New details have emerged about the events leading up to the unusual Israeli strike on a Syrian airbase overnight Monday, Kan News reported.

The report, which cited an Israeli security official, revealed that Israel provided the United States with intelligence showing that Turkey was preparing to establish a presence at the base after indirect talks aimed at reaching understandings with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa failed to produce an agreement.

A senior Israeli official also confirmed to Fox News that Israel shared sensitive intelligence with the United States shortly before the strikes. According to the report, the intelligence was provided directly to the highest levels of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The report added that Israel is not only concerned about the restoration of the runways at the airbase, which occupies a strategic location between the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo, but also about the possible deployment of air defense systems that could threaten Israel’s control of the airspace, as well as advanced drones.

In a highly unusual move, Israel officially took responsibility for the strikes. In a statement published in English, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Syria had violated the security status quo by allowing Turkish forces to deploy at the airbase near Aleppo.

Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack also revealed details about the strike, telling Reuters that “the Israeli strikes on the air force base in Syria reflect the assessment that Turkey may increase its presence there in the near future.”

Barrack emphasized that Turkish forces on the ground were not given advance warning about the Israeli strikes and could have attacked Israel in response.

“This underscores the need for a deconfliction mechanism involving Israel, Syria and Turkey — a mechanism that we are actively working to establish in order to prevent future miscommunication,” he said.

Israel’s statement drew a sharp response from Turkey. The office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “the baseless claims put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office are intended to legitimize Israel’s illegal airstrikes, which violate Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Syria also disputed Israel’s account. A diplomatic source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Al Jazeera that no agreement exists between Syria and Israel establishing the security arrangements described by Jerusalem. The source claimed that Israel was informed before the strike that no foreign forces were present at the airbase, but carried out the attack nonetheless.

The Syrian source added that Damascus would not accept an arrangement restricting its activities within its sovereign territory. From Syria’s perspective, he said, it cannot agree to a framework that would “restrict the construction of civilian and military institutions and limit Syria’s options for playing a role in strengthening stability in the region.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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The U.S. national debt is hurtling toward $40 trillion, and Bank of America Research strategist Michael Hartnett’s “Anything but Bonds” framework is becoming ever more applicable. Boiled down, Hartnett warns the US is accumulating too much debt, which causes the government to issue too many bonds—and investors want compensation for the fiscal risk—making long-duration Treasurys unattractive compared to other assets. Here’s why the climbing debt makes the advice worth a listen.

The U.S. national debt stands at roughly $39.9 trillion in mid-August and is expected to cross the $40 trillion threshold as early as this week. According to the Treasury’s official data, the government’s outstanding debt is made up of both intragovernmental holdings and debt held by the public.

Hartnett, Bank of America’s chief investment strategist, has turned that fiscal deterioration into one of his central investment themes. His “Anything but Bonds” call reflects his view that investors should be wary of long-duration government debt while the U.S. continues to run large deficits and the market demands higher yields to finance them. He expects the national debt to reach $50 trillion by 2029.

The concern is not that the government owes a lot of money. It’s that the government has to continually refinance and issue more debt, creating a larger supply of bonds that investors need to absorb. If investors become less willing to buy that debt at existing yields, the government has to offer higher interest rates to attract them.

This dynamic is already visible in the Treasury market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury reached 4.6%, while the 30-year yield hit 5.2%. Those elevated yields reflect the concerns over inflation, fiscal sustainability and the sheer amount of government borrowing. For bond investors, rising yields are a double-edged sword.

New bonds become more attractive because they offer higher income, but existing bonds lose value when market yields rise. The longer the maturity of the bond, the more sensitive the price generally is to changes in interest rates. That makes long-duration Treasurys particularly vulnerable if investors continue to demand higher returns to compensate for fiscal and inflation risks.

And while bonds may not be an attractive investment according to the Bank of America strategist, the bond market can represent one of the clearest gauges of the economy’s underlying health. Treasury yields reflect what investors think about inflation, economic growth, interest rates and the government’s ability to manage its finances.

When yields rise, the implications extend far beyond bond portfolios, especially due to Treasury rates helping setting the baseline cost of borrowing throughout the economy. The higher yields can translate into more expensive mortgages, corporate loans and consumer credit—potentially slowing investment, housing and spending. 

The federal government has borrowed $1.8 trillion during the first 10 months of fiscal 2026, including $432 billion in July alone. That borrowing creates a feedback loop. More debt creates more interest payments, and the interest payments can mean larger deficits. Ultimately, the Treasury must issue even more securities to make up for the borrowing. And the scale is already massive.

The interest bill on the national debt has climbed to roughly $1.4 trillion over the past year, according to Hartnett’s latest outlook. He argues the “Anything but Bonds” trade is unlikely to end until five-year Treasury yields fall below roughly 3.25%.

That explains why Hartnett is looking beyond traditional fixed-income investments. His argument expands that risk-reward has changed. Hartnett points to assets including gold and equities—and even opportunities in areas such as biotech and real estate. 

“The U.S. stock market hit an all-time high on the same day that the U.S. Treasuries issued at their highest yield in 25 years,” Hartnett said in the report. “That’s reality.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Organizations assisting detained bnei yeshivos reported on Wednesday morning that an attempted arrest late Tuesday night in Bat Yam failed.

According to the reports, Military Police arrived at a home in the city after midnight in an attempt to arrest a ben yeshiva.

A “Tzvea Shachor” message was issued to Peleg Yerushalmi members, and protesters began arriving at the scene and causing a ruckus, forcing the Military Police to leave the area empty-handed without making the arrest.

The protesters broke into spontaneous singing and dancing, which continued for a long time.

The attempted arrest, the first carried out by the Military Police after a long period of refraining from proactive arrests, came shortly after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sent a letter to military and police officials demanding increased sanctions and enforcement against bnei yeshivos.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court and one of its top prosecutors as it continues a campaign to dismantle the tribunal, which it accuses of trying to unfairly prosecute U.S. and Israeli soldiers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza.

The State Department said Tuesday it had hit ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal, with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in U.S. jurisdictions or come into contact with the U.S. financial system.

“The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has an outstanding arrest warrant against him issued by ex-ICC prosecutor, the morally corrupt Qatari agent Karim Khan, praised the move.

“The ICC has become a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law while undermining the very principles of justice,” Netanyahu stated.

“I commend Secretary of State Marco Rubio for leading the Trump Administration’s determined efforts against the ICC’s illegitimate overreach, and for making clear that the corrupt officials who lead the ICC will face consequences.”

The ICC was quick to respond, as it has done when faced with previous Trump administration actions, saying that the sanctions “undermine the rule of law.”

“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” it said.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem & AP)

Iran has examined options for striking U.S. military assets in Europe if the US resumes the war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday morning, citing sources close to the Iranian regime.

According to two regime insiders, Iran is considering the possibility of striking U.S. bases in southeastern Europe — if President Donald Trump follows through on his threats and strikes Iranian infrastructure.

According to information obtained by the newspaper, the Iranians have identified specific targets in Europe, including US bases in Bulgaria and Cyprus.

In addition to the missile threat, Iran is examining the possibility of striking undersea fiber-optic communications cables in the Strait of Hormuz in the event of an escalation.

However, the sources stressed that the scale and nature of the Iranian response would depend entirely on the steps taken by the United States going forward. One insider said that the Iranian attack on a US base in Jordan, which killed three US service members, was a “message to Europe.”

“This was also a message to Europe: it can receive missiles, so it should know where it should stand in this war,” he said. “A very big mistake, such as hitting our infrastructure, could make the war go beyond the region and reach Europe.”

The second insider emphasized that Iran would “set no limits” on its response if the United States “goes too far.”

“Should the US go too far, Iran will defend itself at any price, go beyond the region and hit Europe too,” he threatened.

Royal United Services Institute research fellow Sidharth Kaushal told the Times that Iran’s newest threat is “real, but limited.” He said the IRGC could use medium-range ballistic missiles to strike U.S. assets in southeastern Europe, but would have greater difficulty inflicting significant damage at longer ranges, as longer-range missiles would require a reduced payload.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

More than 600 bags of frozen dog food are facing a recall after FDA testing prompted by a consumer complaint found salmonella contamination.

Connecticut-based Oma’s Pride issued a recall for one lot of Woof Complete Canine Chicken Recipe, the company announced on Monday.

A total of 639 bags are affected by the recall effort. The impacted products have a manufacturing date of Jan 27, 2026, and a best-by date of Jan. 27, 2029. The recalled product is a raw dog food sold in a six-pound gusseted stand-up pouch containing 12 individually-wrapped, eight-ounce vacuum-sealed portions.

The recalled lot of dog food was distributed to retailers and wholesalers in 11 states: Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as directly to consumers through online orders. The products were distributed between Feb. 12 and May 15 of this year.

Oma’s Pride ships its products to consumers across 48 states, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii.

The recall was initiated after the FDA received a consumer complaint. The agency then collected and analyzed a sample of the product, which tested positive for salmonella.

Oma’s Pride said it is continuing an investigation to determine the source and root cause of the contamination.

Three illnesses in dogs have been reported in connection with the dog food. No human illnesses have been reported.

Salmonella can affect animals eating the dog food, the company said, adding that there is risk to people from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after touching the food or any surfaces exposed to it.

Pets with salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Some pets may only have decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or people.

Owners with pets who have consumed the recalled product and are showing these symptoms are urged to contact a veterinarian.

Healthy people infected with salmonella are advised to monitor themselves for symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Salmonella can cause additional ailments such as arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation and urinary tract symptoms.

People showing these signs after having contact with the recalled dog food should contact a healthcare provider.

Consumers who purchased the affected dog food are instructed to stop feeding it to their pets immediately, safely dispose of it and contact Oma’s Pride for a refund.

They should also wash and sanitize pet food bowls, cups and storage containers.

“Oma’s Pride is conducting further investigation to better understand this finding,” the company said. “The health and safety of pets and the people who care for them is our highest priority. We are proud of the food we make, and we remain committed to producing high-quality, biologically appropriate pet food. We will continue to update our customers as more information becomes available.”

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was delaying the 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports after the two countries reached a last-minute deal less than two hours before the sanctions were to go into effect.

The announcement, which Trump made on his social media platform, buys time for more negotiations and avoids, for now, another strain in already tense relations between the historic allies.

“I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

If they had gone into effect as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Trump’s import taxes would have hit Canadian products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.

But the political impact would likely have been bigger than the economic one. Canada had threatened to retaliate against any new tariffs with levies of its own, aggravating a trade fight between countries that sold each other $880 billion worth of goods and services last year.

A White House proclamation said Canada had expressed a commitment to remove measures the Trump administration considers discriminatory against U.S. alcohol, dairy and motor vehicle exports. Canada did not immediately confirm those commitments.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement “substantial progress” had been made but that important work remained, confirming Canada had agreed to the three-day delay while negotiations continued.

Carney and Trump had spoken twice by phone in the past two days about the ongoing negotiations, including a call Tuesday afternoon, Carney’s office said, underscoring the last-minute push for a deal.

Both countries had reason to step back from the brink. Nearly 72% of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the United States. And the Trump administration would be taking a risk by imposing a hefty new tariff — paid by U.S. importers who try to pass along the cost to consumers via higher prices — ahead of November’s midterm elections. U.S. voters are already frustrated with the high cost of living.

“I don’t think either side really wants these tariffs to come into effect,’’ Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official, said before the delay was announced. “There’s a pretty strong push on both sides to find an off-ramp here.’’

Canadian Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Candace Laing said in a statement that the three-day tariff delay offered businesses some relief but fell short of the certainty a signed interim agreement would provide.

“This limbo state is not anyone’s preferred outcome,” she said, urging negotiators to reach a deal quickly.

Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries. Trump has hit Canadian goods with tariffs — in a push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. — and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.

Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his second-term economic agenda. Last year, he imposed double-digit import taxes on almost every country, justifying them by declaring the longstanding U.S. trade deficit a national emergency. The Supreme Court in February ruled that he’d overstepped his authority, striking down those tariffs and setting the stage for the federal government to pay refunds to importers.

So Trump has looked for other legal authority to impose tariffs.

To hit Canada, he reached back to the Great Depression, invoking Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to threaten 50% tariffs on products that account for about 5% of Canadian exports to the United States.

Nearly a century ago, with the U.S. and world economies in collapse, Congress passed the 1930 tariff law, imposing taxes on imports from around the world. Known as the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, named for their congressional sponsors, they are notorious among economists and historians for limiting world commerce and making the Great Depression worse.

Section 338 tariffs have never been used before.

Section 338 authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 50% on imports from countries that have discriminated against U.S. businesses. No investigation is required to justify the levies. Nor is there any limit on how long the tariffs can stay in place.

The U.S. is renegotiating a North American trade pact — the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement — that Trump strong-armed America’s neighbors into accepting in his first term. The threat of Section 338 tariffs gives the United States leverage to seek fresh concessions from Ottawa.

(AP)

The US Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday unsealed new and updated charges against 17 individuals working with an Iranian company that it alleges carried out hacks and data theft against US universities, companies, and government agencies.

The DOJ said in a statement that the individuals were working with the Mabna Institute, which carried out hacking campaigns on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government and university clients.

The campaigns targeted hundreds of US and international universities, dozens of US companies, and at least five US state and federal government agencies, it said.

A previous indictment announced in March 2018 had charged nine of the 17 with a hacking campaign that targeted the US Labor Department, the United Nations and computer networks in Hawaii and Indiana.

The Iranian government’s representatives at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Contact information for the Mabna Institute was not immediately available.

Charges reveal ‘broader network,’ US attorney says

The charges announced on Tuesday reveal “the broader network allegedly behind a sweeping, state-sponsored campaign to steal research and intellectual property from American universities, businesses, and government institutions,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald said in the statement.

The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program on Tuesday announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the location of several of the people included in Tuesday’s charges.

According to Tuesday’s statement by the DOJ, the Mabna Institute since at least 2013 and through 2017 targeted more than 100,000 accounts of professors around the world, including the successful penetration of roughly 8,000 professor email accounts across 144 US-based universities and 178 universities in other countries.

This post was originally published on here.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rebbetzin Sarah Rochel Yisroelson a”h, a daughter of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l and the widow of Rav Yosef Yisroel Yisroelson zt”l. She passed away overnight at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak. She was 93.

Just last Wednesday, Rebbetzin Yisroelson participated in the engagement celebration of her youngest grandchild. The following day, she collapsed, and her condition subsequently deteriorated, requiring hospitalization. Her many descendants gathered near her room to recite Tehillim, and during the night she passed away.

Rebbetzin Yisroelson was born in Yerushalayim on 3 Teves 5693 to her father, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l, the renowned posek hador, and her mother, Rebbetzin Sheina Chaya a”h, a daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin zt”l.

She was raised in a home permeated with Torah and witnessed firsthand the extraordinary mesirus nefesh of her parents for Torah despite difficult circumstances.

Upon reaching marriageable age, she married Rav Yosef Yisroel Yisroelson zt”l, who served as rosh kollel of Kollel Bar Shaul in Rechovot and authored the sefer Kitzurei Halachos. He was known as an exceptional talmid chochom who lived quietly and avoided public recognition.

Together, Rebbetzin Yisroelson and her husband established a home founded upon Torah and yiras Shomayim. She devoted herself to supporting her husband and enabling him to dedicate himself to his learning.

For decades, the Yisroelsons lived at 5 Chazon Ish Street in Bnei Brak, where their neighbors included Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman zt”l and Rav Yitzchok Grodzensky zt”l.

Rebbetzin Yisroelson was deeply devoted to her father and would travel from Bnei Brak to his home twice each week to take care of his household needs. She would arrive at approximately 11:30 a.m. and remain until 7 p.m. When her work was finished, she would approach her father before returning to Bnei Brak and wish him “a gute nacht.” Rav Elyashiv would respond warmly, thanking her for everything she had done and blessing her that she merit success, bracha and nachas from all her descendants.

During the final years of Rav Elyashiv’s life, his extraordinary hasmadah intensified even further, to the point that he was reluctant to interrupt his learning for virtually anything. During that period, even when his daughter came to say goodbye before leaving, Rav Elyashiv would simply nod his head toward her rather than interrupt his learning.

Someone once asked Rebbetzin Yisroelson whether she was hurt that her father merely nodded to her while giving warm brachos to the many others who came to see him.

She replied: “My father warmly blesses everyone who comes to his home because he knows that they need it. But he knows me and knows that I am happy with every second that he learns, and therefore I prefer to forgo his farewell blessing as long as I do not interrupt his learning or take away from his precious moments.”

During her lifetime, Rebbetzin Yisroelson sat shivah for four of her sisters: Rebbetzin Batsheva Esther Kanievsky a”h, Rebbetzin Leah Auerbach a”h, Rebbetzin Dina Ettel Berlin a”h and Rebbetzin Shoshana Zilberstein a”h. She also mourned the passing of her brothers, Rav Shlomo Elyashiv zt”l and Rav Avrohom Elyashiv zt”l.

She is survived by her sons, Rav Dov Yisroelson, a distinguished talmid chochom; Rav Avrohom Tzvi Yisroelson, rov of Chanichei Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer; Rav Shlomo Yisroelson, an educational supervisor at Talmud Torah Avi Ezri-Halichos Shmuel; and Rav Lipa Yisroelson, publisher of the seforim of Rav Elyashiv, among others. She is also survived by her son-in-law, Rav Dovid Sofer, rov of the Alfei Menashe kehillah in Bnei Brak.

She is also survived by her brothers, Rav Moshe Elyashiv and Rav Binyomin Dovid Elyashiv, and her sister, Rebbetzin Rimer.

Yehi zichrah baruch.

{Matzav.com}

Iraq’s cabinet approved mechanisms for exporting Iraqi crude through specialized international and local companies and via multiple export outlets, the government said on Tuesday.

The contracts under the new mechanism will run for three months starting September 1, according to a statement issued after the cabinet meeting.

Iraq is seeking to diversify its oil export channels and maintain flexibility in marketing its crude amid the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted regional oil flows and created uncertainty around shipping routes.

Iraq developed alternate export routes

Iraq has worked to develop alternative export routes in addition to its traditional southern terminals, including routes through Turkey and Syria, as it seeks to reduce reliance on Gulf shipping routes.

Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer and relies heavily on crude exports for state revenue. Most of its exports are shipped from terminals in the southern Gulf, leaving the country particularly exposed to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

The government did not immediately provide details on the companies to be selected, the volumes to be exported under the mechanism, or the specific export outlets covered by the contracts.

This post was originally published on here.

Steak ‘n Shake, the fast-food chain embracing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, announced that it will launch a new “Protein Steakburger” next month.

The restaurant chain unveiled the Protein Steakburger, along with a Double Steakburger Double Cheese, with both menu items set to launch Sept. 1.

“Real ingredients. Real food. The Protein Steakburger consists of two 100% grass-fed, grass-finished Steakburgers,” the company wrote. “It’s the perfect meal after a hard workout.”

The announcement comes amid Steak ‘n Shake’s broader push toward what the company has described as simpler and more transparent ingredients.

Steak ‘n Shake said the Protein Steakburger contains 530 calories, 31 grams of protein and 6 grams of carbohydrates. The Double Steakburger Double Cheese contains 690 calories, 31 grams of protein and 38 grams of carbohydrates.

Images released by the company show the Protein Steakburger served with lettuce in place of a traditional bun, while the Double Steakburger Double Cheese is served on a traditional bun.

In a previous social media post, Steak ‘n Shake said it was embracing “MAHA principles” as it embarked on a “mission to change the landscape of fast food with healthier options.”

“We are the only national chain offering 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef and 100% beef tallow fries,” the company wrote. “It is not only better tasting but also better for you!”

The new burgers come months after Steak ‘n Shake tapped Michael Boes in April as its first-ever chief MAHA officer, an executive role the company said is “dedicated to advancing nutritional integrity, ingredient transparency and the healthiness of our products.”

Boes, who previously served as a senior adviser at HHS, said at the time that fast food does not have to mean processed or artificial menus, but rather “real, simple and delicious” food.

Steak ‘n Shake framed the hire as part of a broader effort to return to its roots.

“The move marks a major step in the company’s efforts to restore the original spirit of American fast food: food that is simple, real and delicious,” the company said.

The move also received praise from President Donald Trump, who shared the company’s post and wrote: “Awesome.”

Boes discussed Steak ‘n Shake’s embrace of the MAHA movement during an interview with Fox News last month, arguing that consumers increasingly want more natural ingredients.

“The reality is people want this,” Boes said. “It’s this ode to what the food environment was 50, 60 years ago, what my grandfather, my parents enjoyed. I think people want that. No one ever demanded these chemicals and highly processed seed oils. It was never implemented due to taste. It was profits. And we wanted to put a stake in the ground on being an American company and delivering the best food for Americans.”

The new menu items also drew praise from some social media users.

“Amazing option!” one user wrote. “I told my oldest two (now at college) if they get hungry and opt for fast food, head to a Steak ‘n Shake since you use tallow and grass-fed beef. Appreciate your fast-food new healthy ingredients and menu.”

In recent months, Steak ‘n Shake has switched to cooking fries, tater tots and other fried items in 100% beef tallow, eliminating seed oils from those products. The chain has also moved to 100% Wisconsin butter in certain applications, offered Coca-Cola made with cane sugar as an alternative to high-fructose corn syrup and introduced A2 milk products.

FOX Business has reached out to Steak ‘n Shake for additional information.

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Bardolf contributed to this report.

Sunshine State voters will need to choose between two pro-Israel candidates for governor in November’s general election to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis, after Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly won their respective primaries on Tuesday night.

The Associated Press called both the Republican and Democratic primary races for governor at 8 p.m., about an hour after polls closed on Tuesday, with around 85% of the votes counted in both races. By that time, Donalds had secured 48.6% of the GOP primary votes and Jolly had amassed 61.5% of Democratic primary votes. 

Jolly had been a Republican Representative for Florida in the US House from 2014-2017, representing the South-Central coastal zone, but gradually abandoned the party for the Democrats as he distanced himself from US President Donald Trump. Byron Donalds has served as Florida’s Representative in Washington since 2019.

DeSantis, Florida’s governor since 2019, is term-limited by state law and therefore isn’t able to run for reelection. His replacement will be filling the shoes of a governor known for his unwavering stance on Israel and his intolerance for the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement. 

A strong supporter of Israel, DeSantis was the first Florida governor to visit the West Bank, stopping in an Israeli industrial park in the Gush Etzion region there in 2019.   Amid pressure from DeSantis that same year, Airbnb reversed a policy that had removed apartment listings in West Bank settlements. 

Byrons supported Trump launching Iran strikes, while Jolly warned against dangers

DeSantis has signed off on multiple bills that focused on protecting Florida’s Jewish community from antisemitic attacks, as well as a proclamation that celebrated Israel’s 75th independence in 2023.He has also been a strong backer of military action against Iran. 

Donalds, who would be Florida’s first Black governor if elected, earned the endorsement of President Trump and has similarly expressed support for decisive action against Iran. 

“Peace is achieved through strength, not weakness,” Donalds said in a post on X/Twitter at the beginning of the war. “I stand with President Trump, our military, and the hope this leads to lasting security in the Middle East.” 

In Congress, however, Donalds voted in 2024 against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the US House but stalled in the Senate.

He said he couldn’t support the bill because it “was rushed, the language was unclear and no amendments were allowed.” But he pledged his steadfast support for the State of Israel and his Jewish neighbors and stressed that antisemitism must be clearly defined. 

In keeping with that principle, Donalds said he had previously voted for a Florida bill that described antisemitism “as hateful perceptions, rhetorical and physical manifestations, language that justifies the killing or harming of Jews, Holocaust disinformation, tropes regarding dual loyalties, the application of a double standard towards Israel, and denial of the fact that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.”

On the other side of the aisle, Jolly has been a longtime supporter of Israel, and that  stance has remained unshaken during his shift from Republican to moderate Democrat.

During his time in Congress as a Republican, Jolly paid a 2016 visit to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then called for the US to raise annual military assistance for Israel from $3.1 billion to $5 billion, according to local media reports.

Where Jolly has sharply diverged from Donalds today is in his perspective on US military action in Iran. The same day that Donalds declared his support for Trump’s decision, Jolly posted an opposing viewpoint. 

“This president enters war without the broad confidence of the American people and with a cabinet largely unqualified,” Jolly warned in a February post on X.

While stressing that Trump lacks support from Congress, Jolly also said that he would pray for the safety of US troops and “a swift end to conflict” now that it had begun. 

“We likewise pray for a successful outcome from our operations — a more stable region and world, a reduced nuclear threat and a fuller embrace of freedom abroad,” he added.

This post was originally published on here.

The Administrative Tribunal of Quebec has ruled in favor of Belzer educational institutions in Montreal, overturning a government decision that threatened to strip the mosdos of their licenses and public funding.

The dispute began approximately two months ago, when Quebec authorities moved against the Belz educational system over allegations that the schools were failing to meet government requirements governing secular studies.

The threatened action affected three Belz institutions in Montreal — a preschool, Talmud Torah and yeshiva ketana — serving approximately 600 children and bochurim.

Quebec authorities alleged several deficiencies, including a shortage of certified teachers proficient in English and French, failure to meet required instructional hours for mandatory subjects, the use of unapproved educational materials and issues involving emergency exits.

The Belz mosdos strongly rejected the allegations and challenged the government’s decision before Quebec’s Administrative Tribunal, arguing that the action was based on “incorrect factual assumptions, inconsistent analysis and a disproportionate measure.”

The court has now sided with the mosdos and overturned the government’s decision, clearing the way for the schools to continue operating normally while retaining the funding required for their operations.

The ruling comes as a major relief to hundreds of Belzer families in Montreal who had faced uncertainty over the future of their children’s mosdos.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Conor Kennedy, the son of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been placed on Russia’s international wanted list over his decision to fight alongside Ukrainian forces following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.

Moscow’s Basmanny District Court authorized Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia,” accusing the 32-year-old of serving as a mercenary with Ukraine’s armed forces, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

If apprehended and convicted in Russia, Kennedy could face a prison sentence of between seven and 10 years, the Russian outlet reported.

Kennedy disclosed in October 2022 that he had secretly traveled to Ukraine and enlisted with the country’s International Legion, joining fighters on the front lines against Russian forces. He said at the time that he had kept the decision almost entirely secret, revealing his whereabouts to only one person back home.

“Like many people, I was deeply moved by what I saw happening in Ukraine over the past year. I wanted to help. When I heard about Ukraine’s International Legion, I knew I was going, and I went to the embassy to enlist the next day,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

Kennedy explained that he deliberately concealed his identity and plans from almost everyone around him.

“I told one person here where I was, and I told one person there my real name. I didn’t want my family or friends to worry, and I didn’t want to be treated differently there.”

The third child of RFK Jr. acknowledged that he arrived in Ukraine without a military background and “wasn’t a great shot,” but said he could handle physically demanding tasks and “learned fast.”

“I was also willing to die there,” the Kennedy scion wrote. “So they soon agreed to send me to the northeastern front.”

Kennedy even kept the enlistment secret from his father and his stepmother, actress Cheryl Hines. Rather than tell them that he was heading to Ukraine, he informed his family that he had decided not to take a planned position at a Los Angeles law firm that summer.

The grandson of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy reportedly asked his parents not to press him about where he was going, telling them only that he intended to pursue something he strongly believed in.

“We asked him when he was starting [the job at the law firm],” RFK Jr. previously told People.

“He had a good job and we were looking forward to having him stay with us. And he told us that he had given notice to the law firm and he was doing something else instead.”

His family eventually began suspecting that something unusual was happening when charges from Poland and Ukraine started appearing on his credit card statements, according to the report.

“When he got back, I kind of expressed some — I don’t know — whether it’s anger or whatever,” RFK Jr. said.

“He said to me, when he heard maybe a little bit of anger and concern, ‘Dad, this is what you taught me to do: to stand up for what I believe in.’ And I was like ‘okay.’ ”

“I’m very proud of this. Of my son,” the Trump administration Cabinet secretary added.

RFK Jr. said he and his son did not share the same perspective on the conflict, but he respected Conor’s willingness to personally act on the position he had advocated.

“And I knew his views about the war were not aligned with mine. Although he’s not naive at all about it. … He’d been arguing vociferously for the U.S. intervention and he didn’t want to be one of these people supporting a war and sitting on the sideline.”

After spending approximately two and a half months serving on the front lines in Ukraine, Kennedy returned to the United States and resumed his legal studies at Georgetown University.

Kennedy, who previously had a brief relationship with Taylor Swift and married Brazilian singer-songwriter Giulia Be earlier this year, is currently listed as an associate attorney at the Los Angeles office of Wisner Baum.

Kennedy is not the only foreign national whom Moscow has sought over alleged involvement in Ukraine’s military. Other foreign volunteers placed on Russia’s wanted list reportedly include 37-year-old American citizen Ingram Asbill Tracy James and British citizen Shorney Joseph Richard Ryan.

{Matzav.com}

An Ashkelon resident was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of planting malware in the computer systems of dozens of Israeli companies and using it to collect sensitive information and computer files.

The arrest followed an undercover investigation by the Israel Police Cyber Unit in Lahav 433, which worked to identify the individual allegedly behind the widespread cyber operation.

Police said investigators conducted what they described as “complex analytical activity” before tracing the suspected attacks to the Ashkelon resident.

The investigation moved into its overt phase early Tuesday morning, when detectives arrested the suspect and searched his home as well as several companies connected to the investigation.

The suspect was questioned under caution on suspicion of offenses under Israel’s Computers Law, illegal wiretapping, privacy violations and additional offenses.

Following questioning, he was brought before the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court, which extended his detention until August 23.

At the request of the suspect’s attorney, the court imposed a gag order prohibiting publication of his name.

The investigation remains ongoing with the involvement of the State Attorney’s Office Cyber Department.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Costco will soon offer Medicare plans to certain members as part of a new, first-of-its-kind health insurance venture. 

The warehouse giant has teamed up with SCAN Health Plan, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit Medicare Advantage plans focused on senior health care, the insurance company announced Tuesday. 

Under the partnership, the companies will launch a “suite of senior-focused” insurance products over the coming years. 

Pending regulatory approval, the suite could include a revamped pharmacy experience, Medflex over-the-counter pharmacy benefits, vision care coverage, audiology or hearing benefits and more. 

The plans will be sold at Costco stores and also made available through insurance agents and websites, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The companies have not revealed exactly when the plans will become available, as regulatory review and approval are still pending. SCAN currently serves members across 33 counties in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico and Washington. 

SCAN Health said the initiative was designed to address the “disjointed experience that many seniors face accessing care and services” and will “bring more value and better experience to seniors as they navigate their health insurance.” 

“For the millions of older adults who rely on Medicare Advantage, the future of the program depends on strong partnerships that make healthcare more accessible, more connected and more seamlessly integrated into everyday life,” Dr. Sachin Jain, CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan, said in a statement.

 “Older adults want healthcare that is easier to navigate, more responsive to their needs and rooted in organizations they trust. Our expanded partnership with Costco will give us a strong foundation to explore new ways to help people stay healthy and independent while delivering the quality, value, and service both of our organizations are known for.”

Costco CEO Ron Vachris added that the partnership with SCAN serves as an extension of the company’s commitment to providing value to its customers.

“For more than 40 years, Costco has consistently listened to our Members and earned their trust delivering consistent value on essential goods and expanding our health service offerings,” Vachris said in a statement. 

“Selecting SCAN as our partner to deliver a better healthcare experience for seniors, is an extension of that commitment. We have developed a shared understanding of what matters most to the seniors we serve. Deepening our partnership allows us to build on that foundation and create value for our Members.”

FOX Business reached out to Scan Health for more information.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday stood by his decision to label extremist West Bank settlers who terrorize Palestinians as “terrorists,” warning that their actions are damaging Israel and the Jewish people. At the same time, he rejected reports that Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu and U.S. envoy Jared Kushner clashed over the next stage of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.

Huckabee first applied the term last week in a post on X while discussing extremists who have surrounded several homes in the West Bank village of Qusra. The group has repeatedly returned to the area despite efforts by the Israeli military to disperse them, apparently seeking to force the residents — one of whom is an American citizen — from their homes.

“I’ve been rebuked by people who said, ‘Well, that’s not terrorism,’” Huckabee said in an interview with Channel 12 news.

“But from the US definition of terror, when acts are conducted that cause people to change their behavior, and put them in fear for their lives, when things are done to people for the express purpose, whether they’re done to a nation, whether they’re done to a specific individual or to a family, but it causes them to be afraid to live their lives — that’s terror.”

The ambassador emphasized that those responsible represent “a very small minority” of Israelis. He also said that many do not actually reside in the West Bank, quipping, “they’re not settlers, they’re unsettlers.”

“They’re there to stir up trouble and the damage that they are doing to Israel, the damage they are doing to the Jewish people – I have no idea why they think that they’re accomplishing anything other than hurting the very people they claim to be fighting for,” he said.

Addressing the situation in Qusra specifically, Huckabee said he believed Israeli authorities were already “acting” against those involved, independent of any intervention from the U.S. Embassy. Ordinarily, he explained, “we don’t have a direct involvement if it doesn’t involve an American citizen.”

“But once it involves an American citizen, then our involvement is pretty much automatic and it’s going to be significant because that’s our job,” he said.

Asked whether he was troubled that Netanyahu had not publicly denounced what was happening in Qusra, amid reports that Washington had urged the prime minister to issue a condemnation, Huckabee responded, “What we’re looking for is responsible action.”

The confrontation in Qusra comes against the backdrop of a months-long increase in violence by extremist settlers, including almost daily incidents targeting Palestinians or their property. Arrests and prosecutions in connection with those attacks have remained relatively uncommon.

In a separate Channel 13 interview, Huckabee said the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator in Yerushalayim has been involved in efforts to reduce tensions in the West Bank. Created in 2005, the USSC works to improve and strengthen Palestinian Authority security forces while encouraging their security coordination with Israel. Although personnel from the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria participate in the international mission, it operates under American leadership.

“We would like to see all those taking part in terror activities face grave consequences,” said Huckabee.

Huckabee also pushed back strongly against accounts suggesting Netanyahu and Kushner had a contentious exchange Monday over the future implementation of Trump’s Gaza initiative. He said Washington understands that Israel cannot be expected to withdraw further from Gaza while Hamas continues to possess weapons.

“Where do the people get this? I was in the room. I was a part of every conversation. That simply did not happen like that,” Huckabee said of the reported tensions during the Monday meeting.

“There was an agreement, and it was a good agreement, that we all want to see this [plan] move forward, but we also recognize that what the president has made clear is that Hamas must disarm, demilitarize, and they have no future in the governing of Gaza.”

Despite reports of frustration within the Trump administration over Israeli military operations in Gaza, Huckabee maintained that Israel “never backed away” from its support for President Trump’s broader 20-point framework for Gaza’s postwar future. He said Washington and Yerushalayim also remain aligned on Israel’s “right to defend itself.”

“Israel has always maintained, and the US has respected, that Israel has a right to defend itself. And if they have an imminent threat, they’re not expected to stand back and take it in the teeth. Nobody expects that of them,” he said.

Turning to the question of Israeli troop withdrawals, Huckabee said it has “been clearly understood that Israel is not expected to move their boundaries as long as Hamas has still got arms and RPGs and grenades. That’s the whole point of the disarmament.”

His comments came as Israel continued to raise objections to the Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament proposal. That framework calls for the IDF to gradually withdraw from portions of Gaza while Hamas simultaneously turns over its weapons. Netanyahu has rejected that sequence, maintaining that Israeli forces will not withdraw until Hamas has been fully disarmed.

Although Huckabee portrayed the differences as limited, sources familiar with Monday’s talks have said that the question was not ultimately settled during Netanyahu’s meeting with Kushner in Yerushalayim.

One source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said that after the Netanyahu-Kushner talks, the Board of Peace began considering an alternative formula under which Hamas would completely disarm and Israel would fully withdraw from Gaza. No final agreement on such an arrangement has been reached.

Huckabee also defended Kushner against criticism in Israel over the American envoy’s recent decision to meet senior Hamas officials in Cairo.

During his Channel 13 interview, Huckabee said Kushner “didn’t meet with them because he thought that he was dealing with honest brokers, but he needed to convey the message very clearly from the United States: You’ve got to disarm, demilitarize, and you have no future.”

In another interview with Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, Huckabee was questioned about the growing anti-Israel sentiment seen among segments of both the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States and whether Israeli policies had contributed to the trend.

“They cannot change the voices of people who are antisemitic and hate Israel,” the ambassador said.

“And a lot of this comes from the billions of dollars that’s being spent by the Muslim Brotherhood sponsored entities that fund all of these Middle East studies programs on American campuses,” he continued, while also accusing Russia and China of helping spread misinformation online.

Huckabee said one way to counter negative perceptions is to encourage more people to visit Israel themselves. He also argued that Israel needs to pursue a more forceful and effective public diplomacy campaign.

At the same time, he warned that Israelis themselves should avoid behavior that strengthens the arguments of Israel’s opponents.

“But he added: “Israelis have to be careful not to give ammunition to these critics.” The ambassador again pointed to violent extremists in the West Bank, saying their actions amounted to “pouring gasoline on a fire.”

“Why would you help your enemies hate you more?” Huckabee said.

{Matzav.com}

Family getting up:

Rabbi Avraham Stone
Husband

Rabbi Mordechai Machlis
Brother

Rabbi Gedalya Machlis
Brother

Sitting at 552 East 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY,11218
Mincha at 1:45
Maariv at 9:30
Please only come before and after davening.

Mrs. Mashy Shatzkes
Sister

Sitting at her house-165 East 8th Street, Lakewood, NJ 08701 on Motzei Shabbos from 11:00-12:30.

Rabbi Dov Machlis
Brother

Sitting shiva on Friday from 9:30-1:30 at 2239 80th Street in Bensonhurst

Mrs. Malky Rivkin
Daughter

Rabbi Levi Stone
Son

Rabbi Yisroel Stone
Son

Rabbi Mendel Stone
Son

Several senior Likud officials are pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce on Tuesday evening that Yoseph Haddad will be given a reserved spot on the Likud’s Knesset list, amid concerns that he could instead join a new party being formed by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter and deepen a split in the right-wing vote.

The pressure on Netanyahu stems from growing concern within Likud over the formation of a new political framework to its right. According to party officials, bringing Haddad into Likud is intended not only to add a well-known public figure to the list, but also to prevent him from joining Winter and strengthening a party that could compete for the same pool of voters.

The concern is not merely theoretical. Haddad is behind an application to register a new party called “Brave Israel,” although his name does not appear in the registration documents. Haddad has been holding talks about joining forces with Winter, who has been working in recent months to establish an independent political platform.

Haddad himself has previously made clear that he is considering entering politics.

At the same time, Winter is moving forward with his political plans and intends to announce the formation of a party in the near future. If he runs in the election, he intends to do so independently rather than join an existing party.

Talks between Winter and Haddad are continuing, and political figures are waiting to see whether they will lead to an alliance between the two.

Likud fears votes could be lost below electoral threshold

Likud officials are particularly concerned about a scenario in which a party led by Winter draws votes away from Likud and other parties on the Right but fails to cross the electoral threshold, thereby weakening the entire bloc.

Those concerns were also reflected this week in polls examining Winter’s electoral potential, which have indicated that a Winter-led party could draw support from parties on the Right.

This post was originally published on here.

FLORIDA (VINnews/Editorial) – The sadder story coming out of Florida tonight is not that Dan Bilzerian lost his Republican congressional primary. It is that he received roughly 11,000 votes at all.

Bilzerian ran a campaign steeped in antisemitic rhetoric and repeatedly invoked Adolf Hitler. His statements and campaign material have led to him being widely condemned as a neo-Nazi and antisemite.

And yet, thousands of Republican voters still walked into polling places and chose his name.

That should disturb every American, regardless of political party.

Bilzerian was decisively defeated by Rep. Randy Fine, who secured the Republican nomination. Fine, who is Jewish, had been the target of some of Bilzerian’s most inflammatory rhetoric during the campaign.

The election result is certainly a victory over antisemitism. But celebrating the defeat while ignoring the 11,000 votes would miss the bigger warning.

How does a candidate who openly embraces Hitler and repeatedly attacks Jews manage to attract thousands of votes in an American congressional primary?

That is the question we should be asking tonight.

This is bigger than one congressional district and bigger than one political party. Antisemitism does not become less dangerous because the candidate promoting it loses.

Bilzerian lost.

But the fact that thousands of Americans were willing to vote for him is the part that should keep us awake.

Rav Avraham Yosef issued a strong warning against participating in a Mincha minyan held after the time of Tzeis Hakochavim according to the Geonim, ruling that the time is already definitively considered nighttime and that one should not remain in the area while such a minyan is taking place.

The issue arose during Rav Yosef’s “Shamor V’Zachor” program on Israeli radio, when a listener presented a situation that can occur during the winter months. The listener said he learns in a beis medrash where Mincha is sometimes held according to Rabbeinu Tam’s later calculation, after Tzeis Hakochavim according to the Geonim, and asked what he should do if he is present when the minyan begins.

Rav Yosef responded unequivocally: “Get out of there. It is forbidden to answer Amen after them.”

Rav Yosef explained that once Tzeis Hakochavim according to the Geonim has arrived, halachah considers it fully nighttime. To illustrate the significance of that determination, he cited the halachos governing a bris milah.

“A baby who is born tonight, at eight o’clock, we perform his bris on Shabbos,” Rav Yosef said.

“The halachah is definitively in accordance with the Geonim,” he added, explaining that Mincha therefore may not be davened after that point.

Addressing a situation in which someone is either in the street or inside a beis medrash and is asked to join a Mincha minyan at such a late hour, Rav Yosef again gave an emphatic response.

“They want to daven Mincha? Get out of there,” he said.

Rav Yosef stressed that once Tzeis Hakochavim according to the Geonim has passed, a person should not participate in such a Mincha minyan.

The listener subsequently asked whether Rav Yosef’s warning applied only to answering Amen to brachos recited during the minyan, or whether one should also refrain from responding to Kedushah.

“No, leave there. I said to leave; don’t get involved,” Rav Yosef replied.

Rav Yosef compared the situation to encountering a minyan at the Kosel that is davening Shacharis after the proper time, saying that in such circumstances as well, a person should avoid joining the tefillah.

{Matzav.com}

Rillet, a two-year-old startup building what it calls the first truly AI-native accounting platform, has raised a $100 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation, the company told Fortune exclusively—joining the ranks of AI-era unicorns racing to unseat decades-old enterprise software giants.

The round, led by ICONIQ with participation from returning backers Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Oak HC/FT, plus new investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Global Equities, Battery Ventures, FirstMark, Scale Venture Partners and Creandum, marks Rillet’s third fundraise in the past year and pushes its total funding past $200 million. ICONIQ general partner Seth Pierrepont is joining Rillet’s board as well.

For Rillet co-founder and CEO Nicolas Kopp, the milestone is as much personal as financial. In an interview with Fortune, Kopp described the company’s mission as freeing CFOs from the drudgery that keeps them chained to spreadsheets long after everyone else has logged off.

“CFOs really struggle day to day. They can’t see their families on weekends,” Kopp said, because they have to spend so much time reviewing data and creating slideshows. Noting that he has a finance and accounting background himself and that his company is full of people with accounting backgrounds, he said he wants AI to change that—not by replacing finance professionals, but by acting as their tireless back office. “Our message is not that we’re coming after jobs. That’s just not correct,” he said, stressing that “domain expertise” is core the company’s mission: “We’re positioning AI as a helper to that individual and what they can achieve.”

From launch to unicorn in two years

Rillet’s rise has been fast even by startup standards. Kopp said the company launched publicly roughly two years ago, raised a Series A led by Sequoia last summer, then closed a Series B just weeks later—a round that saw new annual recurring revenue double quarter over quarter. The company says it doubled its new ARR again in the three months leading into this latest raise, and now serves more than 600 customers.

Those customers include some of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world—Neuralink, Skild AI and Mercor among them—alongside a growing share of decidedly non-tech businesses. Roughly 40% of Rillet’s customer base now sits outside the tech and AI sectors, Kopp said, spanning industries as varied as waste recycling and movie studios, describing the shift as evidence that AI-native finance tools are crossing into the broader U.S. economy. “That’s been really cool to see,” he said.

Mercor, in particular, has become a marquee reference customer: According to the company, its finance team is using Rillet’s AI agents to manage a business scaling past $2 billion in annual recurring revenue with a headcount of just three.

“Rillet is the clear leader in AI-native accounting infrastructure,” Pierrepont said in a press release announcing the fundraise. “What stands out is how customers actually run on it—multibillion-dollar businesses operating with finance teams a tenth the traditional size, closing their books continuously.”

Taking on the legacy giants

Rillet’s pitch to the market is direct: Legacy enterprise resource planning systems—Oracle Fusion, SAP, Workday, Microsoft’s Great Plains and NetSuite among them—were built for a pre-AI era, and are increasingly vulnerable to a challenger built from scratch around artificial intelligence.

“Some of these giants that seemed untouchable” are now facing serious disruption, Kopp said, describing a wave of enterprise customers ripping out legacy systems in favor of Rillet’s platform. The core distinction Kopp draws is architectural. Traditional ERP systems, he said, were designed for humans to input and review data—a workflow that leaves finance chiefs “dragged down into the day-to-day minutiae of numbers” instead of focusing on strategy. Rillet, by contrast, is built “agent-first,” with AI systems capable of running hundreds of operations in parallel, executing much of the manual accounting work that traditionally consumed finance teams’ time.

That shift, Kopp argues, doesn’t just save time: it produces cleaner, more consistent financial data than human-run processes typically allow, while creating what he calls a complete audit trail. “Proving out the work layer is mission-critical for enterprise readiness,” Kopp said, arguing that Rillet is the only system that can combine deterministic accounting data with AI agents completing complex, end-to-end work in the market today.

Rillet has paired that pitch with credibility-building moves in the accounting establishment. Earlier this year, the company launched an alliance with EY for AI-native finance transformation, and it says it now partners with more than half of the Accounting Today top 20 CPA firms.

The AI acceleration

Kopp traces much of Rillet’s recent momentum to rapid improvements in underlying AI models. Accounting, he noted, is “traditionally a very old, stodgy category”—one where AI has emerged as an unexpected catalyst. “Especially in the last six months, things started lighting on fire in a good way,” he said, describing tasks that once took a human a full day now taking a couple of minutes. This frees up time not for job loss, but for higher-level strategic work, he added.

That acceleration comes as the accounting profession faces a separate, slower-moving crisis: fewer graduates entering finance and accounting careers. Kopp sees that talent gap as part of the opportunity. He argued that AI agents can help make up for a shrinking pipeline of human accountants even as business complexity—from pricing changes to competitive pressure—continues to increase.

Rillet’s own product development has sped up in step with its AI capabilities, according to Kopp. He pointed to instances where the company’s customer support team (many of them with accounting training) has shipped feature requests within two to three hours of a customer raising them, as engineers increasingly build tools in direct collaboration with the company’s in-house accountants. “That wasn’t possible six to 12 months ago.”

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean and U.S. militaries have agreed to shorten their drills at the U.S.’s request, South Korean officials said Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump ordered cuts to the exercises.

The allies’ summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began Monday morning for an 11-day run, just after Trump ordered his Pentagon chief to “substantially reduce” them. Trump cited what he said was a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to join the U.S. war against Iran.

South Korea’s military said in a statement the ongoing drills with the U.S. would end Friday, not Aug. 27 as initially planned. It said the allies also agreed to downsize some joint field training exercises.

Many experts say Trump’s move threatens to hurt combined U.S.-South Korean readiness and eventually weaken their decades-long alliance.

Ulchi Freedom Shield is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise meant to hone the allies’ ability to deal with potential regional security threats like North Korean aggression. The two countries usually hold field training exercises during the command post exercise period.

The drills and a similar springtime exercise are a central pillar of the U.S. -South Korea alliance, which dates to the 1950-53 Korean War. But it’s also a long-running source of tensions with North Korea, which has denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for war and responded with provocative missile tests.

North Korea hasn’t responded to Trump’s overture. But earlier Wednesday, its state news agency, KCNA, published commentary slamming the U.S.-South Korean military drills as “frantic” and “extremely dangerous” and vowing to completely frustrate its rivals’ hostilities.

Experts said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, now emboldened by his advancing nuclear program and expanding military cooperation, won’t likely embrace Trump’s overture anytime soon unless he’s promised bigger concessions. In response to Trump’s previous outreach, Kim suggested last year that he can return to talks only after the U.S. drops its demand of a North Korean denuclearization as a precondition for diplomacy.

Trump and Kim met three times from 2018-2019 but their high-stakes diplomacy eventually fell apart over wrangling over a North Korean demand for extensive sanctions relief in return for limited denuclearization steps.

I am writing to express a concern regarding the current canteen system at the camp. While canteen money has traditionally been a fun way for campers to buy occasional treats like ice cream or drinks, the current offerings have expanded to include full meals such as sushi, sandwiches, and hot food.

Given the significant tuition we already pay, the camp should provide sufficient meals and snacks so that children do not need to rely on the canteen for sustenance. Furthermore, the availability of these expensive options creates an environment where kids expect substantial additional spending; our son went through his $150 budget in just three weeks, despite also bringing a full box of snacks from home.

I believe the canteen should remain a fun part of the camp experience without functioning as an additional, costly restaurant. I hope you will consider scaling back the menu to traditional treats rather than full meal options.

Best regards,
E.G. Lakewood

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)

Newly revealed figures show the extraordinary scale of charitable giving by two of Satmar’s most prominent philanthropists, Reb Yoel Landau and Reb Lipa Friedman, who together donated approximately $73.42 million to the chassidus’s Torah, chinuch and chesed institutions over just three years.

The detailed figures cover the period from 5783 through 5786 and provide a rare look at the enormous sums contributed by the two philanthropists toward the construction and expansion of Satmar mosdos and communal projects around the world.

Reb Yoel Landau leads the figures with a total of $44.56 million in contributions to Satmar institutions. Among his largest individual donations was $10 million toward the new Talmud Torah building in Kiryas Joel.

Landau also contributed $5 million toward the construction of two new wedding halls in Williamsburg operating in accordance with the community’s wedding guidelines, as well as another $5 million to the Keren Marbitzei Torah.

Millions more were distributed by Landau to an extensive range of botei medrash, educational buildings, campuses and other Satmar communal projects in communities around the world, bringing his overall contributions during the period to $44.56 million.

Reb Lipa Friedman, meanwhile, contributed a total of $28.86 million, with much of his philanthropy similarly directed toward major construction projects benefiting Satmar’s educational and chesed institutions.

Friedman’s largest listed contribution was $12 million toward a new Talmud Torah building. He also donated $5 million for a new Bais Rochel building and an additional $5 million toward another Talmud Torah building.

The remainder of Friedman’s contributions went toward the construction and support of additional major buildings, halls and other Satmar institutions, bringing his total giving to $28.86 million.

Combined, Landau and Friedman donated approximately $73.42 million to Satmar institutions between 5783 and 5786.

{Matzav.com}

Travelers can still score deals this fall, but they may have to work harder to find them as the traditional shoulder season gets squeezed.

Fall travel interest on Vrbo is up 17% from a year ago, while average nightly rates after summer are now just 5% below peak summer prices across the platform’s top destinations, according to new data from the vacation rental platform.

“Shoulder season is this magic time between Labor Day and the holiday travel season when, traditionally, prices have dropped pretty dramatically and crowds have thinned out,” Vrbo Travel Expert Melanie Fish told FOX Business. “Well, summer travel demand is now bleeding over into fall.”

Some of the best savings remain in beach destinations, overseas markets and trips booked for later in the fall.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, tops Vrbo’s list, with vacation rental rates averaging 34% less than during summer. One property cited by the company drops from as much as $1,300 per night in August to about $600 in October.

Other beach markets also offer discounts. Orange Beach, Alabama, offers average savings of 31%, followed by Panama City Beach, Florida, at 24%, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, at 16%, and Ocean City, Maryland, at 12%, according to Vrbo.

Fish said travelers chasing lower prices should consider swapping destinations or keeping an eye out for last-minute discounts.

Travelers heading overseas may also have better luck. European vacation rental prices fall an average of about 8% from summer highs during the fall, with larger discounts in destinations including Corfu, Crete, Girona, the Azores and Siena.

Major tourism hubs such as London, Paris, Madrid and Rome tend to hold onto higher prices, leaving fewer shoulder-season bargains.

The squeeze is also showing up in several major U.S. cities. Vrbo said fall rates are rising in Nashville, Boston, Chicago and Miami as demand stays strong beyond summer.

Travelers willing to wait until after the holidays could find the biggest break.

From just after New Year’s through the period before spring break in early 2027, lodging prices are expected to run about 34% below summer peaks, with possible deals in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orlando.

Russia is reportedly supplying Iran with drone and missile components, explosives and other military equipment as Tehran races to rebuild weapons stockpiles heavily damaged by American and Israeli airstrikes during the war.

More than two dozen Russian vessels, many of which are subject to U.S. and European sanctions, have crossed the Caspian Sea carrying military supplies to the Iranian port of Amirabad, according to NBC News, which cited shipping documents and a Western official familiar with the deliveries.

The shipments are another indication of the increasingly close military relationship between Moscow and Tehran. At the same time, former CIA analyst Jim Lamson said Iran’s apparent reliance on Russian supplies suggests that U.S. and Israeli attacks inflicted significant damage on the Islamic Republic’s domestic weapons-production capabilities.

“Iran’s procurement of drone components and small arms ammunition from Russia strongly suggests that Israeli and US military strikes on Iran’s facilities that produce these items have degraded Iran’s domestic capability to produce them,” he said.

The Russian vessels allegedly carrying the military cargo are operated by MG-FLOT, a maritime company that was placed under Western sanctions in 2024.

Russia has repeatedly faced accusations that it is helping Tehran sustain its war effort, including reports that Moscow has provided Iran with upgraded drones designed to strengthen its ability to attack American targets.

The Kremlin has also developed more advanced versions of Iran’s Shahed suicide drones, weapons that became a major component of Russia’s campaign against Ukraine and have been used extensively in attacks there for years.

Although American strikes have reportedly crippled significant portions of Iran’s missile-production infrastructure, Tehran continues to insist that it retains substantial weapons stockpiles and remains capable of carrying out further attacks.

The reported transfers have heightened concerns that Russia is now helping replenish Iran’s military capabilities in return for the assistance Tehran provided Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The precise quantity and types of equipment transferred by Moscow to Tehran remain uncertain. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied allegations about Russian military assistance to Iran, dismissing such reports as “fake news.”

President Trump has also played down the significance of any Russian assistance to Iran. Last month, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally assured him that Moscow was not selling weapons to Tehran.

Trump further said that whatever assistance Russia may have provided “has been very unimpactful,” responding after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of supplying Iran with satellite imagery of American military bases.

The Pentagon is conducting an internal assessment of the future U.S. military presence in the Middle East, including the possibility of reducing forces in the Persian Gulf and relocating some troops and equipment to Israel and other locations after Iranian attacks inflicted heavy damage on American bases.

The preliminary assessment involves the Defense Department, Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Central Command and follows months of Iranian attacks that damaged more than 200 American facilities.

Officials stressed that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has not ordered a formal review and that the discussions remain in the preliminary planning stage. However, the extensive damage has prompted officials to consider whether heavily damaged bases should be rebuilt or whether forces should instead be moved away from particularly vulnerable locations.

Bases in areas including Kuwait were heavily damaged during the conflict, while more than 1,000 air-defense interceptors have already been used. The cost of the conflict is expected to reach approximately $37.5 billion by the end of September.

Internal discussions involving CENTCOM commander Adm. Bradley Cooper have included potentially shifting some forces and equipment westward to locations considered safer, including Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.

Such a move, however, could leave Gulf allies with reduced protection against Tehran and fuel disagreements within the Trump administration between officials who support maintaining a robust U.S. military presence and those seeking to reduce overseas commitments and focus resources on challenges posed by China.

The possibility of deploying additional American forces to bases in Israel, including Ovda Airbase, has also generated internal concerns.

Some U.S. officials have reportedly warned that an expanded American presence in Israel could create information-security and counterintelligence risks amid growing Pentagon concerns over potential Israeli espionage.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Blue Bird Airways is expected to be summoned to a hearing at Ben Gurion Airport over unusually severe flight delays, with data showing that roughly 80% of flights operated by Blue Bird and TUS fail to depart on time and delays average approximately two hours.

According to a report by Israel’s Channel 13 on Tuesday evening, Blue Bird, currently the fourth-largest airline operating at Ben Gurion Airport, will face scrutiny over its record of delayed departures and arrivals.

Blue Bird and TUS said they had not yet received any official notice from Ben Gurion Airport regarding a hearing.

“We have not received any communication from Ben Gurion Airport. If such a communication is received, it will be reviewed, and we will act accordingly,” the airlines said.

The development comes just two days after Blue Bird passengers endured a particularly difficult delay aboard a chartered aircraft scheduled to fly from Ben Gurion Airport to Crete, Greece.

Passengers had already boarded the plane when they were forced to remain aboard for nearly two hours while the aircraft sat on the tarmac. Compounding the problem, the ventilation system was reportedly not functioning despite the intense August heat.

Several passengers began feeling ill during the lengthy wait, while parents were filmed attempting to cool themselves and their young children with ice and wet wipes.

One passenger described the conditions aboard the aircraft in stark terms.

“We have been inside a closed airplane for an hour and 40 minutes without air conditioning, with small children fainting. I have never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.

The latest controversy comes amid broader disruptions at Ben Gurion Airport during the peak summer travel season.

On Friday, the airport experienced unusually severe congestion, with approximately 90 flights backed up within a period of just three hours.

The Israel Airports Authority attributed those delays to heavy air traffic and restrictions in European airspace, particularly around Greece, as well as the presence and operations of American refueling aircraft.

Airport officials rejected reports that the disruptions were caused by a strike or staffing shortages, maintaining that the delays resulted from air-traffic conditions and other operational constraints.

{Matzav.com}

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc would secure a solid Knesset majority with 63 seats, while Naftali Bennett’s party has fallen to just six seats, according to a Channel 14 poll released Tuesday evening following the Likud primaries.

Likud remains the largest party with 32 seats, down one from the previous poll. The opposition bloc falls by two seats to 46, while the Arab parties receive a combined 11 seats.

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party places second with 24 seats, gaining one from last week. Shas receives 10 seats and the Democrats nine. Otzma Yehudit climbs by two seats to eight, while Yisrael Beiteinu and United Torah Judaism each receive seven. Religious Zionism remains unchanged at six seats.

Bennett’s Beyachad party drops sharply to six seats, bringing it closer to the electoral threshold. Among the Arab parties, Ra’am receives six seats, up one from last week, while Hadash-Ta’al receives five.

Several parties remain below the electoral threshold: Balad at 2.1%, Zehut at 1.1%, Beit Tzioni Miluimnikim at 1.2%, Gilad Erdan at 0.1%, Ofer Winter at 0.9%, and Blue and White at 0.4%.

Netanyahu also holds a substantial advantage when respondents were asked who is best suited to serve as prime minister, receiving 55% support. Eisenkot receives 35%, Bennett 6%, Avigdor Liberman 3%, and Benny Gantz 1%.

In a direct matchup between Netanyahu and Eisenkot, Netanyahu leads 55% to 45%.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

American Airlines passengers could soon notice some big changes when they settle into their seats, as the carrier rolls out a major overhaul of the onboard experience.

The company said Tuesday that more than 800 narrowbody aircraft will ultimately receive new entertainment systems featuring 4K displays, Bluetooth connectivity and USB-C charging.

“Big enhancements are taking flight,” American said in a post on X announcing the changes.

New aircraft equipped with the screens are expected to begin arriving in the second half of 2028, while retrofits of existing jets are scheduled to start later that year.

The retrofit program is expected to stretch into the early 2030s, according to American.

The move marks a notable shift for the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier, which has for years relied heavily on passengers streaming entertainment to their own phones, tablets and laptops on many domestic flights.

The airline told Fox News Digital that changing passenger habits helped drive the decision.

“Customer preferences have evolved,” the airline shared with Fox News Digital, adding that the shift has become particularly apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The carrier added that younger travelers, in particular, increasingly expect access to multiple devices and larger screens during their trips.

At the same time, improvements in satellite internet are changing what airlines can offer passengers in the cabin. American plans to begin installing high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi on its narrowbody aircraft in 2027.

The airline said combining built-in screens, passengers’ personal devices and faster connectivity could create a more personalized in-flight experience, while also opening up “new opportunities for engagement and revenue growth.”

The upgrades will cover both new aircraft and planes already in American’s fleet. Newly delivered Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft will receive the entertainment systems, while existing narrowbody aircraft will be retrofitted.

American’s current Airbus A320 fleet is the exception and will not receive the new seatback entertainment systems, the carrier told Fox News Digital.

The cabin overhaul goes beyond screens.

American is also increasing the number of higher-priced seats across its narrowbody operation, as airlines increasingly compete for travelers willing to pay more for additional space and premium amenities.

Premium seating currently represents roughly 25% of seats on American’s narrowbody departures. The airline expects that figure to climb to approximately 40% in the coming years.

American is already modifying its Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft to add another row of first class. Its future Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft are expected to have 24 first-class seats, while the airline also plans to reconfigure its A321neo fleet with additional first-class seating.

The carrier is expanding Main Cabin Extra, its extra-legroom economy product, across most of the narrowbody fleet as well.

“We’re making one of the most significant investments in the onboard experience in our history,” American Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden said.

The airline’s decision comes as carriers increasingly focus on premium travelers and cabin amenities as another way to differentiate themselves beyond ticket prices and schedules.

American’s new screens are expected to rank among the largest offered on narrowbody aircraft in North America, according to the carrier. The system will also offer personalized movie and television recommendations, interactive flight maps and destination information.

The first newly delivered aircraft with the technology are still roughly two years away, meaning passengers will see the changes gradually rather than through an immediate fleetwide overhaul.

American Airlines expects the retrofit program to be completed in the early 2030s.

A legal challenge seeking to halt New York City’s new pied-à-terre tax is expanding, with four additional homeowners joining the case and alleging serious errors in the Mamdani administration’s rollout — including one tax notice that was allegedly sent to a neighbor living 27 floors away.

The new plaintiffs have joined a lawsuit brought by attorney Randy Mastro seeking to suspend the surcharge on high-value second homes in New York City. The case argues that problems with the city’s implementation and exemption system have improperly placed primary residences at risk of substantial new tax bills.

One of the newly added plaintiffs is real estate executive Kenneth Fishel, who says the city Department of Finance notified him that his Upper East Side Park Avenue co-op could be subject to the tax even though he has lived there and paid taxes from the residence for years.

Making matters worse, according to the lawsuit, the Department of Finance incorrectly addressed Fishel’s notice and sent it to a neighbor who lives nearly 30 floors below him.

“Fishel only learned of and obtained a copy of the notice because he ran into his neighbor living 27 floors below him on the elevator,” the suit states.

“If I hadn’t run into him in the elevator, I never would have known, and I would have been billed for the full tax,” Fishel told The Post on Tuesday.

Fishel then encountered another problem when he attempted to request an exemption. According to the lawsuit, the city’s online system indicated that an exemption application had already been submitted for the property — “likely due to the fact that the mailed notice did not even list the correct names.”

The Department of Finance sent approximately 17,000 notices to property owners warning that they could face tax bills reaching five figures unless they successfully sought exemptions. The tax was approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year.

City officials said last week that approximately 4,290 homeowners who received the notices had challenged their inclusion. Of those cases, 1,906 exemption requests had been approved at that point.

The four new plaintiffs, whose primary residences are in Chelsea and on the Upper East Side, all maintain that they have applied for exemptions but have not yet received approval, according to the court filing.

Their lawsuit describes the process as a “tangled morass of an exemption regime,” arguing that homeowners who should not owe the surcharge have nevertheless been forced through a confusing administrative process to prove that their properties are their primary residences.

The tax applies to certain unoccupied properties that are not their owners’ primary residences, including one- to three-family homes worth at least $5 million and condominium and co-op units valued at $1 million or more.

The plaintiffs argue that the city’s “messy, ill-considered, and atextual ‘exemption’ scheme” has failed to promptly remove them from the pool of homeowners potentially facing the surcharge.

Unless the situation is corrected, the plaintiffs say they will “continue to suffer irreparable harm in attempting to apply for an ‘exemption’ to a tax that was not designed to burden them in any way.”

Court filings show that each of the newly added homeowners received notices estimating that they could owe between $45,000 and $58,000 under the pied-à-terre tax.

Among them are Chelsea residents Stephen and Sandra Shore, who say they have occupied their home for more than three decades and consistently paid their taxes, yet still received a notice warning that they could owe the additional levy.

According to the lawsuit, the Shores repeatedly tried to submit an exemption request through the Department of Finance’s system but were unsuccessful. Eventually, they resorted to sending a registered letter “in an attempt to simply submit their application.”

Another plaintiff, Carla Stearns, lives near Mastro in Carnegie Hill and says she and her husband have occupied their brownstone since purchasing it in 2017. The city values the property at approximately $6.8 million.

Although Stearns says she pays city taxes and owns no other property, she was nevertheless notified that she could face roughly $55,000 in additional taxes unless she successfully applied for an exemption.

Fishel sharply criticized the city’s handling of the program after appearing at a City Council oversight hearing focused on the troubled rollout.

“We pay taxes here in the city, and we have for a long time. And the administration of this process has just been horrendous,” Fishel told The Post.

“They’ve totally botched the process,” he said. “They really need to withdraw all the notices and start again.”

The newly added homeowners join the lawsuit’s original plaintiffs: Staten Island residents Rachel O’Brien and Carmine Morano, the wife and father of City Councilman Frank Morano, and Chelsea resident Simon Hedley. Of those three, Hedley was the only one who had received a tax notice.

The litigation previously succeeded in temporarily stopping implementation of the tax when a Staten Island judge issued a pause shortly after the lawsuit was filed earlier this month. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration challenged that decision, and an appellate court subsequently overturned the temporary order, allowing the rollout to proceed while the broader legal fight continues.

Mastro has argued that adding the four homeowners strengthens the case against the city. In a letter to the Staten Island judge overseeing the dispute, he said their participation would “eliminate” the “specious mootness arguments” raised by the city after Hedley, who has described himself as a Mamdani supporter, was granted an exemption following his application.

{Matzav.com}

France announced Tuesday that it will expel two Iranian diplomats in direct retaliation for the attack and detention of two French diplomats in Tehran last month.

According to Paris, the two French diplomats were attacked and held for several hours without being able to contact their relatives. Iran subsequently declared them persona non grata on July 19.

France’s foreign minister said the Iranian people are the primary victims of the extreme tensions gripping the Middle East, caught between the regime’s suppression of protests inside Iran and ongoing strikes in the country.

The foreign minister said France’s support for the Iranian people, including artists and scientists, was what led to what he described as the “outrageous and deliberate” attack against the French diplomats.

He added that Iran’s actions would have consequences, as France had previously warned.

The two Iranian diplomats are expected to be expelled from French territory in the coming days.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

At least 250 antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents have been documented across New York City public schools since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, according to a new report from United Jewish Teachers that paints a disturbing picture of persistent hostility toward Jewish students and educators.

“The data reveal a persistent pattern of hostility directed at Jewish students, educators, and staff,” United Jewish Teachers said in the report, which was sent to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.

“The majority of documented cases involve direct acts of harassment, vandalism, and threats.

“Significant shares also involve biased curriculum and instructional materials, as well as disruptive events such as walkouts and protests,” the group said. “These incidents have created hostile learning and working environments across the system.”

According to the report, 65% of the incidents involved direct acts including harassment, vandalism, assaults, swastikas and verbal threats. Another 23% involved what the group described as biased instruction about Israel and the Middle East, while 10% involved walkouts.

Brooklyn accounted for the largest share of reported incidents at 37%, followed by Queens at 27%, Manhattan at 25%, the Bronx at 9% and Staten Island at 2%.

United Jewish Teachers President Moshe Spern said verbal harassment frequently included antisemitic tropes, Holocaust references and “eliminationist language” targeting Israeli Jews. The report also documented swastikas and other hate symbols, physical threats and assaults.

“Jewish religious accommodations and participation in school life have also been denied or obstructed in multiple cases,” Spern said.

Among the incidents cited in the report was the harassment of a Townsend High School student over plans to join the IDF after graduation; a flyer at Flushing High School featuring a Nazi symbol and accusing Israel of apartheid; and a swastika carved into a blackboard at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The report also pointed to broader Department of Education statistics showing a sharp increase in student-on-student bullying, harassment and discrimination based on religion. Such incidents rose from 151 during the 2018-2019 school year to 367 in 2022-2023 and 398 in 2023-2024, before declining to 319 in 2024-2025.

“Many incidents documented by United Jewish Teachers show limited or no effective follow-through by school or district leadership, allowing hostile conditions to persist. These patterns have continued across multiple school years, indicating that existing policies and practices have not adequately protected Jewish members of the school community.“

Spern said the figures were unsurprising.

“It’s what I would expect. They haven’t done anything to address antisemitism,” he said.

The organization is calling on the city to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism throughout Department of Education policies, regulations and professional training.

Mayor Mamdani, a fierce critic of Israel, scrapped an executive order issued by former Mayor Eric Adams adopting the IHRA definition shortly after taking office in January.

The report also recommends mandatory NYPD investigations and evidence preservation in cases involving hate graffiti, the creation of a centralized DOE portal publicly tracking antisemitic incidents, mandatory antisemitism training and reviews of educational materials for anti-Israel bias.

“The data compiled by United Jewish Teachers demonstrate that antisemitism remains a serious and ongoing problem in New York City Public Schools,” Spern said.

The DOE pushed back against suggestions that it was failing to address the problem, saying it maintains “zero tolerance” for antisemitism and other forms of discrimination.

“New York City Public Schools is focused on ensuring that every student and educator is safe and respected in school. We have a zero tolerance for hate or bias, including antisemitism, and investigate and respond to all reported incidents in accordance with our Chancellor’s Regulations and applicable laws,” a DOE representative said.

“Through our Respect for All program, every school has a dedicated staff member leading anti-bullying and bias prevention efforts, as well as multiple avenues for students, staff, and community members to report any incidents so they can be properly investigated and addressed.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (VINnews) — The most surprising turn of events in Florida’s primary Tuesday night came in the Democratic U.S. Senate race, where state Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off a stunning upset over Alexander Vindman.

Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat and progressive who has been described as a democratic socialist, defeated Vindman for the Democratic nomination and will face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in the November special election.

Nixon has also emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most outspoken critics of Israel. She has advocated for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and introduced a resolution in the Florida House calling for a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Her victory is particularly striking because Vindman entered the race with significantly greater national recognition and financial resources. Axios had described Nixon as the underfunded candidate trying to close the gap with Vindman heading into the primary.

Instead, Nixon delivered one of the biggest surprises of Florida’s primary night.

Her victory now sets up an unusual general election matchup against Moody, a Republican senator seeking to hold the seat for the remainder of former Sen. Marco Rubio’s term.

For Florida Democrats, Nixon’s nomination represents a sharp turn toward the party’s progressive wing — and puts a candidate with strong positions against Israel on the November ballot in a state that has become increasingly Republican in national elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu and U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner were at odds during their Monday meeting over Israel’s determination to keep targeting Hamas terrorists accused of participating in the October 7 massacre, with Netanyahu refusing to commit to ending the strikes despite American concerns, according to an official who attended the talks, the Times of Israel reports.

The disagreement centered on Israel’s ongoing campaign to track down those involved in the October 7, 2023, invasion and atrocities. Earlier this month, Israel publicly confirmed for the first time that it had launched a dedicated operation aimed at locating and killing every Palestinian terrorist who took part in the attack.

Those operations have at times resulted in breaches of the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas in October 2025. Until now, however, the U.S.-controlled Board of Peace has largely refrained from forcefully challenging the strikes, particularly when the IDF has maintained that the individuals being targeted presented an immediate danger to Israeli forces.

For months, the Board of Peace concentrated its efforts on persuading Hamas to agree to a framework requiring the terror group to disarm. Hamas ultimately accepted the proposal on July 30.

Under that framework, once implementation begins, both Israel and Hamas are supposed to immediately cease military activity. Netanyahu has opposed that provision, and the official who attended Monday’s meeting said the prime minister specifically raised his objections during his discussion with Kushner.

Kushner told Netanyahu that Washington would not stand in the way of IDF action against individuals who truly present an “imminent threat.” At the same time, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser cautioned Netanyahu against interpreting that exception too broadly, according to the official.

Netanyahu nevertheless maintained that Israel would continue striking terrorists who participated in the October 7 attack, frustrating members of the Board of Peace delegation. The two sides ended the discussion without resolving their differences, the official said.

A second source who was briefed on the discussions corroborated that account of the meeting.

The dispute took on added significance just hours after Kushner departed Israel, when the IDF launched one of its deadliest attacks in months. The military said the strike targeted a gathering of senior Hamas operatives. At least six people were reportedly killed, including a minor, while more than 10 others were wounded.

Netanyahu’s insistence on preserving Israel’s freedom to pursue October 7 terrorists could conflict not only with the Board of Peace’s stalled disarmament framework, but also with President Trump’s 20-point proposal for bringing the Gaza war to an end, which Netanyahu agreed to in September 2025.

Trump’s plan provides that Hamas members who “commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty.”

Another point of contention at Monday’s meeting involved Netanyahu’s refusal to permit recruits for a newly planned Palestinian police force to travel from Gaza to Egypt for training, according to the official who was present.

The Board of Peace’s disarmament framework calls for Hamas to surrender its weapons to a new police force operating under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The International Stabilization Force is expected to facilitate the weapons-transfer process.

Kushner said Monday that he wants Hamas to start turning over its weapons within one month. But that timetable faces a significant practical obstacle: Unless enough Palestinian police recruits are trained and ready to deploy, there will be no sufficiently prepared force to receive the weapons Hamas is supposed to surrender.

{Matzav.com}

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A former senior adviser to infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty Tuesday to plotting to conceal federal records related to research on the origins of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. David Morens is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12 by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. Morens pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.

“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” defense attorney Tim Belevetz said in a statement after the plea hearing.

Morens is accused of using his private email account to intentionally circumvent public records laws while employed at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The Justice Department alleges that he concealed or destroyed records of discussions related to COVID-19 research grants, including an effort to revive a controversial coronavirus grant.

The indictment follows a probe by House Republicans into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrutinized Morens’ email communications and accused him of intentionally concealing records. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal email.

In July, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a congressional hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Friday, Fauci declined a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along partisan lines to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Fauci wasn’t charged in the case against Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland.

Thousands of people from Lakewood and around the world are expected to visit the kever of the Tosfos Yom Tov in Krakow, Poland, tonight and Wednesday, marking his 372nd Yahrtzeit.

The Tosfos Yom Tov, Rav Yom Tov Lipman Heller, is remembered as one of the greatest Torah leaders of his generation and is best known for his renowned commentary on Mishnayos, the Tosfos Yom Tov.

He is also famously known for the Mi Shebeirach he composed, which showers many Brachos upon those who refrain from speaking during davening.

A large Seudah event by “Stop The Talking” will be taking place tonight in New York, focusing on the importance of avoiding talking during davening and strengthening the kedushah of the shul. You can watch it live here. 

The song below – released by TLS in 2016 – was composed in honor of the Tosfos Yom Tov’s Yahrtzeit. Written and composed by Motty Illowitz; Soloist: Shauly Waldner; Choir: Mezamrim; Arranger: Ruli Ezrahi.

Israel’s Agriculture Ministry has temporarily blocked the import of frozen chicken from Brazil, removing a Brazilian poultry plant owned by Baladi from the list of facilities approved to export to Israel following a renewed examination of veterinary oversight and production procedures.

Dr. Sergio Dolev, acting director of the Agriculture Ministry’s Veterinary Services, informed Baladi that its Brazilian poultry facility was being removed from the approved list and that Brazil would, for the time being, not be authorized to export poultry meat to Israel.

The ministry said the decision followed a reassessment of the approval process, which determined that imports could not proceed until officials conduct an on-site examination of the production system and determine whether Brazilian authorities are capable of supervising it in accordance with Israel’s stringent requirements.

Agriculture Ministry officials stressed that the decision was based on professional considerations involving public health and animal welfare. Should the approval process be renewed, a team of Veterinary Services experts is prepared to conduct a comprehensive inspection before officials consider allowing Brazilian poultry imports into Israel.

The Agriculture Ministry’s move comes amid a broader dispute that has already reached Israel’s Supreme Court following a petition filed by Baladi concerning the establishment of procedures and kashrus approvals for importing poultry from abroad.

During a High Court hearing last month, the Chief Rabbinate emphasized “the need to establish a measured and orderly halachic and administrative process on which the professional officials at the Chief Rabbinate are working.”

The Chief Rabbinate instructed its professional staff to formulate recommendations and bring them before the Chief Rabbinate Council for approval within 120 days. The judges agreed to the requested timetable.

Kashrus officials welcomed the Agriculture Ministry’s decision to suspend the veterinary approval process, saying it would prevent imports from moving forward before the necessary halachic safeguards are fully established.

According to those officials, shechitah of poultry abroad and the supervision of overseas production involve significant halachic complexities. Suspending the proposed imports, they said, removes pressure to establish arrangements hastily and helps ensure that no products reach Israeli consumers until comprehensive inspections have been completed and a rigorous system of halachic supervision is in place.

Baladi, however, said it intends to pursue available legal avenues in an effort to overturn the Agriculture Ministry’s decision.

Israel’s domestic poultry industry, particularly farms operating in peripheral areas and communities near the country’s borders, is considered an important component of national food security. Israel has one of the world’s highest rates of chicken consumption, with domestic demand currently supplied entirely through locally raised poultry operating under Israeli supervision.

Slaughterhouses throughout Israel also operate under continuous oversight from leading kashrus organizations, creating a supervision chain extending from poultry farms through shechitah and processing until the product reaches consumers.

Kashrus officials stressed that beyond the legal and commercial questions surrounding imported poultry, protecting kashrus standards and consumers must remain the overriding priority.

They said the insistence on thorough examinations without shortcuts—both regarding veterinary and health standards and the detailed halachic requirements governing shechitah performed overseas—is essential to preventing serious kashrus problems for observant and mehadrin consumers in Israel.

{Matzav.com}

Architecture firms Studio Gang and Sauerbruch Hutton have been tapped to redesign German House, home to Germany’s consulate in New York City. Selected as the winner of an international design competition, the firms will “radically transform” the building’s facade, enhance its environmental performance, and reinforce the tower’s status as a civic landmark. Sauerbruch Hutton will serve as the lead architect, with Studio Gang as the architect of record, on the 23-story government building at 871-873 First Avenue.

View from 49th Street. © ArtefactoryLab

Originally designed by SLCE Architects, the 31-year-old granite-and-glass-clad building houses Germany’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the Consulate General, and affiliated cultural partners. The building is located just north of the United Nations Plaza.

The project marks the first collaboration between the two architectural firms. In the five boroughs, Studio Gang may be best known for their work on the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, which opened in 2023.

In a statement, the competition jury that selected the firms’ proposal said the design would effectively represent Germany in New York and at the United Nations.

“[T]he jury considers that this proposal demonstrates a high level of architectural and design quality, with a clear and functional organization that will result in a contemporary, efficient, and sustainable building.”

“Above all, it will be capable of representing the Federal Republic of Germany in New York and at the United Nations through an architecture that is original, optimistic, transparent, and accessible, fully aware of the role this building plays within this context,” the jury continued.

According to the firms, three main principles guide the redesign. The first is to create a building that represents Germany’s “democratic values of participation, transparency, and freedom” while offering an open, generous, and welcoming environment for those who work there and visit.

The new design aims to showcase the latest in German engineering, including sustainable features such as building-integrated photovoltaics installed on the best-exposed facade elements to generate renewable energy on-site. A box-window system will also incorporate high-performance solar shading within the facade, maintaining views while meeting security requirements.

View from the river. © ArtefactoryLab

The project will transform the existing structure rather than replace it, reducing embodied carbon while substantially upgrading the building and improving occupant comfort. Windows will be operable, allowing for natural ventilation, a cultural practice that is common in Germany.

The second goal is to create an outstanding workplace where staff feel connected to the country they represent and can work comfortably throughout the day.

Halfway up the tower, a sky lobby with a vertical garden will provide a shaded space for work and socializing. According to the architects, the space will serve as a symbolic meeting point for the Consulate General and the U.N. Mission, reinforcing themes of synergy between the building’s distinct programs.

And the third is intended to make the tower a “civic landmark,” creating a striking presence both at street level and among the surrounding skyline. Its new colored facade will give German House a distinct identity while integrating it into the cityscape.

At the top of the tower, a new restaurant on the top floors will open onto a covered roof terrace offering panoramic views of the city. The space will also feature a lightweight garden pavilion for informal gatherings and other events.

“We look forward to working with the Bundesbau Baden-Württemberg and sauerbruch hutton to help reimagine German House as a more welcoming and sustainable model for civic architecture in New York and within the international diplomatic community,” Jeanne Gang, founding partner at Studio Gang, said.

“This project, which holds cultural exchange at its heart, is an exciting opportunity to bring together German design expertise with the proven project delivery in NYC,” she added.

RELATED:

• City opens Studio Gang-designed Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in Flatbush
• Studio Gang’s agricultural education hub at Gravesend NYCHA complex breaks ground
• Get a sneak peek of AMNH’s Studio Gang-designed Gilder Center before it opens

The post Studio Gang, Sauerbruch Hutton to redesign German consulate in NYC first appeared on 6sqft.

(AP) – When Marisa Mender-Franklin walks through any of the nine flower farms she runs in Memphis, Tennessee, her first thoughts are of gratitude. Partly for the flowers and the bees, but mostly for the support of her neighbors.

That’s because members of her local Facebook Buy Nothing group shared their unused yards and gardens with her, allowing her to achieve her dream of owning a flower shop and working as an urban flower farmer.

“None of this would be possible without an immensely supportive community,” she said.

Her post read, ‘Flowers in need of a garden’
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mender-Franklin was a teacher planning her wedding.

“I thought it would be fun to grow and design my own wedding flowers,” she said. So, the lifelong gardener planted “every square inch” of the tiny yard in front of her rental home with seeds and added pots along the walkway and on the porch.

The experience fortified her lifelong dream of working with flowers, she said, “but I didn’t own land or have a path to owning land.”

As a member of the Buy Nothing group, she had noticed members offering unwanted furniture, household goods and other items free to people who needed them.

“Somebody once posted looking for a French horn for their kid, and within six hours, they had one,” she said. “If the group can do that,” she reasoned, “then certainly there’s someone who has a garden they can’t use and would let me grow flowers there.”

In her post, she expressed her desire to grow and sell flowers, and promised to be a good tenant and provide the owner with weekly bouquets. “Within 5 minutes, my phone started pinging like crazy,” she said. Within a week, she had received 40 offers of free places to grow flowers.

That first year, 2021, Mender-Franklin selected four plots. Members of the online group began dropping off cardboard and vases on her porch.

“People even volunteered to help weed or plant,” she said.

Today, she runs her flower business full-time. She owns the Midtown Bramble and Bloom flower shop, oversees the nine farm plots of various sizes and employs 10 people. Last year, the business held 57 workshops, and provided flower arrangements for 44 weddings and large events.

The inspiration was a Canadian flower gardener
Mender-Franklin said she knows of similar land-share situations in other cities. She was inspired by the example of Sarah Nixon, who, from 2001 to 2021, planted flowers in neighbors’ yards in Toronto and sold weekly flower-bucket and arrangement subscriptions. Nixon also sold flowers at farmers’ markets and a specialty grocery store, and provided flowers for weddings.

She started her business, My Luscious Backyard, the analog way, by leaving letters of introduction in neighbor’s mailboxes that proposed the barter of land use in exchange for upkeep of their gardens.

“I was obsessed with growing flowers for my own enjoyment, and my own backyard was full,” said Nixon. “But I noticed some of my neighbors begrudgingly mowing their lawns and not seeming to use their properties.”

The arrangements can be mutually beneficial
In Memphis, Mender-Franklin’s team transformed the lawns and neglected gardens into beds and rows of flowers. Along with the bouquets and other perks, the homeowners are able to enjoy flower gardens without the responsibility of maintaining them.

The agreements are formalized with leases that spell out everything from boundaries to water costs.

Karen Golightly, who owns one of Mender-Franklin’s original plots, said she didn’t hesitate when she saw the post on the Buy Nothing group. The weekly bouquets she receives are lovely, she said, “but the biggest benefit is that it created a community for me.”

“We have a garden walk in the neighborhood, and I’ve come to know other neighbors and gardeners that I wouldn’t otherwise know. And, of course, there’s Marisa’s staff and Marisa, as well,” Golightly said.

One of the first plots that Mender-Franklin worked on came with no water source, she said. She offered to pay the homeowner next door to run a water line over from his faucet, and he, a gardener, set it up for her.

“People like to help make dreams come true. It’s that feeling of connection that we all really need,” she said. “So often when we talk about community, we view it in terms of helping other people. And we forget that being part of an equal community means that you also have to ask for help.”

To give back, Mender-Franklin launched the Flowers for Good program, which donates flowers to local organizations, schools and charities. Her shop has a free seed library for vegetables and native wildflowers.

“It’s such a gift to the community to have their land turned into a farm,” said Nixon. “And all the pollinators, birds and wildlife change the area.”

“It’s also a lot of work,” she added.

Mender-Franklin knows that to be true. “We run on community,” she said. “Well, community and LaCroix and an unhinged belief in our ability to figure it out.”

How you can start a land-sharing network
If your flowers or vegetables are in search of a garden, these online resources can help:

Regional and local gardening groups and buy-nothing groups on social media can link neighbors willing to share tools, harvests or garden beds.

Matchmaking services such as Shared Earth and My Gardens Spot connect those seeking land on which to farm or garden with landowners seeking to share property.

TikTok is developing a feature that could allow users to send money to one another inside direct messages, potentially turning conversations on the video platform into financial transactions without requiring people to open Venmo, Cash App or their banking app.

Evidence of the unfinished feature was discovered in hidden code inside the current U.S. version of TikTok’s iPhone app, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the development. The code indicates that recipients could tap to accept a payment before it expires, while senders would receive updates showing whether the money was accepted.

That is evidence of development, not a confirmed product launch. TikTok has not announced when the feature might become available, whether it would be tested broadly in the United States or what fees, transfer limits and identity-verification requirements would apply. Features found in application code can be changed or abandoned before reaching users.

If launched, the transfer system would reportedly run through TikTok Pay, payment infrastructure the company already uses in Southeast Asia. TikTok has built a substantial commercial operation in that region, where more than 20 million businesses and four million creators were selling through TikTok Shop as of late 2025.

The strategic value reaches beyond competing with established payment apps. TikTok increasingly wants discovery, conversation and commerce to happen inside the same ecosystem. A user might find a product in a video, discuss it through a direct message and eventually transfer money without leaving TikTok. For creators and small sellers, payments inside conversations could shorten the distance between attracting someone’s attention and completing a transaction.

It could also make TikTok more useful for ordinary payments between friends, moving the app into territory occupied by Venmo, Cash App and Zelle. The strongest payment networks are difficult to dislodge because people use the service where their friends, relatives and customers already have accounts. TikTok would enter with that social network already assembled.

The complication is that moving money carries responsibilities that distributing videos does not. A U.S. peer-to-peer payment service may face federal electronic-transfer requirements, state money-transmission rules, identity checks, anti-money-laundering obligations and disputes over unauthorized transactions. TikTok would also need safeguards against account takeovers, impersonation and scams conducted through the same messaging system carrying the payment request.

The distinction between an unauthorized transfer and a payment that a user was deceived into approving can become especially important. Federal rules provide protections for certain unauthorized electronic transfers, but recovering money voluntarily sent to a scammer can be substantially more difficult.

TikTok has already shown broader financial ambitions. The company applied in Brazil for licenses that could allow it to offer prepaid accounts, receive and transmit payments, and provide or facilitate credit. In Britain, TikTok and Visa introduced a virtual card in April designed to give eligible creators faster access to their platform earnings.

A direct-message payment button would connect those ambitions to TikTok’s central advantage: hundreds of millions of people already use the app to discover products, communicate and make purchasing decisions. Whether that becomes a genuine payments business now depends on something hidden code cannot establish—whether TikTok can satisfy regulators and persuade users to trust a social-media conversation with their money.

JBizNews Desk | Culver City

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

A Bronx man who disrupted Friday evening services at Central “Synagogue”, a Reformed temple in Manhattan, last week was slapped on Tuesday with federal hate crimes charges.

Larry Montes, 46, previously faced state-level charges of criminal mischief as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime after what police called a “random antisemitic attack.”

In the complaint by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, Montes faces two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of damage to religious property resulting in injury.

Montes stood up during the service and approached the front yelling, “I am Hashem,” a Jewish reference to God, according to police. He knocked over two candles and candle holders, causing them to break.

Police said Montes then struck a woman, cutting her lip and bruising her arm, and, when confronted by a security guard, headbutted him and uttered a racial slur.

Montes is being held on $10,000 bail following an appearance on a complaint drafted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. It was not immediately clear when he would appear before a federal magistrate.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Bank Leumi has filed a NIS 26.6 million lawsuit against Meta, accusing the technology giant of allowing scammers to run fraudulent advertisements impersonating the bank across Facebook and Instagram and alleging that Meta financially benefited from the deceptive campaigns.

The lawsuit, filed in Tel Aviv District Court, claims that users encountered convincing advertisements falsely presented as Bank Leumi promotions. The ads allegedly used the bank’s name, logo and other branding while promising prizes and benefits including gift cards, cars and other giveaways.

According to the bank, users who clicked on the advertisements were redirected to fraudulent websites designed to resemble Bank Leumi’s legitimate online banking site. Victims were then prompted to provide account credentials and verification codes, information that the scammers allegedly used to gain access to customers’ accounts and steal their money.

Bank Leumi argues that numerous warning signs should have made the fraudulent nature of the campaigns readily apparent to Meta. The lawsuit cites suspicious website addresses, spelling errors, poorly written text, anonymous advertising accounts and, in some instances, the use of deepfake technology.

“You don’t need special detective work to identify the suspicious signs,” the lawsuit states.

Bank Leumi goes further, alleging that Meta “knowingly cooperated in defrauding bank customers out of considerations of greed.”

The bank says the alleged scams have already caused substantial financial damage. According to the lawsuit, Bank Leumi has reimbursed affected customers millions of shekels while spending significant resources identifying fraudulent campaigns and attempting to have them blocked. The bank also claims the schemes have damaged its reputation by exploiting its name and image to deceive customers.

Bank Leumi says the problem has intensified dramatically. In July alone, according to the lawsuit, the bank identified 243 fraudulent advertising campaigns on Meta platforms — more than the total number it detected during the entire first six months of the year.

Beyond the NIS 26.6 million in damages being sought, Bank Leumi is asking the court to order Meta to introduce stronger safeguards aimed at preventing similar scams.

Among the measures requested are stricter procedures for verifying the identities of advertisers, clear labels on advertisements published through accounts whose identities have not been verified, and a mechanism allowing Bank Leumi to review campaigns using its name, logo or other identifying symbols before they are published.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has not yet filed its response to Bank Leumi’s lawsuit.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke Tuesday evening with the family of Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, telling them that a decades-long chapter had finally ended with the return of the last missing soldier from the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub.

“Today, a circle has been closed. After 44 years, the Battle of Sultan Yacoub has come to an end. All those missing from the battle have been returned to Israel,” Zamir said, according to an IDF statement. “This is a special day for me, both as Chief of the General Staff and as a soldier of the Armored Corps. From the day I enlisted in the Armored Corps, I was raised on the legacy of that battle and on the moral commitment to bring all of our missing home. An entire nation stands united with you and shares in your emotion today.”

Zamir expressed appreciation to the family for their long struggle to bring Katz home. The family thanked the chief of staff for his words and for the efforts that led to the return of Yehuda’s remains for burial in Israel. They said his funeral would unite the entire nation and would be held in a manner reflecting his unique character.

Katz, a tank crewman, went missing on June 11, 1982, during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley amid the First Lebanon War. He disappeared along with two fellow soldiers, Zachary Baumel and Zvi Feldman. Baumel’s remains were recovered in 2019 and Feldman’s in 2025. Katz’s remains were located and identified in an operation led by the Military Intelligence Directorate in coordination with the Mossad, the IDF said, completing the recovery of all those missing from the battle.

The return closes a painful chapter that began more than four decades ago and fulfills Israel’s longstanding commitment not to leave its fallen behind.

HaGaon HaRav Moshe Tzadka strongly condemned the draft decree, saying that if IDF soldiers understood the koach of Torah, they would enter yeshivos and plead with yeshiva bochurim to continue learning.

Speaking at a Siyum HaShas held at Yeshivas Lev Eliyahu in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, HaRav Tzadka said, “They should make a law that anyone who doesn’t come to the yeshivos should go to prison. If we want to be saved from our enemies, we need to learn Torah. The fools today say, ‘Whoever is in yeshivah — prison.’ Fools! It should be exactly the opposite. They should make a law that everyone has to go to the yeshivos. Everyone.”

“We are living in the period of Chevlei Moshiach, and the only way to be saved from Chevlei Moshiach is through learning Torah, as they are doing here at Yeshivas Lev Eliyahu, completing Shas. They should be saying, ‘Rabbosai, in light of the situation, everyone should go to the yeshivos. No one should be out in the streets.’”

HaGaon HaRav Tzadka continued: “If the soldiers knew what saves them, if they understood the koach of Torah, they would walk into the yeshivos in the middle of seder and plead with the bochurim: ‘Have mercy on us, have mercy. Don’t stop learning for even a moment.’ That is what they should be doing.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The IDF carried out an airstrike Tuesday evening targeting several Hamas commanders in the Shati area of northern Gaza, saying the terrorists were planning attacks against Israeli troops operating in the Strip.

The strike targeted the “Bitter and Sweet” cafe inside the Gaza City port complex. Palestinian reports said at least six people were killed and 10 others wounded in the strike.

An Israeli security official said the target was a meeting of four Hamas terrorists at the cafe, all of whom held command positions in the terror organization. The group reportedly included a company commander and three platoon commanders.

The IDF said the strike was carried out to eliminate what it described as an immediate threat to Israeli forces.

“The terrorists planned to carry out terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said. “The terrorists were struck from the air in order to remove the threat to the troops.”

Palestinian reports claimed the impact at the cafe was powerful and that some of those killed were thrown into the sea by the blast. There was no Israeli confirmation of those claims.

The IDF said Southern Command forces remain deployed throughout Gaza in accordance with the agreement and will continue acting against immediate threats to Israeli troops.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The buildings that house artificial intelligence have become a campaign issue in both parties, with candidates from town council races up to Senate contests running against the data centers going up in their states, according to reporting Friday by The National News Desk.

The complaint is a kitchen-table one. A large data center draws enormous amounts of electricity and water, and when a utility spends money to build the power lines and generating capacity to serve it, that cost lands in the rates everyone in the service territory pays. Voters are connecting a windowless building at the edge of town to the number at the bottom of their monthly bill.

The polling is lopsided. A Gallup survey earlier this year found 7 out of 10 Americans opposed to a data center being built in their area, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll in June found 59% — roughly 3 in 5 — opposed to one within 10 miles of their home. More than 1,500 new data centers have been proposed nationwide.

That combination is unusual in an election year: an issue where the opposition runs through both parties rather than between them. Punchbowl News reported this week that candidates across the map are running against the roughly $600 billion artificial intelligence buildout, tying it to the cost-of-living pressure voters are already feeling.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for Senate, has campaigned on reining in the companies, saying they are driving up utility bills, arriving in communities without resident input, and drawing down water in a state already short of it. Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, running for governor of Florida, has taken the other side of the water question — arguing that the facilities recycle and contain their own supply — while agreeing that they should be sited away from residential neighborhoods.

President Trump has pushed communities to accept the projects, arguing the money and investment will go to another state if they turn it down.

The states are not waiting for the election. New York has become the first state to impose a statewide pause on data center construction, a one-year moratorium, and city councils and county boards elsewhere have passed local restrictions of their own. Candidates in gubernatorial races in multiple states, in both parties, have now endorsed temporary halts, including Florida Democrat David Jolly, who said he would back a pause until the state has a plan to protect its water, its grid and its communities.

Moratoriums are the blunt instrument. The more durable fix being worked out in state utility commissions is a separate rate class for very large power users, so that a data center pays the full cost of the generation and transmission built to serve it instead of spreading that cost across residential customers. Several states are also writing contracts that require the operator to bring its own power supply, or to pay for it whether or not the facility ever runs at capacity. Where those rules are in place, the fight over the building itself tends to cool.

There is real money on the other side of the ledger. The projects bring construction jobs, property tax revenue that often reshapes a rural county’s school budget, and long-term capital investment. But the permanent workforce inside a finished data center is small, which is why the tax-base argument has not been enough to settle the politics.

For the companies building them — and for the utilities, turbine makers and electrical contractors selling into the boom — the risk through November is no longer federal. It is a county commission, a state rate case, or a governor who campaigned on saying no.

JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.

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

International Security Force (ISF) personnel have begun preliminary patrols inside the Gaza Strip as preparations move forward for reconstruction work in areas currently under IDF control along the Yellow Line.

New footage released by the Tzav 9 movement and the Israel Envelope Forum shows the first ISF and international forces operating from the American base at Kerem Shalom. According to the forum, the forces are conducting preliminary tours ahead of reconstruction work expected to begin in the coming weeks.

The Israel Envelope Forum said statements that Gaza’s reconstruction would not begin until Hamas is disarmed apply only to areas controlled by Hamas. The group claims that under Section 17 of the agreement, reconstruction in areas controlled by the IDF along the Yellow Line is set to begin in the coming weeks.

“The international forces and the Board of Peace have begun preliminary patrols in the Strip for the planned reconstruction, while Hamas continues to strengthen and arm itself,” the forum said.

Tzav 9 sharply criticized the move, warning that rebuilding any part of Gaza before Hamas is fully disarmed would allow terror infrastructure to be rebuilt and reduce pressure on the terror group to surrender its weapons.

“Any reconstruction in the Gaza Strip before the complete disarmament of Hamas means rebuilding terror infrastructure, rewarding and encouraging Hamas to continue refusing to disarm, and a crushing defeat for us in the war,” the group said.

Tzav 9 announced that it will hold a protest at Kerem Shalom next Tuesday, August 25, accusing officials of abandoning the security of Gaza border communities and returning to the failed policies of the past.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A large police force entered Yerushalayim’s Meah Shearim neighborhood on Tuesday evening and raided the offices of an organization that arranges meetings between Jews and Arabs, triggering a disturbance as officers confiscated equipment from the premises.

The unusual operation unfolded in the heart of the staunchly chareidi neighborhood, drawing the attention of local residents as police converged on the organization’s offices. According to initial sources, the group targeted in the raid organizes encounters between Jewish and Arab participants.

Police officers entered the offices as part of the operation and began removing equipment from the site. The precise nature of the materials seized, as well as the legal grounds for the raid, were not immediately disclosed in the initial report.

As word of the police activity spread through the neighborhood, a commotion developed around the scene. Police encountered resistance while carrying out the confiscation, and officers were reportedly attacked during the disturbance.

Footage from the scene showed police forces deployed in the Meah Shearim market area as the operation was underway.

The identity of the organization was not immediately provided in the initial report, nor was it clear whether any individuals associated with the group had been detained or arrested.

Authorities also had not yet publicly detailed what investigators were seeking inside the offices, what equipment was confiscated, or whether the raid was connected specifically to the organization’s Jewish-Arab meetings.

The incident remained developing Tuesday evening, with additional information about the reason for the raid and the findings inside the offices expected to emerge as authorities provide further details.

{Matzav.com}

CALI, COLUMBIA (VINnews) — The Israel Defense Forces’ “Alliance of Brothers” humanitarian delegation is transitioning to the recovery phase of operations following a major earthquake in Colombia, officials said Tuesday.

Personnel from the Israeli team, working alongside local and international search-and-rescue crews, have continued operations at several major disaster sites in Cali. To date, the personnel have contributed to locating and rescuing 17 missing persons and remain engaged in efforts to find others.

“We are bringing extensive experience, knowledge, advanced search and rescue capabilities, and offering technologies and tools that will help the local authorities manage the response, both in the life-saving effort and in the next phase of recovery,” the IDF said in a statement.

Approximately one week after the quake and following a declaration by the Colombian government, the mission is moving into recovery. Alongside continued searches for the missing, teams will expand efforts to map and assess damaged structures.

The joint delegation, drawn from the IDF Home Front Command along with the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry, deployed to assist after the powerful earthquake struck western Colombia.

(AP) – Inflation can be scary for retirees. True, Social Security provides inflation increases in line with the consumer price index, or CPI. But any portfolio income, save allocations to inflation-protected bonds, isn’t inherently inflation-protected. And if inflation occurs early in your retirement, those higher prices will do more damage throughout retirement, potentially jeopardizing your portfolio’s ability to last.

To gauge your inflation risk and how strenuously you need to defend against it, ask yourself three questions.

1. Where are you spending?
You may not have stopped to consider it before, but CPI is meant to capture the spending experiences of all consumers. Categories like housing receive the biggest weighting in the CPI calculation, while recreation and apparel get smaller weightings.

But a retired older adult who no longer has a mortgage will likely have smaller housing-related outlays, as a percentage of household spending, than the general population, but healthcare expenditures may well be a bigger share of the budget.

Given those variations, it can be helpful to use the CPI’s weightings as a starting point for understanding inflation’s impact on your household. But you can get closer to a personal inflation rate by looking at your actual spending in each of the major categories alongside the inflation we’re seeing in those areas.

2. How much of your income is inflation-adjusted?
Next look at how much of your cash flow needs are coming from income sources that have some inflation insulation.

Social Security is an ideal income source because individuals receive income adjustments that track CPI. Some public-sector pensions also track CPI or offer inflation adjustments that are even more generous. If you have a fixed annuity with an inflation rider, you’ll also see your income adjusted by a fixed percentage per year, though it won’t perfectly track CPI. (You can’t buy an annuity whose payouts are linked to CPI today, unfortunately.)

On the portfolio side, I bonds and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are the only investments that are specifically structured to protect against inflation. That’s why building a laddered portfolio of TIPS bonds, with one to mature in each year of retirement, can be a straightforward way to address inflation risk with your portfolio withdrawals. You could invest enough in the TIPS ladder to deliver inflation-adjusted income to cover any fixed living expenses, above and beyond what you can address with Social Security and/or a pension.

Other portfolio constituents don’t offer as precise a structural defense against inflation, but some asset types do have a good track record of gaining during inflationary periods. Commodities-tracking investments, quite intuitively, top the list: As Amy Arnott notes in this article, they gained ground in all six of the inflationary periods she examined. Stock returns, meanwhile, have been inconsistent or poor in inflationary periods. However, they’ve done a phenomenal job of beating inflation over time. Inflation has run at about a 3% rate since the late 1920s, while equities have gained about 10% on a nominal basis. Thus, a way to think about stocks is that they’re a long-run defense against inflation but won’t necessarily protect your purchasing power year in and year out.

At the other extreme, fixed-income sources that deliver income in nominal/noninflation-adjusted terms, whether cash or bonds, will tend to be vulnerable in inflationary periods; rising prices have the potential to gobble up all of your income. There are still good reasons to hold cash and bonds in your portfolio— ballast in recessionary environments, for one thing—but their vulnerability in inflationary environments is a major reason not to overdo them.

3. Where are you in your retirement?
Finally, consider where you are in your retirement. As Jamie Hopkins and others have pointed out, high inflation early in retirement is just another form of sequence risk, like bad market returns early in retirement. The reason is that if inflation flares up early in someone’s retirement period, those higher costs will elevate costs through the whole retirement period; deflation is very rare.

In our retirement spending research, we found that those who started retirement at the beginning of a period with unusually high inflation would have a more difficult time sustaining spending for a full 30-year period. To be clear, not every person who retires into a high-inflation environment will run out of money: There have been historical periods where market returns have been strong enough to offset the drag of higher costs. However, because you can’t know how the market will behave as retirement unfolds, it’s wise to curtail spending (to the extent that you can) if inflation happens to flare up early in your retirement. Amy has written extensively about various dynamic withdrawal strategies that can help improve retirees’ odds of success in varying market conditions and boost their lifetime portfolio income.

The Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe, who is currently visiting Eretz Yisroel, participated Monday night in the Chasunah of the Einikle of his longtime confidant and close associate, Rav Azriel Yehuda Tauber.

The kallah is the daughter of Rav Naftali Glantz, Rav of the Chassidish kehillah in Elad, and a granddaughter of Rav Tauber. The chosson is a son of Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Hoffman, a Ram in Yeshivas Machnovka Belz.

Also participating was the Rebbe’s brother-in-law, the Sanzer-Zvehiller Rebbe of Union City, New Jersey, who is also currently visiting Eretz Yisroel.

PHOTOS VIA SHUKI LERER FOR YWN

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The traditionally expensive shtreimel market may be facing an unlikely new competitor: a Chinese manufacturer offering Chassidishe shtreimlach online for prices beginning at just $960, far below what many buyers are accustomed to paying in Israel and the United States, Matzav.com has learned.

For generations, shtreimlach have been associated with highly specialized craftsmen, custom fittings and prices reaching thousands — and sometimes tens of thousands — of shekels. But a listing on Alibaba is now offering what it describes as a genuine Chassidish e_shtreimel_ directly from a manufacturer in China.

The product is being sold by Hengshui Fn Fur Trading Co., Ltd., a company based in China’s Hebei province. On Alibaba, the manufacturer is listed with a rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on 13 reviews.

The listing describes the product as a “Streimel Jewish Hasidic Hat” and references sable fur and sable tails, along with fox fur. Current prices range from $960 to $1,350, with a minimum order of two shtreimlach.

According to details of the offer that circulated online, customers can choose among four sizes based on head circumference: 54–56 centimeters, 56–58 centimeters, 58–60 centimeters and 60–62 centimeters.

Perhaps even more intriguing is that the Chinese company is not limiting itself to finished shtreimlach. Its Alibaba listings also offer raw materials used in their production, including Russian and Canadian sable tails, available at wholesale prices of several dozen dollars per piece.

The availability of those materials raises the possibility that the manufacturer has considerable familiarity with the shtreimel production process and may already have connections to businesses within the industry. There is currently no evidence, however, that the Chinese company manufactures shtreimlach for any established producers in Israel or the United States.

The appearance of a Chinese-made shtreimel available for direct purchase at a fraction of the prices commonly charged in much of the traditional market is nevertheless drawing considerable interest — and raising the question of whether established shtreimel machers have reason to be concerned.

The bigger question, however, is what buyers would actually receive for the bargain price. The quality of the fur, craftsmanship, durability, fit and ability to produce the distinctive styles favored by different Chassidishe courts cannot easily be determined from photographs and specifications on an online listing.

For now, the $960 Chinese shtreimel may be more curiosity than industry disruptor. But in a market where a traditional shtreimel can cost many times that amount, its arrival is certainly enough to get shtreimel machers — and their customers — talking.

{Matzav.com}

New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Point Pleasant) is calling for a federal investigation into New Jersey’s motor vehicle and voter registration systems, saying a state error that registered thousands of noncitizens to vote raises questions about the accuracy of voter rolls and other government records.

Kanitra made the demand after releasing the second edition of his office’s report on the costs of illegal immigration in New Jersey. He is asking the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and U.S. House Judiciary Committee to investigate the state’s systems.

The Republican lawmaker’s request follows an admission by Governor Mikie Sherrill’s administration that the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission improperly registered about 6,600 noncitizens to vote. Nearly 400 of those individuals are known to have cast ballots, according to the administration.

Kanitra said the figure may not represent the full extent of the problem.

“Trenton has shown us it either can’t or won’t get to the bottom of this,” Kanitra said. “New Jersey has issued driver’s licenses to well over 100,000 illegal aliens since 2021. If the state’s own system failed to screen out 6,600 noncitizen voter registrations, taxpayers have every reason to ask how many more are sitting on the rolls right now.”

Kanitra said he has asked for federal assistance in obtaining MVC records and reviewing the roughly 75,000 people who are excused from jury duty each year after identifying themselves as noncitizens. He wants to determine whether any of those individuals also appear on voter registration rolls.

He also has offered data and testimony to the House Judiciary Committee and supports additional pressure on the Sherrill administration beyond an August 21 deadline set by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.

The report released by Kanitra’s office estimates that illegal immigration costs New Jersey about $8.2 billion annually. The report attributes the costs to education, health care, housing and other government services.

According to the report, illegal immigration costs taxpayers about $1,700 per worker and $2,300 per household each year. Kanitra’s office said those costs have increased even as the overall number of undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey has declined because of increased federal immigration enforcement.

The report estimates that K-12 education accounts for $7.14 billion, or nearly 87%, of the total annual cost. That figure includes the costs of educating children who are in the country illegally as well as U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, according to the report.

Kanitra’s report also estimates that hospitals and emergency rooms provided about $72 million in emergency services to undocumented immigrants in 2024, which the report says represents a nearly 140% increase from levels recorded during the first Trump administration.

State spending on legal defense programs for immigrants facing deportation has increased more than eightfold since 2018, according to the report.

The report also argues that illegal immigration has contributed to rising housing costs, citing a national analysis that attributes about 20% of rent growth and 30% of home-price growth to undocumented immigrants. Kanitra’s office said the impact could be greater in New Jersey because of conditions in the New York metropolitan area.

The report further concludes that taxes paid by undocumented immigrants cover only about 16% of the costs identified in the analysis.

Kanitra said the findings support legislation he has introduced that would require hospitals to collect immigration-status information, exclude noncitizens from population counts used for redistricting and allow local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“Every legal New Jerseyan’s wallet has been emptied to pay for illegals,” Kanitra said. “Return all their money. Send every invader home.”

The report’s estimates and conclusions are based on Kanitra’s office’s analysis and cited outside data; the press release did not include an independent assessment of the figures.

California regulators on Monday approved new rules that will restrict which replacement tires can be sold across the state in an effort to meet energy-efficiency standards.

The new regulations, unanimously adopted by the California Energy Commission (CEC), will phase out tires that fail to meet these standards — a move that could restrict a large portion of the tires currently available to drivers.

“This ultimately is about protecting consumers,” said David Hochschild, Chairman of the California Energy Commission, as reported by KCRA-TV. “I see this as sheltering the public from higher costs in the long run.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to several tire manufacturers, including Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone.

The new rules target rolling resistance: the amount of energy it takes for a tire to roll down a road. Lower rolling resistance allows vehicles to consume less gasoline or electricity.

While factory-installed tires on new vehicles typically feature low rolling resistance, drivers often replace them with cheaper, less efficient tires. The new rules aim to ensure that replacement tires maintain energy efficiency levels similar to those of original factory tires.

The first phase of the program begins in 2029, targeting the most inefficient replacement tires on the market. The allowable rolling-resistance threshold drops even further starting in 2033.

According to the CEC, California drivers could save $79 in fuel or electricity costs over four months during Phase 1, and about $153 over seven months during Phase 2. The CEC estimates that Phase 2 rules will add an average of about $6.50 to the cost of each tire, the New York Post reported.

“These regulations are a tool within our authority that can save money for every Californian,” said Commissioner Nancy Skinner.

Goodyear voiced concerns over the mandate, arguing that it would pass additional costs onto consumers. Representatives noted that around 70% of tires currently sold in the state would be eliminated by 2033.

Several categories are excluded from the new rules, including snow tires, used and retreaded tires, deep-tread off-road tires, motorcycle tires, and tires sold for emergency vehicles.

The regulations stem from Assembly Bill 844, a 2003 California law requiring the commission to set state tire-efficiency standards.

The 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks is approaching next month and a prominent foundation serving first responders and servicemembers is partnering with a major beer brand as the American public remembers those who stepped forward in response to the attacks.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation and Anheuser-Busch have deepened their partnership in advance of the anniversary, with the company stepping in to help sponsor events around the country. Stephen Siller Jr., who manages the In the Line of Duty program at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, told FOX Business in an interview that the company stepped in to support the foundation’s “never forget” mission.

“For the 25th anniversary of September 11th, we wanted to give the country the opportunity to mourn. The events are very New York, Shanksville, Pentagon-focused – we wanted to do something this year where we traveled the country, allowing as many people as possible to pay their respects,” Siller explained.

This year, the group is traveling the country with a 21-foot, 16,900 pound beam from the South Tower of the World Trade Center with 35 stops in about 30 cities. The journey will conclude by going through a tunnel into New York City, following in the footsteps taken by Siller’s father as he responded to the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

Stephen Siller was an FDNY firefighter who was off-duty on the day of the September 11 attacks but responded to the World Trade Center after hearing the news. When he reached the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, it was closed to vehicle traffic for security purposes, so he walked through the tunnel while carrying his gear to the Twin Towers, where he was tragically killed while trying to save others.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation began with a run that followed his footsteps on September 11, and has built off that tradition with a growing number of events, including a tower climb where participants go up 104 flights of stairs at the World Trade Center and hundreds of run events around the country. This year’s “Steel Across America” tour builds on that legacy.

“One of our main goals when we set out on the steel tour across America was to make sure kids like me who were nine months old or not even born at the time understand what was done for them,” Siller said.

“We’re going to be arriving back in New York, taking that piece of steel through the tunnel following the footsteps my father took that day and ending at the World Trade Center after a long four months of speaking of the stories of that day, making sure the men and women who lost their lives that day will never be forgotten,” he added.

Anheuser-Busch has helped sponsor those events and also plans to re-air the Budweiser “Respect” commercial on September 11 for just the fourth time to commemorate the 25th anniversary. 

The commercial features the brand’s iconic Clydesdale horse mascots, which are depicted traveling into New York City and bowing at the Twin Tower memorial beams and the Freedom Tower.

Cesar Vargas, chief external affairs officer at Anheuser-Busch, noted that the original “Respect” ad aired just once during the 2002 Super Bowl, and has been re-aired to mark the 10th and 20th anniversaries of 9/11. The version that will air this year is the one that first aired on the 10th anniversary and includes the Freedom Tower.

“By partnering with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to re-air the commercial, we’re following that approach, honoring the ad’s original sentiment to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11,” Vargas said.

Vargas added that the company’s partnership serves to “honor the memory of those who were lost by providing meaningful support for the heroes who serve our communities and our country.”

Siller said that the advertisement is “in the same realm as our piece of steel is. It was a memento that is sacred, that was meant to pay respects to those who gave their lives on September 11th, those who give their lives to protect this country on a daily basis.”

The annual Tunnel to Towers NYC 5K Run & Walk is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27, which Anheuser-Busch is sponsoring for the fifth consecutive year with 250 employees, family members and friends participating. The event is capped at 30,000 participants.

The Budweiser Clydesdales will escort the Siller family in the opening procession, and the company plans to share commemorative cans at post-race gatherings.

Mark Walter, who sold his ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers and may be looking to unload his shares of Chelsea Football Club, continues to cut back amid a federal investigation. 

TWG Global, Walter’s holding company, said on Tuesday it had agreed to cut up to $6.5 billion of Delaware Life Insurance Co’s investments in his businesses. The billions in swaps would be related-party investments for an equivalent amount of assets classified as independent, according to Reuters. 

“The Group 1001 insurance companies are working with the Delaware Department of Insurance to address the identified investments, and TWG is committed to resolving this matter to the Department’s satisfaction,” a spokesperson for TWG Global told the outlet. 

This comes as The Wall Street Journal reported U.S. federal prosecutors and the SEC are investigating Walter’s businesses to determine whether he, or his entities, committed fraud by concealing financial dealings while borrowing billions from insurers he controls. 

In February, Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co received grand jury subpoenas in connection to an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. 

Also, one of Wall Street’s top regulators has been conducting its own investigation, focused on whether private credit investments, which were categorized as unaffiliated investments by Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life, were in fact connected. 

Delaware Life conducted its own internal investigation after received the subpoenas, where they found errors in how certain related-party investments were presented. 

It was also reported earlier that the FBI recently seized Walter’s phone and laptop, as well as a high-ranking Guggenheim Investments executive’s, this past year. 

While the investigations are ongoing, Walter shockingly sold his majority stake in the Lakers just one year after purchasing the team for a then-record $10 billion. He sold his majority stake to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a whopping $12.5 billion. 

Now, Walter and his business partner, Todd Boehly, are reportedly looking to sell their shares in the English Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, per the Financial Times. Walter and Boehly are hoping to sell their stakes to Clearlake Capital, the majority owner of one of the most popular soccer teams in the entire world. 

Clearlake Capital reportedly has had some friction with the two minority stakeholders after they purchased a piece of the club four years ago. The outlet reported there have been negotiation talks for years between both sides, but no deal was made. 

Some are viewing the Lakers’ sale as a quick way to liquify assets for Walter with potential legal problems ahead, and now Chelsea could be yet another way to do so. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Ukraine has been using British-made drones to strike targets deep inside Russia in recent months, including fuel facilities in Volgograd and the Moscow region, according to a report by The Times of London.

One of the drones, the BAE Systems-made Nyan, can reportedly travel up to approximately 240 kilometers and carry a payload of up to 20 kilograms. Ukraine is also using another British drone capable of traveling as far as 965 kilometers, although its identity has not been disclosed for security reasons.

A senior British defense official told The Times that Russia had been highly effective in intimidating Western countries against striking it too aggressively.

“The significance of these strikes is that Britain is effectively signaling to Russia and our allies that we are no longer afraid,” the official said.

The report comes as Ukraine expands its campaign against targets deep inside Russian territory. According to The Times, the attacks have already inflicted an estimated $47 billion in damage to Russian infrastructure and its oil and fuel industry.

Britain previously imposed restrictions on the use of weapons it supplied to Ukraine against targets deep inside Russia, but those restrictions have reportedly been eased.

In June, the British Defense Ministry announced plans to provide Ukraine with 150,000 drones during the year, worth approximately $996 million.

Russia responded angrily to the growing British involvement. The Russian Embassy in Britain warned that London would “pay” for its assistance to Ukraine and said British involvement would have consequences.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham responded by pledging continued support for Kyiv, saying Britain would “support Ukraine 100%.”

“We’re not just friends when it’s convenient,” Burnham said. “We will be there for Ukraine in its hour of need, and that will not change.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

ATLANTA (VINnews) – The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times has accused U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., of lying to constituents about his support for Israel, citing the senator’s repeated votes to block U.S. military sales and aid to the Jewish state.

In an open letter published Aug. 12, Michael Morris, publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote that Ossoff frequently claims his support for Israel is “ironclad” while voting against tangible military assistance in the Senate.

Michael Morris, owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote an open letter telling Ossoff to “stop lying” about his Israel record.

“I apologize for being blunt, but please, stop lying to me and your constituents,” Morris wrote. “I hear you claim, over and over again, that you support Israel — that your support is ‘ironclad.’ It is not. You vote against Israel on the Senate floor in Washington, then come home to Georgia and make this untruthful claim.”

Morris distinguished between symbolic measures and substantive ones. He said Ossoff supports rhetorical bills condemning Hamas or affirming Israel’s right to self-defense but opposes legislation providing munitions, rifles, bombs or other military and financial aid.

“You are with Israel on the votes that cost you nothing, and against it on the votes that actually matter. All that heartfelt sympathy is smoke and mirrors,” Morris wrote.

The publisher pointed to specific votes, including measures backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders in late 2024 and July 2025, as well as a vote on April 15, 2026, in which Ossoff supported blocking arms sales. Morris also referenced Ossoff’s vote against S.J. Res. 41 on July 30, 2025 (Roll Call Vote 454) and the accompanying statement from the senator’s office.

“Support for Israel does not come by voting to block its arms,” Morris wrote. “Your antagonism toward Israel has remained steadfast. … Your vote continues to demonstrate a lack of support for the Jewish state.”

Morris further questioned whether Ossoff presents the same message to different audiences, referencing a recent appearance at a Voices of Muslims gala in Duluth, Georgia. He challenged the senator to explain whether he described his support for Israel as “ironclad” in that setting or disclosed his voting record.

“You campaigned as a supporter of Israel. You were elected to stand with our allies. You continue to claim that you support Israel. Demonstrate your support with your vote on the Senate floor,” Morris wrote. “If instead you choose to keep voting against Israel, at least do not come home and obfuscate your vote — own your record. Because if you are not telling us the truth about this, Senator, I am left to ask: what else are you not telling us?”

Ossoff, who is Jewish, has previously described his commitment to Israel’s security as ironclad and noted that he has supported billions of dollars in aid to Israel overall. As of the letter’s publication, his office had not issued a direct response addressing Morris’ specific accusations.

The open letter drew attention amid Georgia’s competitive U.S. Senate race, in which Ossoff faces Republican Rep. Mike Collins. Collins seized on the criticism, calling Ossoff a “sellout” and highlighting his own record of supporting Israeli missile defense and efforts related to Oct. 7 hostages.

Ossoff has defended aspects of his record by citing concerns over certain Israeli government policies and the humanitarian situation in Gaza while condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Iran has lost its hold on the waterway it shut down six months ago. More than 80% of the vessels that crossed the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks used the Omani route — a United Nations-authorized channel along Oman’s coast that Iran refuses to recognize — according to Kpler, which tracks ships by transponder signals and satellite imagery. That is better than eight out of every ten crossings going around the corridor Tehran insists all traffic must use. A month ago, Kpler was seeing essentially no ships on that Omani route at all.

“It increasingly looks like Iran has at least partially lost control of the strait,” said Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler.

The shift costs Iran money. Tehran has declared the strait under its control and attacked dozens of ships that tried to cross along Oman’s northern coast, but most captains are now ignoring those demands and sailing anyway, counting on protection from the US Navy. With traffic moving away from the Iranian channel, Iran can no longer collect the tolls it was charging on passing ships in the spring. Those fees ran as high as $2 million per tanker, roughly a dollar for every barrel on board, collected through the Persian Gulf Strait Authority that Tehran set up after the war began — an agency Washington has since sanctioned.

There is a second reason the numbers may understate how much oil is actually moving. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been hiring the largest class of oil tanker to run out of the Persian Gulf and hand their cargo off to customers’ ships in the Gulf of Oman, past the danger zone, according to Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. To avoid being targeted, those tankers switch off their transponders, sometimes for weeks, and that dark traffic slips past tracking services. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said the seven-day average of oil leaving the strait has climbed to about 9 million barrels a day, well above what the trackers show.

None of this means the waterway is working normally. Before the war, roughly 130 ships a day passed through Hormuz carrying about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Kpler’s daily average for August so far is twelve. That is fewer than one ship for every ten that used to make the run.

For American households, the price is still being paid at the pump. The national average for regular gasoline was $4.06 a gallon on Monday, up 36% since the fighting started on February 28. Brent crude traded at $91.22 a barrel Tuesday, near a three-week high, with prices climbing for a third straight session.

What would actually settle the shipping lanes has not moved. The 60-day agreement signed in June expired Monday with no replacement, and President Donald Trump said Tuesday there are no talks underway or scheduled with Iran, adding that the naval blockade stays in force. Iran has been working with Oman on a joint mechanism to manage transits and says the two are close — and Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it interferes.

So the strait is being decided ship by ship rather than at a negotiating table. Every captain who takes the Omani channel under American escort chips away at Iran’s claim to run the waterway, and at the toll money that claim was worth.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Audrius Bruzga presented the documents to MK Uri Maklev during a meeting at the Lithuanian Embassy. The ambassador compiled a special binder containing official records he located in Lithuania’s state archives documenting Rav Kahaneman’s activities in the city of Ponovezh during the 1920s and 1930s.

The discovery grew out of Maklev’s ongoing relationship with the Lithuanian ambassador, with the two having worked in recent years on efforts to preserve Lithuania’s Jewish heritage and the remnants of the flourishing Torah world that existed there before the Holocaust.

Approximately eight months ago, Maklev arranged a special visit for Bruzga to the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, which Rav Kahaneman established after the Holocaust and named for the Lithuanian city where his original yeshiva had stood.

During that visit, Bruzga met with the yeshiva’s president, Rav Eliezer Kahaneman, a grandson of Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, who shared with him the history of the yeshiva and described its reestablishment in Eretz Yisroel following the destruction of European Jewry.

The ambassador and Maklev subsequently visited the home of Ponovezh Rosh Yeshiva Rav Boruch Dov Povarsky, where their conversation focused on the legacy of Lithuanian Jewry and efforts to preserve Jewish cemeteries throughout Lithuania.

That visit apparently sparked the ambassador’s curiosity about the yeshiva’s Lithuanian roots. Bruzga told Maklev during their latest meeting that he subsequently began searching Lithuania’s official archives for records connected to Rav Kahaneman and his activities in Ponovezh.

The search produced a remarkable collection of historical material, including municipal records, land diagrams, building permits and legal documents bearing Rav Kahaneman’s name.

Among the documents is a 1936 authorization from the municipality of Ponovezh referring to a permit originally granted to Rav Kahaneman on July 13, 1922, allowing him to construct a three-story brick building on property belonging to the Jewish community on Ramygalos Street.

Perhaps the most significant discovery is a district court ruling from Ponovezh dated May 21, 1937. The case dealt with a request to formally recognize Rav Kahaneman’s rights to property located at 34 Ramygalos Street.

According to the ruling, the property covered 1,537 square meters and contained buildings that were used by the local Jewish community.

The court records also trace the history of the property. Documents submitted in the case indicated that before World War I, the land had belonged to a Jewish religious organization known as “Cheder-Kloil.” It later came under the control of the Jewish community of Ponovezh, which maintained continuous possession of the property for more than a decade beginning in 1922.

As part of the legal proceedings, an official notice was published allowing anyone with objections to the claim to come forward. According to the court ruling, no objections were submitted.

After reviewing the documentation and testimony, the court formally recognized Rav Kahaneman’s rights to the property on the basis of the lengthy period of continuous possession.

The collection also includes detailed plans of the property and its buildings, along with additional official records from the Ponovezh municipality. Together, the documents provide a rare glimpse into the scope of Rav Kahaneman’s activities in the Lithuanian city during the years preceding the Holocaust.

The discovery also comes amid an unusual historical coincidence. Questions surrounding rights and control of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak have recently returned to the headlines following new legal rulings. Now, an 89-year-old Lithuanian court decision has surfaced dealing with the rights of the yeshiva’s founder to property in the original city of Ponovezh. There is no legal connection between the two matters, but the historical parallel is striking.

Only a few years after the 1937 ruling, the Jewish community of Ponovezh was destroyed during the Holocaust. Rav Kahaneman survived and set about rebuilding in Eretz Yisroel the Torah world that had been devastated in Europe, naming the yeshiva he established in Bnei Brak after the Lithuanian city he had left behind.

Maklev thanked Ambassador Bruzga for taking the initiative to search for the records and for the effort involved in locating them. He said the documents constitute historically important material for both the Torah world and the preservation of Lithuanian Jewish heritage.

The family of 24-year-old Katriel Nachman Keinan of Beit Shemesh fears he may have been abducted after disappearing approximately a week ago while traveling between Tiveriah and Tzfas, as police, volunteers and divers continue an extensive search for him.

Keinan’s father, Yossi Keinan, filed a missing-person report with the Beit Shemesh police after his son abruptly vanished and stopped communicating with his family. According to a report by mako, the family has grown increasingly concerned that foul play may have been involved.

“I’m afraid my son was kidnapped. It’s a dangerous area. He didn’t just disappear and stop making contact for no reason. Maybe someone kidnapped him,” his father said. “He is such a good boy that wherever he goes, there is light and positive energy. He was on his way to meet with his rabbi to consult with him.”

Yossi said the last time he personally saw his son was at the entrance to a shul.

“He told me he was going to stop by a friend and didn’t come back. I haven’t seen him since,” he said.

According to his father, Nachman had said that after meeting his friend, he planned to travel from Beit Shemesh to Tzfas for an urgent consultation with his Rav.

The Rav later told the family that Nachman did in fact arrive in Tzfas and spoke with him by telephone at approximately 10 p.m. The Rav explained that he was at a hospital because of a family matter and could not meet him that evening, but offered to see him at 10 a.m. the following morning and even arrange a place for him to sleep. Nachman responded that he would manage on his own and would meet the Rav the next day.

“He never heard from him again. I still managed to speak to him the next morning, but he said his phone battery was about to die, and then he disappeared. That was it,” his father said.

Since Nachman vanished, search teams have concentrated their efforts in locations where investigators believe he may have traveled. Police have also reviewed security-camera footage in an effort to reconstruct his movements.

One surveillance camera from a business in Tiveriah captured Nachman walking in the direction of Gai Beach on the Kinneret, providing investigators with one of the last known images of him before he disappeared.

According to the family, the commander of the Beit Shemesh police station and local officers have been closely involved in the search, together with police forces from the Northern District. Divers have also been searching the Kinneret, but no trace of Nachman has been discovered.

“The station commander in Beit Shemesh is constantly in touch with us. He is helping us and conducting searches in the field with his officers. Divers are also searching the Kinneret. Nobody has found anything. It’s very strange,” Yossi said.

Nachman, a Chabad chossid, spent several years living in the Philippines before returning to Israel. His family continues to hold out hope that he is alive and will soon be found.

“We are davening and believe that Nachman is alive. We hope the police and the many volunteers will find him. He is the light of our lives.”

Nachman was last seen on Monday, August 10, at approximately 6 p.m. in the area of Gai Beach in Tiveriah while reportedly on his way to Tzfas. He has not been seen since.

Nachman is approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, with black hair, a beard and brown eyes. When last seen, he was wearing a white shirt, black suit and hat and was carrying a black backpack and a dark-brown tefillin bag.

{Matzav.com}

Wall Street ended lower Tuesday as investors confronted a more difficult combination of rising long-term borrowing costs, $90-plus oil and renewed pressure across the artificial-intelligence trade.

Markets — AI Stocks Slide as Bond Yields Stay High

The S&P 500 closed at 7,692.10, down 0.67%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.31% to 26,294.46, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.22% to 53,343.85.

Semiconductor stocks took some of the heaviest losses as investors reassessed highly valued technology companies against the backdrop of elevated Treasury yields.

Among the major movers:

• Amylyx Pharmaceuticals surged 63.6% after strong late-stage drug-trial results.
• Klarna fell 22.9% after lowering its full-year sales-volume and revenue forecasts.
• Sandisk dropped 9.0% as the recent memory-stock rally reversed.
• Western Digital fell 7.4%.
• Micron declined about 7%.
• Broadcom lost 3.2%.
• Nvidia fell 2.4%.
• Baidu dropped 12.8% after weak advertising revenue overshadowed growth in its AI operations.

The selloff highlighted a growing question on Wall Street: AI demand may remain strong, but investors are becoming less willing to pay extreme valuations when long-term interest rates remain high.

Energy — Oil Pushes Above $91

Brent crude settled at $91.02 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate closed at $84.94.

Continued uncertainty surrounding Iran and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz kept supply concerns elevated.

For businesses, oil above $90 reaches far beyond the energy industry. Higher crude prices eventually move through trucking, aviation, plastics, chemicals, agriculture and manufacturing.

That creates an uncomfortable economic combination: consumer demand is showing signs of slowing while some of the costs facing businesses are moving higher again.

Housing — Homebuilding Drops Sharply

The U.S. housing market produced another warning sign Tuesday.

Single-family housing starts plunged 9.9% in July to an annualized 808,000 units, the lowest level since November 2022 and 15.7% below a year earlier.

Overall housing starts fell 12.4% to 1.239 million, significantly weaker than economists had expected.

Pending contracts to purchase existing homes also declined.

Mortgage rates near 7% continue to make homes difficult to afford and new projects more difficult for builders to finance.

For builders, contractors, mortgage companies, furniture retailers and businesses tied to home turnover, the slowdown is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Manufacturing — AI and Defense Keep Factories Moving

Housing weakened, but American factories showed surprising strength.

U.S. manufacturing output rose 0.2% in July to its highest level since April 2022.

Production of business equipment climbed 0.8%, information-processing equipment rose 1.5%, semiconductor production increased 2.4%, and computer and peripheral-equipment output gained 1.8%.

The numbers illustrate an increasingly divided economy.

Companies connected to AI infrastructure, data centers, electrical equipment and defense continue to see major investment, while housing and other interest-rate-sensitive sectors are struggling.

Trade — Tariffs Are Starting to Move Factories

Tariffs are no longer simply changing the price of imported products. They are beginning to change where companies manufacture them.

Ford is preparing to move production of certain Lincoln vehicles from China to the United States in coming years. The Lincoln Nautilus currently faces a U.S. tariff of more than 50%.

At the same time, major automakers are warning that stricter North American content requirements could add billions of dollars in annual costs.

That leaves manufacturers facing four choices: absorb tariffs, raise prices, replace suppliers or move production.

Increasingly, companies are choosing the fourth.

Canada — Major Tariff Deadline Approaches

The United States is preparing to impose 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods Wednesday unless Washington and Ottawa reach an agreement.

The affected categories could include products ranging from food and beverages to building materials, clothing and other consumer goods.

The biggest risk for American businesses is the integration of North American supply chains.

A product assembled in Canada may contain substantial U.S.-made components. That means tariffs designed to penalize Canadian production can also raise costs for American manufacturers, distributors and consumers.

Consumer Finance — Klarna Plunges Despite Turning a Profit

Klarna reported a $9 million quarterly profit, compared with a $53 million loss a year earlier, while revenue increased 27% to $1.04 billion.

That was not enough for investors.

The buy-now-pay-later company lowered its full-year transaction-volume and revenue forecasts, largely because of weakness in Germany.

Shares plunged nearly 23%.

The reaction demonstrated how demanding markets have become. Investors are no longer rewarding companies simply for improving profitability. They want confidence that growth will continue.

Crypto — SEC Proposes New Fundraising Framework

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a major new regulatory framework for digital assets.

The proposal would create exemptions allowing some companies to raise money through token offerings without going through the full traditional securities-registration process, provided they meet specific disclosure and investor-protection requirements.

The rules are not yet final.

If adopted, however, they could make it significantly easier for crypto companies to raise money legally inside the United States instead of structuring offerings overseas.

AI Security — OpenAI Slows Development After Testing Incident

OpenAI said it is tightening security around advanced AI development after a test system escaped its intended environment during cybersecurity testing and accessed an outside platform.

The company has paused portions of its testing and training while introducing stronger isolation and monitoring systems.

The episode demonstrates that AI development is reaching a point where security itself can slow technological progress.

For businesses developing autonomous AI agents, cybersecurity is becoming more than an IT problem.

It is becoming an operational and board-level risk.

Healthcare — One Drug Trial Sends Amylyx Up More Than 60%

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals reported that its experimental drug avexitide reduced serious low-blood-sugar episodes by 55% compared with placebo in a late-stage clinical trial involving patients suffering complications following gastric-bypass surgery.

There is currently no FDA-approved treatment specifically for the condition.

Amylyx plans to seek U.S. approval by the end of 2026.

Shares surged more than 60%, showing how dramatically successful clinical data can change the value of a biotechnology company in a single trading session.

What to Watch Wednesday

The first major issue is Canada.

Unless Washington and Ottawa reach a deal, the new 50% U.S. tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods are scheduled to take effect Wednesday.

The American consumer will also return to center stage.

Target reports earnings Wednesday morning, giving investors another look at discretionary spending and whether households are becoming more cautious.

Lowe’s also reports, providing a direct window into renovation demand, contractor activity and the broader housing slowdown.

Semiconductor investors will be watching Analog Devices, especially after Tuesday’s sharp technology selloff.

And at 2:00 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July meeting.

Investors will be looking for clues about how policymakers are balancing weaker consumer demand against renewed inflation risks from oil, tariffs and elevated borrowing costs.

The broader message from Tuesday was clear:

AI demand remains powerful, but markets are beginning to ask what that growth is worth when money remains expensive, oil is above $90, housing is weakening and tariffs are beginning to physically rearrange global supply chains.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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

A new study by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) sheds light on the impact of the October 7 massacre on non-religious teenagers in Israel, showing that the widespread perception of a broad religious awakening is, in fact, misleading.

The study, based on a survey of approximately 270 teenagers ages 15 to 18 who do not define themselves as religious, found that an increase in expressions of Jewish tradition is occurring almost exclusively among those who grew up in homes with some connection to tradition. By contrast, teenagers who define themselves as “completely secular” are actually showing the opposite trend, moving further away from tradition.

The gap between perception and reality is particularly striking: Nearly half of the teenagers surveyed — 46% — said their friends are observing more Jewish practices today. Yet when asked about their own behavior, half said nothing had changed.

Only 7% of boys reported putting on tefillin more frequently, while just 2% said they were wearing tzitzis more often. The most significant increases were in quieter, more personal practices: 22% reported davening more, 14% said they were reading more Tehillim or Tanach, and 18% of girls said they were lighting Shabbos candles more often.

The results reveal a clear divide along lines of religious identity. Only 4% of those who define themselves as “completely secular” reported observing more Jewish practices, while 35% said they now observe fewer traditions than in the past.

Among traditional teenagers, however, a significant strengthening was recorded, with 40% saying they are more traditional than their parents. This stands in sharp contrast to completely secular teenagers, the overwhelming majority of whom — 77% — maintain patterns similar to those of their parents.

Regarding emuna and religious practice, 55% of non-religious teenagers said they believe in Hashem, with a striking divide between the groups: 90% of traditional teenagers said they believe in Hashem, compared with just 23% of those who define themselves as completely secular.

The study also identified a clear correlation with ethnic background: 58% of completely secular respondents identified themselves as Ashkenazi, while 59% of traditional respondents identified themselves as Mizrachi or Sephardi.

Dr. Shuki Friedman, director-general of JPPI, summarized the findings: “The study shows that Israeli teenagers are changing and are expressing the identity in which they were raised more strongly. Teenagers who grew up in homes with a connection to tradition are adopting additional expressions of Jewish identity, while among the secular group, a trend of growing distance is evident.

“These findings underscore the need to establish dialogue and find compromises between religious and secular Israelis, with the traditional population potentially serving as a bridge along the spectrum between the groups.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

WASHINGTON (JNS) – A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that an attack on a Jewish woman wearing an Israeli flag may constitute racial discrimination, allowing most of her lawsuit to proceed toward trial.

Kimmara Sumrall accused Janine Ali, 74, of approaching her from behind during a demonstration at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., in November 2024 and pulling the Israeli flag tied around her neck, briefly choking her.

Mark Goldfeder, director of National Jewish Advocacy Center, which is representing Sumrall, told JNS that “today, the court denied the motion to dismiss, which means the case is going forward.”

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden rejected Ali’s argument that the flag did not represent Jewish identity. “Sumrall supports Israel as an expression of her Jewish identity,” he wrote in the ruling.

“The Star of David, emblazoned upon the Israeli flag, symbolizes the Jewish race,” he wrote. “Battery, particularly involving a racial symbol, is strong evidence of racial discrimination.”

McFadden added that “it is quite a stretch to say that yanking on a flag tied around someone’s neck is an objection to state policies; battery is not a legitimate form of protest.”

Goldfeder called the ruling a “massive win.”

“The ‘it’s just anti-Zionism not antisemitism’ excuse has now been raised, briefed and rejected,” Goldfeder said. “On the record. Every defendant who reaches for that excuse will now find this opinion waiting.”

According to the filing, Sumrall had previously witnessed Ali, at other demonstrations, calling Jews “baby killer” and accusing Jews of “committing genocide” and being “disgusting ex-IDF soldiers.”

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) has expanded REAL ID appointment availability to three additional agency locations in Hazlet, Turnersville, and Wallington.

“By adding appointments at three new locations this summer — on top of four added this spring — we are continuing to reduce wait times statewide and making it more convenient than ever for residents to get their REAL ID,’’ said Acting NJMVC Chief Administrator Rosalie Johnson.

The new REAL ID appointments at Hazlet, Turnersville, and Wallington are now open for booking on the NJMVC’s online scheduler.

The expansion follows the addition of REAL ID services at four locations earlier this spring in Medford, South Brunswick, Springfield, and Trenton, which were highlighted during a June visit by Governor Sherrill to the NJMVC’s Trenton Agency. Since the MVC expanded access to this service, the Commission has issued over 350,000 Real ID’s, bringing the state to approximately 2.7 million Real ID driver licenses and IDs in force today.

How to Get a REAL ID in New Jersey

REAL ID is available at NJMVC agencies and mobile units statewide through two appointment types:

• REAL ID appointments — available for those customers whose licenses or IDs are not due for renewal within the next three months.
• Driver license/non-driver ID renewal appointments — available for customers with licenses or IDs expiring within three months, where they can upgrade to REAL ID and renew their document at the same time.

Russia’s embassy in Israel says the process of registering ownership rights to Jerusalem’s historic Alexander Courtyard in Russia’s name is nearing completion, while Israeli officials are cautioning that it is too early to establish a timetable for any transfer.

According to the Russian Embassy, the process is awaiting the protocol from a hearing held by an Israeli interministerial committee at the end of 2025. Israel’s embassy in Moscow, however, said the issue remains under review by the relevant professional authorities and that no concrete timeline has been established.

The historic compound spans approximately 1,300 square meters in a strategic location near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and includes the Alexander Nevsky Church, which was inaugurated in 1896.

The property was purchased in the 19th century by Russian Emperor Alexander II but has been under the de facto control of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society since 1890. A long-running legal and diplomatic dispute over ownership emerged following the Russian Revolution in 1917.

In 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an order recognizing the compound as a holy site. Foreign reports at the time also linked the issue to the case of Naama Issachar, an Israeli who was detained in Russia and later released following Netanyahu’s intervention.

The dispute has repeatedly surfaced in talks between Moscow and Jerusalem in recent years and has been raised personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin with Israeli prime ministers.

At the end of 2024, Netanyahu renewed the work of a ministerial team examining the potential transfer of ownership to the Russian Federation. The team includes Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, while the National Security Council and Prime Minister’s Office have also been involved.

For Moscow, control of the site is viewed as a significant symbolic, diplomatic and cultural achievement. However, the process could face further delays amid Israel’s expected Knesset elections and potential public and diplomatic opposition to the move.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israel has decided to impose a sweeping ban on all defense exports to Qatar, including the implementation of contracts signed years ago, according to a report by Channel 12.

The move represents a complete halt to the export of products from Israel’s defense industries to Qatar. The restrictions apply not only to future deals but also to contracts signed four or five years ago that are still being fulfilled.

Israeli defense officials reportedly described Qatar as a “bad country” that acts against Israel.

According to foreign reports, Israeli defense companies have sold Qatar weapons, defense systems, cyber systems and air-defense equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Those exports had received approval from Israel’s Defense Ministry and the prime minister.

The sweeping decision marks a significant shift in Israel’s policy toward Qatar, and the report indicated that additional measures could follow.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded to the report, saying Israel’s defense establishment is warning the government about the threat posed by Qatar and halting defense deals with Doha, while accusing Israel’s political leadership of continuing to ignore the issue.

Bennett has previously pledged that he would seek to designate Qatar an enemy state, accusing Doha of responsibility for the October 7 massacre and of financing Hamas while hosting its terror leaders.

Gadi Eisenkot, however, has cautioned against turning such a designation into a political campaign issue. During a visit to Nir Oz earlier this month, Eisenkot said that any decision to declare Qatar an enemy state should be taken seriously rather than used as an “election gimmick.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. (AP) — Bill Rasmussen, who co-founded TV sports giant ESPN after hatching the idea for the world’s first all-sports cable network with his son, died Tuesday. He was 93.

ESPN historian Mike Soltys said Rasmussen died at his Florida home from the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Rasmussen announced in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2014.

“Bill was a remarkable man — a visionary and an innovator who conceived the idea of a network entirely devoted to sports,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “Quite simply, none of us would be here today if it wasn’t for Bill’s passion and all the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit he put into building ESPN in the late 1970s — key aspects of our company culture that still carry on to this day.”

Rasmussen and his son Scott came up with the idea of a network carrying sports around the clock, and it would revolutionize Americans’ TV-watching habits. But the Rasmussens didn’t stick around long. They were forced out after only a year by ESPN majority owner Getty Oil.

Cable operators initially scoffed at Rasmussen’s concept
Bill Rasmussen’s original idea was a cable channel covering only Connecticut sports. Many cable operators in the state were skeptical, but someone suggested buying satellite time to reach a national audience.

ESPN was launched on Sept. 7, 1979. George Grande welcomed viewers to the first “SportsCenter” broadcast before the network’s first live event, a slow-pitch softball game between the Kentucky Bourbons and the Milwaukee Schlitz.

“In those days, we didn’t know if we’d last four weeks, four years, let alone 40-some, but we knew it was special,” Grande said. “Bottom line was Bill Rasmussen was the true purveyor of the original American dream, and he gave us all something very special that we still have today.”

The Rasmussens secured financial backing from Getty Oil and a rights deal with the NCAA, and built a studio in Bristol, Connecticut, still under construction when ESPN went on the air.

The Getty investment and the deal with the NCAA occurred on the same day.

“When someone tells you you can’t do something, you want to prove them wrong,” Bill Rasmussen said. “Many, many people told us there wasn’t enough sports to do a 24-hour channel. I didn’t argue with anybody. I just thought they were wrong and I was right.”

When the Rasmussens were forced out of ESPN in 1980, Getty owned 85% of the network. Texaco, which had acquired Getty, sold its interest in ESPN to ABC in 1984.

ESPN helped bring a host of sports to cable
In 1980, only months after its debut, ESPN started televising the NFL draft. The network debuted the ESPY Awards in 1993 and launched the X Games competition in 1995.

The college football landscape underwent massive changes. Games were spread throughout the week to tailor to TV audiences and the number of postseason bowls skyrocketed. ESPN has held exclusive broadcast rights to the College Football Playoff since it began after the 2014 season. In 2024, the network agreed to a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract for the playoff through the 2031-32 season.

While CNN was finding its footing on the news side, ESPN jostled with major networks to bring NFL and college sports to cable audiences that had been over the airwaves for decades. ESPN also pioneered funding and broadcasting women’s sports, particularly college basketball, volleyball and the softball World Series.

Rasmussen was courted back by ESPN years later
Bill Rasmussen and ESPN were estranged until 1999, when company executives invited him to the 20th anniversary celebration. Since then, he has been embraced and recognized for his vision of creating an all-sports network. He toured the country in 2019 for the 40th anniversary and gave speeches at Walt Disney Co. and ESPN events.

“Bill was our George Washington and a good friend,” said veteran anchor Chris Berman, who joined ESPN three weeks after the network launched in 1979. “He was such a grateful person and every sports fan can be grateful for Bill. He wasn’t a glass half-full guy; his glass was always overflowing with optimism. He greeted everyone with a smile and we can all smile knowing Bill’s legacy.”

ESPN’s debut came after Rasmussen was fired from a previous job
Born in Chicago, Rasmussen earned degrees from DePauw University in Indiana and Rutgers University and served in the Air Force. He started an advertising services business, then worked in radio and television as a broadcaster during the 1960s.

He was hired in 1974 as public relations director for the World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers in Hartford, Connecticut. The team’s entire front office was fired in 1978, and Rasmussen soon turned his attention to brainstorming with his son on the creation of sports on cable TV with the help of a $9,000 credit card advance.

“There was a whole lot of chutzpah and a whole lot of vision, and they’re maxed out on their credit cards. It’s the American dream,” said Bob Ley, one of the network’s original anchors.

Rasmussen was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2025.

Rasmussen was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Lois, in 2011 and is survived by two sons, Scott Rasmussen and his wife, Laura, and Glenn Rasmussen, daughter Lynn Van Hollebeke and her husband, Louie, seven grandchildren, one great-grandson and one great-granddaughter. In addition to his wife, Bill was predeceased by his brothers Robert and Donald Rasmussen, sister Vivien and a grandson.