, including 50 aggravated assaults and 112 simple assaults. There were also three reported anti-Jewish murder or nonnegligent manslaughter offenses, along with 505 acts of intimidation targeting Jewish victims.

Vandalism and property damage remained the most common anti-Jewish offense. Of 1,685 total anti-Jewish offenses reported in 2025, 920 involved destruction, damage or vandalism, including incidents targeting synagogues, Jewish institutions and property displaying Jewish symbols.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the statistics demonstrate that antisemitism remains a serious threat despite the overall decline in reported incidents.

“Behind every one of these numbers is a person who was targeted simply for being Jewish,” Greenblatt said, adding that the decline in domestic numbers should not obscure the continuing threat posed by antisemitism.

The ADL documented 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a 33 percent decrease from the previous year, but still the third-highest annual total since the organization began tracking such incidents in 1979.

The FBI also reported an increase in participation among law enforcement agencies in its hate crime data collection program. A total of 16,791 agencies, representing 85.9 percent of participating agencies, reported data for 2025, compared with 16,419 agencies, or 84.9 percent, in 2024.

The ADL is calling for expanded hate crime reporting and is urging Congress to pass legislation that would strengthen reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies.

World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, has moved a major step closer to becoming a federally chartered financial institution after U.S. regulators granted preliminary approval for its proposed national trust bank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved the application Friday for World Liberty Trust Company, a new national trust bank that would operate from Florida and bring several of the company’s most important cryptocurrency functions directly under federal banking supervision.

The approval is preliminary, not final.

World Liberty cannot begin operating the bank until it satisfies a series of pre-opening requirements and passes an OCC examination. The regulator retains the authority to modify, suspend or rescind the approval before the bank opens.

If those conditions are met, however, World Liberty would gain something considerably more valuable than another crypto license.

It would receive a national bank charter.

The proposed bank plans to issue and redeem World Liberty’s dollar-backed USD1 stablecoin, maintain the reserves supporting it and provide digital-asset custody services to institutional clients across the United States.

USD1 is designed to maintain a value of $1 and has grown to more than $4 billion in circulation, making it one of the larger stablecoins in the market.

Currently, BitGo handles the issuance and custody of USD1. Under World Liberty’s plan, those operations and the reserve assets supporting the stablecoin would eventually move into the new federally chartered trust bank.

That would give World Liberty considerably more control over the economics surrounding its own token.

Instead of relying on an outside institution to issue and safeguard USD1, the company could bring issuance, redemption, reserves and institutional custody together inside its own regulated banking subsidiary.

The charter would not turn World Liberty into a traditional retail bank.

The trust company would not operate like JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America by taking ordinary consumer deposits and making conventional loans. Its activities would be limited largely to trust, custody, stablecoin and related digital-asset services.

But a national charter carries another important advantage: scale.

Federal supervision can provide a clearer framework for serving institutional customers nationwide rather than navigating a patchwork of individual state regimes.

The OCC placed substantial conditions around that privilege.

World Liberty Trust must maintain at least $20 million in Tier 1 capital, with at least $10 million or half of its Tier 1 capital — whichever is greater — held in qualifying liquid assets.

The bank must also maintain enough additional liquid assets to cover at least 180 days of operating expenses during its first three years.

Major changes to its business plan will require OCC review, and senior executives and directors will face additional regulatory scrutiny during the bank’s early years.

The decision also arrives amid political scrutiny surrounding the Trump family’s financial interest in World Liberty.

Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, have questioned whether a federal agency under the Trump administration should approve a banking charter connected to a business in which the president’s family has an economic interest.

World Liberty and the administration have rejected suggestions that the company receives improper treatment, while the OCC said it evaluated the application under its existing chartering and supervisory standards.

From a business standpoint, the larger development is what the approval says about cryptocurrency’s continuing move into the regulated financial system.

Stablecoin companies once operated largely outside traditional banking.

Increasingly, they are seeking national charters, federal supervision and direct control over the reserves and custody infrastructure behind their tokens.

World Liberty is now one step closer to joining that group.

The OCC has given it a preliminary green light.

The next test is whether it can satisfy the regulator’s conditions and turn a Trump-backed crypto venture into an operating federally chartered trust bank.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

Stocks fell for a second straight session Monday after the truce document between the United States and Iran ran out of time, sending oil sharply higher and pushing long-term borrowing costs to levels not seen in nearly two decades. When crude rises, so does the cost of shipping, manufacturing and filling a gas tank — and investors sold shares rather than hold them through another leg of the war.

The S&P 500 finished 0.52% lower at 7,745.06, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.32% to settle at 26,644.91. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 272.63 points, or 0.51%, and closed at 53,459.78. The Russell 2000 fell 0.51%.

The trigger was the calendar. Stocks tipped lower in afternoon trading as oil prices rose on concerns about an escalation in the US-Iran war after a memorandum of understanding between the two nations expired on Monday. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, hit $90 per barrel after President Trump said he doesn’t see the war ending anytime soon. Trump also threatened Oman, telling Fox News that if the country interferes with the Strait of Hormuz there would be consequences. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that the country may shift to an offensive policy rather than defensive one, if diplomacy efforts with the U.S. fail.

Energy markets responded immediately. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.6% to $84.50 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude futures were higher by 2.7% at $90.87 a barrel. For American drivers, that is the number that eventually shows up at the pump, and it is moving in the wrong direction heading into the back half of summer.

The bond market took the harder hit. The 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since June 2007 as oil prices advanced. Long-term yields set what Americans pay on mortgages and what companies pay to borrow, so a 30-year at levels last seen before the financial crisis makes every long-dated loan more expensive. Traders had gone into the session expecting the opposite: the yield on the 2-year Treasury note, which typically reacts in line with short-term Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, dropped more than 1 basis point to 4.1542%. The 30-year Treasury yield, which is typically sensitive to geopolitical events, was more than 2 basis points lower at 5.2445% in early trading before the reversal.

Not everything fell. Micron Technology was a bright spot in the session, however, as shares gained 4%. Chipmakers rallied as Anthropic PBC’s revenue surge bolstered bets on the artificial-intelligence trade after Bloomberg News also reported that Anthropic’s second-quarter revenue was more than $11.5 billion — a massive jump from a year earlier. On the other side, Nike shares are trading at lows not seen since September 2014, as the sports apparel stock continues to falter under pressure.

Step back from the day and the month still looks positive. The major averages are higher across the board so far in August. The Dow is on track for its fifth straight positive month, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are on pace for their first positive month in three. Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are higher month to date. Tech is leading with a gain of more than 7%, while communication services is lagging. That works out to a bit better than one sector in two moving higher this month.

Last week set the table. For the week ended Aug. 14, the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1%, marking their third consecutive weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, fell 0.6%, snapping a two-week winning streak. The soft spot was the American shopper: retail sales for July decreased 0.6% against expectations of a small gain, and preliminary consumer sentiment for August fell to 51 after increasing to 55.2 in July.

That makes this week’s calendar unusually consequential. Walmart, Home Depot and Target are among the retailers scheduled to report quarterly results this week — the clearest read available on whether households are actually pulling back. The Federal Reserve posts its latest meeting minutes Wednesday. Three members dissented in favor of a hike at the last meeting, and with oil climbing again, those minutes will tell investors how seriously the central bank is weighing another increase rather than a cut.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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Luigi Mangione’s Manhattan murder trial will no longer begin next month, as his lawyers seek to have the state prosecution thrown out entirely following his unexpected guilty plea to federal charges stemming from the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Jury selection in the 28-year-old’s Manhattan Supreme Court case had been scheduled to get underway on Sept. 8.

That timetable was scrapped Monday when Justice Gregory Carro moved Mangione’s next court appearance to Dec. 10, effectively postponing the state trial indefinitely, according to court records.

Mangione’s attorneys are now seeking dismissal of the state charges based on his federal guilty plea, contending that another prosecution over Thompson’s killing would amount to “double jeopardy” by subjecting him to prosecution twice for the same crime.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, however, has made clear that it intends to fight the defense effort and press forward with its prosecution.

Carro has established a briefing schedule for the dispute, directing Manhattan prosecutors to submit their arguments by Oct. 9. Mangione’s lawyers will then have until Oct. 30 to file their response.

The legal battle follows Mangione’s stunning decision last week to plead guilty to two federal stalking charges, each of which carries the possibility of life behind bars.

During the federal proceeding, Mangione explicitly admitted responsibility for Thompson’s killing.

“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” the scion of a prominent Maryland family told the court.

Mangione is scheduled to receive his sentence in the federal case on Dec. 18, eight days after his next scheduled appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The state prosecution remains pending in the meantime, with Mangione charged with second-degree murder and illegal weapons possession in connection with Thompson’s killing.

L3Harris Technologies said on Monday that CEO Christopher Kubasik stepped down from the role after an investigation by the board of directors found he engaged in misconduct, which led to the company reaching a separation agreement with him and naming his successor.

L3Harris’ announcement didn’t disclose the specific findings of the investigation, but said it “became aware of certain conduct that was not consistent with the values” outlined in the company’s code of conduct.

It noted that the conduct was unrelated to L3Harris’ financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance. The investigation was conducted with the assistance of outside counsel and prompted the board to determine that it was in the firm’s best interest to enter into a separation agreement with Kubasik.

L3Harris appointed Sam Mehta as its new CEO following the move. Mehta joined the company in 2023 and has 25 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, most recently serving as L3Harris’ president of space and mission systems (SMS) and communications and spectrum dominance (CSD).

The SMS and CSD segments account for more than 80% of L3Harris’ total revenue, the company noted in its announcement.

L3Harris lead independent director Lewis Hay III was named chairman of the board and said that Mehta is a “proven executive who brings deep knowledge of our business, priorities and culture, making him ideally suited to become president and CEO at this important time in our company’s and our nation’s history.”

“Sam’s readiness to lead L3Harris reflects the Board’s robust succession planning and our focus on cultivating talent,” Hay added.

Mehta said in a statement that he is honored by the opportunity to lead L3Harris as its president and CEO, adding that he looks forward to working more closely with leaders and colleagues across the company to support the defense contractors’ mission.

“Today, L3Harris has a portfolio purpose-built for the future of warfare, and we are well-positioned to continue executing our focused growth strategy as The Trusted Disruptor,” Mehta said.

Regarding Kubasik’s departure, Hay said that the departing executive had “overseen significant transformation during his tenure” and that the company appreciated his service, as they mutually agreed to implement the corporate succession plan.

Reuters reported that under the separation agreement the company reached with Kubasik, the former CEO won’t receive severance payments, benefits or equity incentive awards. He will be permitted to retain and exercise previously vested stock options granted under L3Harris’ equity incentive plans, per the report.

During his tenure at the company, Kubasik helped drive the 2019 merger of L3 and Harris Corp., serving as president and COO before he became CEO in 2021. The company acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion in 2023 as it expanded its presence in the defense sector.

In January, L3Harris announced the spin-off of its missile solutions unit, as the Pentagon said it would take a $1 billion stake in the new company. That spin-off was postponed last month until at least mid-2027.

Reuters contributed to this report.

In what has become an annual event, the Lakewood Police Department (LPD) conducted a special training course on Monday; on providing lifesaving CPR, as well as tourniquet application to “Stop the Bleed,” in the event of serious injury.

This training was held at the Lakewood EMS headquarters on Pine Street for members of the Lakewood Community Coalition (LCC) – a diverse coalition of law enforcement; volunteer agencies; and community/religious institutions – as well as to Lakewood Township employees and their family members. Training was conducted by LPD Officers Joseph Sandstrom and Kyle Seehausen, equipped with real-life medical equipment and manikins.

“One cannot overstate the value of being able to perform CPR and/or ‘Stop the Bleed’ in the precious moments before emergency services can arrive at a scene,” says Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein, a longtime volunteer EMT and the Committee’s Emergency Services Liaison.
“Thanks to the LPD for once again stepping up and contributing of their unique expertise and resources to save lives in Lakewood and beyond.”