Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has formally urged Israel’s High Court of Justice to reject petitions seeking the removal of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, arguing that there is no legal basis for dismissing him despite the collapse of negotiations between Ben Gvir and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over his conduct in office.

Netanyahu’s latest filing was submitted after efforts to reach an agreement between Ben Gvir and the attorney general broke down. The prime minister’s position has fueled speculation over whether he would refuse to comply with a High Court ruling should the justices order Ben Gvir’s dismissal without what Netanyahu views as a clear legal foundation.

In his response, Netanyahu wrote, “After the prime minister carefully considered the matter, including receiving a detailed response from the minister regarding the incidents referenced in the petitions, the attorney general’s response to the conditional order, and the subsequent update notices, there has been no change in the prime minister’s position that Minister Ben Gvir’s appointment as minister of national security was lawful and that there are no grounds whatsoever for any administrative or judicial decision requiring his dismissal.”

The prime minister also maintained that Ben Gvir accepts the principle of police independence. He argued that even though the two sides were unable to finalize guidelines governing the minister’s relationship with the police, that alone does not justify removing him from office.

Netanyahu further contended that the matter is not one for judicial intervention and criticized Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s handling of the case. He accused her of “inflating the events and citing various incidents that bear no connection to any grounds for removing a minister.”

Ben Gvir welcomed Netanyahu’s response and launched a fresh attack on the attorney general.

“I congratulate the prime minister for his clear response to the criminal attorney general. The deep state bureaucrats have absolutely no authority to remove ministers from office. After the elections, we will remove the deep state bureaucrats.”

More than 400 World War II-era artillery shells and other unexploded munitions have been discovered in the village of Le Porge in southwestern France after recent wildfires exposed their location.

Bomb disposal experts removed the explosives on Monday after residents reported hearing multiple explosions. Officials said an initial cache of 75 shells was found last week, but further searches uncovered hundreds more, including French mortar bombs and German artillery shells.

Authorities believe the intense heat from the wildfires caused some of the aging munitions to detonate, revealing the larger stockpile. A security perimeter was established due to the risk of deadly shrapnel if additional explosives detonated.

Residents were allowed to return home Monday after safety officials determined the area was secure. The discovery comes as France continues to battle one of the worst wildfire seasons in its history, with more than 160,000 hectares burned nationwide.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari on Wednesday outlined why he thinks the central bank should raise interest rates to curb persistent inflation and head off the need for more substantial monetary policy action at a later date.

Kashkari was one of the three Fed policymakers who dissented from the 9-3 decision to leave interest rates unchanged at last week’s monetary policy meeting and instead voted to raise the benchmark federal funds rate by 25-basis-points. The Fed has held rates steady all year.

In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Kashkari noted the signs of strength across various components of the economy and said he doesn’t see signs that current interest rate levels are suppressing activity, which he views as allowing for a small hike.

“Corporate earnings are through the roof. They’re doing great. The consumer is hanging in there. The labor market is hanging in there,” he said. “I look at this constellation, and I say, ‘What evidence do I have that monetary policy is particularly restrictive right now?’ So, I argued now is the time to start slowly moving up as we get more data in.

“I’m not calling for a dramatic increase in interest rates,” Kashkari explained. “I’m simply saying I don’t see evidence of monetary policy [being] marginally restrictive right now, and I think we have more work to do to get inflation back down.

“I would rather get going now in small steps than wait till later, then we have a really entrenched inflation problem, and we have to raise rates aggressively,” he added.

Kashkari also said Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, who was leading his second meeting as central bank chairman, didn’t pressure him over his vote and told him, “‘Do what you think is the right thing to do for the economy,'” which the Minneapolis Fed president appreciated.

Kashkari and the two other dissenters — Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack — each outlined their rationale for voting in favor of higher interest rates in statements released Friday.

All cited concerns about inflation persisting well above the central bank’s 2% target and the challenges policymakers would face if it becomes entrenched and cost pressures impact larger portions of the economy over time.

Both of the closely watched inflation metrics showed the pace of price growth sitting above 3% in June, with the consumer price index (CPI) at 3.5% from a year ago and the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index at 3.7%.

Fresh data from July will be released later this month, with CPI data slated for release next week and PCE data at the end of the month, which will help inform how policymakers approach their next decision point.

The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed panel responsible for monetary policy moves, is scheduled for Sept. 15-16.

The market narrowly sees a rate hike as the most likely outcome, with the CME FedWatch tool reflecting a 54.9% chance of a 25-basis-point hike and a 45.1% probability of rates remaining at their current target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

Summer is traditionally the season for the ambassadorial exodus and the arrival of new ambassadors to take their places. The new ambassadors remain in the category of designate until they present their letters of credence together with the letters of recall of their predecessors to the president of the state.

Six new ambassadors from countries on four continents presented credentials to President Isaac Herzog on Monday. They were: Saman Kumar Chandrasiri of Sri Lanka; Beka Dvali of Georgia; Nkechi Linda Ufochukwu of Nigeria; Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of Germany; Gabriel Alejandro Zaliasnik Schilkurt of Chile; and Jose Luis Nunez Bennet of Honduras. Bennet had the shortest distance to travel, as his country’s embassy is in Jerusalem.

Each ambassador had a separate meeting with the president, who also took an interest in the members of their respective entourages, including spouses, children and honorary consuls.

When speaking with the ambassador of Sri Lanka, Herzog mentioned that in 1986, his parents had visited there in the course of their long trip through countries of the Pacific. He said that he would very much like to visit Sri Lanka, which he knows is a very popular tourist destination for Israelis. He also noted that there is great potential for expanding relations between Israel and Sri Lanka. “We have a lot to share and a lot to do,” Herzog said.

When discussing trade relations, the ambassador, Chandrasiri, said that Sri Lanka is interested in developing its tourism industry, while on a personal level, he is interested in joining one of Israel’s cricket clubs.

To the Georgian ambassador, Dvali, Herzog disclosed that he had grown up on the epic poem The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin by Georgia’s national poet Shota Rustoveli. It had been given to him by the woman who had been his mother’s nanny when she was in Africa.

Herzog told Dvali that there are a number of Georgian churches in Israel, and Dvali responded that he looked forward to visiting them. They also discussed relations between their two countries, which have been long-lasting and largely good.

“We have a good working relationship with Israel,” Dvali said, noting, too, that relations with Georgia’s Jewish community have been good for centuries.

He described Georgia’s Jewish community as “interesting and impressive” with a rich cultural heritage. Since Georgia became independent, he said, it has evolved into a parliamentary republic with a vibrant democracy and a liberal society.

Nigeria’s Ufochukwa and her entourage arrived in national dress, with all the men attired in white. The only member in Western garb was her young daughter Valerie, who will soon be a pupil at the International School – whose student population is primarily composed of the offspring of members of the foreign diplomatic corps.

A corporate lawyer and policy consultant, the ambassador is not a professional diplomat, and Israel is her first diplomatic posting. She has earned an admirable reputation in Nigeria, a factor that caused Herzog to say admiringly that he had heard a lot about her.

The challenges that Israel faces in its relations with some African states were brought up in conversation, and Herzog suggested that Nigeria might be able to assist in improving Israel’s ties with Africa. Her main task, she said, was to strengthen ties between Nigeria and Israel.

Referring to the German ambassador’s middle name, Graf, which translates as “count” or “earl” and could indicate that he is descended from nobility, Herzog expressed curiosity about Lambsdorff’s family background.

Herzog, German ambassador discuss Russian posting

Part of their conversation was devoted to the ambassador’s previous posting in Russia. He said that he was a strong believer in dialogue there and in dialogue in the Middle East, and emphasized the importance of looking at the human side of hostilities, as well as the pain suffered all round.

One of Israel’s greatest friends in Germany is President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Israel when he was foreign affairs minister and as vice-chancellor, as well as several times since becoming president. Herzog told the ambassador that Steinmeier had expressed a desire to visit again in December, but hadn’t set a final date, and asked the ambassador to see if he could find out.

Lambsdorff, in addition to being a diplomat, is a politician who served in both the German Bundestag and the European Parliament.

He also brought three hats with him to Israel, which he featured on social media. Herzog presented him with a fourth – a white kova tembel, the kind of headgear worn by kibbutzniks in the early years of the state. This one was somewhat different in that it bore the flags of Israel and Germany.

The Hebrew-speaking ambassador of Chile is a former president of his country’s Jewish community. By profession, he is an influential criminal-defense attorney, a law professor, and a diplomat – appointed by President Antonio Kert, whom Herzog met during his state visit to Costa Rica in May, and with whom he hopes to meet again in Israel.

Board of Peace among topics discussed between Herzog, ambassadors

Herzog discussed the situation in Gaza with some of the new ambassadors, saying that he sees some positive elements in the Board of Peace under the auspices of US President Donald Trump.

He stressed that the disarmament of Hamas is essential in order to move forward, and commended the Americans for all their efforts towards this end, adding that he prayed for the day that Israel could dialogue with its Palestinian neighbors

Herzog and the Chilean ambassador shared their mutual views on the vision of hope that would spell peace for Israel and for Gaza.

Honduras was among those countries that officially recognized Israel in 1948, the year of the state’s establishment. In 2021, it moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. However, his posting is not the ambassador’s first time in the capital. Twenty years ago, Bennet brought his wife and children to Jerusalem on vacation. He told Herzog that he considers himself “highly honored” to return as ambassador.

Herzog wanted to know whether Honduras has a Jewish community. The answer was affirmative, though the number was very low. As far as is known, only 1,000 Jews live in Honduras.

This post was originally published on here.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction crews working on a new helipad at the White House have taken apart the massive granite seal that would serve as the new landing spot for Marine One, signaling potential delays in the project.

Photos captured by The Associated Press on Wednesday show construction workers using a jackhammer on the helipad, which no longer carries the dark gray trim of a presidential seal that was visible last week. It was unclear why the seal was being removed.

The White House said it’s continuing to make improvements as part of efforts to best match the needs of the building and its grounds. Trump has said the helipad is needed because new helicopters in the fleet used for Marine One are so powerful they rip out the South Lawn grass.

“For years, the White House has desperately needed a proper helipad on White House grounds that will allow the president to land safely and also protect the beautiful South Lawn grass from the fierce exhaust fumes of the incredible Marine One,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said on Wednesday. “Thanks to President Trump, the White House has never looked better, and it will only continue to get better under his leadership.”

The helipad is part of a long list of renovations that Trump has undertaken in his second term. His projects include a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom; a Rose Garden paved over with stone; a new marbled interior in the Palm Room, a lobby-like room that leads out to the West Colonnade and Rose Garden; and an Oval Office that continues to add gilded decorations.

Trump described the helipad at length during an Oval Office appearance last month, saying it would be made of carved granite and calling it a “beautiful thing.” The president also said Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, would be paying for the project, which he estimated would cost up to $6 million. Lockheed referred comment on the helipad construction to the White House.

The new helicopters used for Marine One are manufactured by Sikorsky and made their debut under then-President Joe Biden in 2024. But their use has been limited because their exhaust vents aim heat downward, posing a risk to the South Lawn grass.

Trump has said that using granite rather than concrete for the helipad was his suggestion. He has also noted that the landing pad could be used for other White House events, such as press conferences.

The removal of the seal was first reported by The Washington Post.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is currently “in the midst of both military and diplomatic events,” adding that he would have to leave early due to his security-related schedule, Bechadrei Haredim reported.

“The fateful decisions we made, in the face of all the pressures from abroad and at home, brought us tremendous achievements on the battlefronts,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also emphasized the importance of national unity, saying that one of the central conditions for Israel’s continued existence is the ability “to unite forces on matters that require unity.”

“I am not naive,” Netanyahu said. “We are in an election period. There will be arguments, but the unity among us is broader than people think.”

The prime minister said that after the elections, broad agreements would be needed to address Israel’s security threats and take advantage of diplomatic opportunities in the region.

Netanyahu said Israel would need “to secure our future in the face of the threats and take advantage of the opportunities with neighboring countries, and there are quite a few.”

Addressing Israel’s relationship with the United States, Netanyahu said, “The United States is our greatest friend, but Israel’s existence is not subject to negotiation, with an agreement or without one.”

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(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A civilian drone that entered the restricted airspace around Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning temporarily shut down flight operations, forcing authorities to suspend both takeoffs and landings during one of the airport’s busiest periods and prompting an official investigation by the Transportation Ministry.

The unusual security incident caused significant disruptions to air traffic after the drone penetrated the airport’s protected airspace, leading aviation authorities to halt operations until the area was deemed safe.

In response, Transportation Ministry Director-General Moshe Ben Zaken ordered a special review into the incident to determine how the drone was able to enter the restricted zone and disrupt operations at one of Israel’s most sensitive strategic facilities.

The incident comes as Israeli officials continue debating whether to impose a nationwide ban on civilian drone flights. The issue has recently been discussed by the Security Cabinet, where defense officials reportedly urged ministers to consider broader restrictions as part of Israel’s preparations for the possibility of a wider confrontation with Iran.

No final decision has yet been reached, but the prospect of banning drones has already sparked strong opposition from industry professionals and aviation experts.

“To decide that drones should be banned throughout the State of Israel is to pass a law that simply cannot be enforced,” Pini Yungman, president of TSG, a company specializing in aerial command-and-control systems, told N12.

“There are millions of drones in Israel, the overwhelming majority of them operated by children. It will be extremely difficult to prevent them from flying, monitor their use, or enforce such a prohibition.”

{Matzav.com}

Magen David Adom (MDA) issued an urgent appeal on Wednesday, calling on the public across Israel to donate blood due to a severe shortage of blood supplies.

MDA warned that the national blood bank’s reserves have fallen to a critically low level, while demand from hospitals and the IDF remains high. MDA spokesperson Zaki Heller said that the blood supplies are at “an alarmingly low level.”

The organization emphasized that at any given moment, cancer patients requiring blood transfusions, women recovering from complicated childbirth, road accident victims, wounded IDF soldiers, surgical patients, and many others depend on a steady supply of blood. To maintain adequate supplies for Israel’s healthcare system, approximately 1,200 blood donations are needed every day.

Dr. Raphael Strugo, MDA’s Deputy Director General of Medicine and Blood Services, said, “Israel’s blood supply must be available at all times. During the summer we experience a significant drop in the number of blood donors, while the need for blood continues without interruption. Every unit of blood donated today could save a life as early as tomorrow.”

MDA Director General Eli Bin added, “Blood cannot be manufactured, cannot be imported at the moment it is needed, and cannot be replaced. Every donation can mean the difference between life and death for a cancer patient, a woman who has just given birth, a critically injured patient, or a child in need of lifesaving treatment. I urge everyone who is able—take a few minutes, donate blood, and help save lives.”

MDA noted that a single blood donation can help save up to three lives and urged everyone who is medically eligible to visit one of the organization’s donation centers today.

Potential donors can click on the MDA website or call 03-530040 for more information.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The development of a skyscraper in New York City that will house Ken Griffin’s Citadel is moving forward despite his feud with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The skyscraper project at 350 Park Avenue is being developed by Griffin’s Citadel in partnership with Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin, and will see two of Griffin’s firms being anchor tenants.

Steven Roth, CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, said on the company’s earnings call on Tuesday that the project is underway and that the REIT will maximize its stake in the venture.

“If you drive or walk past Park Avenue at 52nd Street, you will see that our 350 Park Avenue site is now under construction, actually under demolition. We intend to shortly exercise our investment option to participate in this deal at our maximum ownership alongside Ken Griffin as our 60% partner and with Citadel as our 1-million-square-foot anchor tenant.”

Roth said on the call that Citadel holds a 60% stake in the partnership, while Vornado’s will top out at 36%.

The project is moving forward after Mamdani specifically criticized Griffin for owning a penthouse on Central Park South in a video detailing his new pied-a-terre tax, which is levied on high-value residential properties whose owners don’t live in the city full-time.

Mamdani spurred the controversy with an April 15 video the mayor recorded in front of Griffin’s penthouse, calling him out as a wealthy hedge fund owner who would be subject to the new luxury property tax.

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

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

Citadel executives went on to suggest that the new office space could become a casualty of Mamdani’s not-so-business-friendly policies.

Gerald Beeson, the firm’s COO, wrote in an April 23 memo to employees that the firm’s development of 350 Park Avenue was about to begin and would create “6,000 highly paid construction jobs” as well as support the “creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in Midtown New York.”

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

Mamdani eventually softened his rhetoric and thanked Griffin for his contributions to the city, including funding a memorial wall for police officers killed in the September 11 attacks and those who died of illnesses related to the recovery from the attacks that will open later this year in NYC Police Headquarters.

FOX Business’ Robert McGreevey contributed to this report.

WATCH:

Low-interest federal disaster loans are now open to small businesses, private nonprofits, homeowners and renters across three South Jersey counties and four in Pennsylvania hit by the severe storms of July 11, under an administrative disaster declaration the U.S. Small Business Administration issued July 30.

The declaration was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 5 and sets an incident period of July 11, 2026. Physical damage loan applications are due by Sept. 28, 2026, and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications by April 30, 2027. Applications are being taken online through the MySBA Loan Portal at lending.sba.gov, or in person at locally announced sites.

Coverage extends to Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey, along with the Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia. Applicants in all seven are eligible for both physical damage loans and economic injury loans. The declaration followed a request from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, submitted in late July after damage assessments in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

The storm system that triggered the declaration moved through the region on a Saturday afternoon, producing a series of microbursts with wind gusts reported near 70 miles per hour across West and South Philadelphia and into the suburbs. Trees came down across roads, basements and streets flooded, thousands of utility customers lost power, and a roof was torn off a Philadelphia Housing Authority building, displacing more than 30 residents. The damage crossed the Delaware into Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, where South Jersey businesses absorbed both structural losses and days of interrupted trade.

For business owners, the loan ceiling is $2 million to repair or replace damaged real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets. Homeowners may borrow up to $500,000 against a primary residence, and homeowners and renters alike may borrow up to $100,000 to replace personal property including clothing, furniture, appliances and vehicles.

Rates run as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for private nonprofits and 2.875% for homeowners and renters, with terms stretching to 30 years. No interest accrues and no payment is due until 12 months after the first disbursement — a grace period that matters for a South Jersey retailer or contractor trying to rebuild cash flow before taking on a new obligation. Eligibility, loan size and repayment terms are set case by case based on each applicant’s financial condition.

SBA Regional Administrator Matt Coleman, who oversees the agency’s Atlantic Region including New Jersey, said impacted businesses, nonprofits, homeowners and renters in contiguous counties qualify under the declaration and pointed to the $2 million business ceiling and the separate personal property and residential limits available to households.

Borrowers taking physical damage loans can also request an increase of up to 20% above verified damage to pay for mitigation work — reinforcing structures against high winds, installing wind-rated garage doors, or adding a safe room or storm shelter. For property owners in a corridor that has now drawn multiple storm declarations in a single summer, that provision converts a repair loan into a hardening project.

The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program runs on a separate track and is the piece most relevant to businesses that came through the storm with their buildings intact but their books damaged. It covers working capital losses tied directly to the disaster and is available even where there was no physical damage at all, with proceeds usable for fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that went unpaid because of the storm. Small agricultural cooperatives and private nonprofits, including faith-based organizations, are eligible. Agricultural producers, farmers and ranchers are excluded, with an exception carved out for small aquaculture operations.

Beginning Aug. 4, agency customer service representatives have been staffing a Disaster Loan Outreach Center in Philadelphia County to walk applicants through the program, explain the process and help complete paperwork. Walk-ins are accepted, and in-person appointments can be scheduled in advance at appointment.sba.gov.

The declaration is the second storm-related package the agency has extended into New Jersey this summer. A separate declaration covering severe storms in early July opened economic injury loans to Sussex and Warren counties alongside seven Pennsylvania counties. For small-business owners in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester, the practical deadline is the one on physical damage claims: applications close Sept. 28, less than eight weeks out, and the agency verifies losses before it sets a loan amount.

JBizNews Desk | Camden, N.J.

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CVS Health delivered one of the widest earnings beats in its recent history Wednesday and raised full-year guidance across the board. The stock fell about 6% anyway.

Adjusted earnings came in at $2.58 a share against the $1.85 analysts expected, with revenue of $106.10 billion. That topped the $100.11 billion consensus and marked roughly 7% growth from a year earlier. Net income reached $3.0 billion, up from $1.0 billion in the same quarter of 2025, while operating income nearly doubled to $4.7 billion, helped by the absence of prior-year litigation charges.

The company lifted full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $7.90 to $8.10 a share from $7.30 to $7.50, and raised revenue guidance to at least $414 billion from at least $405 billion.

Shares dropped nearly 6% to around $98 on the news.

Why the Selloff

The disconnect comes down to what happens after this year.

Investors have grown skeptical about the 2027 earnings picture, with particular concern about anticipated client departures at Caremark, the pharmacy benefit manager that anchors the Health Services division. A quarter this strong makes the comparison harder rather than easier: the higher 2026 lands, the steeper any 2027 step-down looks.

Caremark is under structural pressure from several directions at once — regulatory scrutiny of the pharmacy benefit model, employers rethinking their arrangements, and manufacturers building direct-to-patient channels that route around benefit managers entirely.

Caremark also recently reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission involving rebate reforms and transparency commitments.

Segment by Segment

Health Services, which houses Caremark, generated $51.8 billion in revenue, up 11.5%. CVS credited pharmacy drug mix and branded drug inflation, offset partly by ongoing pricing concessions to clients. That last phrase is the one to watch — revenue is growing while the terms are getting worse.

The insurance segment housing Aetna posted $37.54 billion, up 3.5%, with the medical benefit ratio improving to 87.4% from 89.9%. Insurers across the sector have struggled with elevated medical costs as Medicare Advantage patients return for procedures deferred during the pandemic, though many now appear better equipped to manage the trend after cutting membership, trimming benefits and exiting unprofitable markets.

Pharmacy and consumer wellness came in at $33.82 billion, up about 0.7%. Adjusted operating income for that unit rose 10.2% to $1.48 billion on core pharmacy strength and acquired Rite Aid assets, despite regulatory price reductions and reimbursement pressure.

The Turnaround Behind the Numbers

The results reflect continued progress on a broader restructuring that has involved cutting $2 billion in costs, closing underperforming stores, changing leadership and reducing costs inside Medicare Advantage plans. Improved medical-cost trends at Aetna, a more profitable drug mix and bonus payments tied to highly rated government health plans drove the quarterly profit.

Through the first half, profit reached $5.9 billion on revenue of $206.5 billion, against $2.8 billion and $193.5 billion in the same period last year.

The company is also pushing automation into its administrative operations. CVS is deploying agentic AI across call center interactions and claims processing at both Aetna and Caremark, and says its second-generation Aetna claims tool has cut processing time by more than 20% on complex claims requiring manual review.

The Weight-Loss Play

Wednesday’s other announcement was strategic rather than financial. CVS unveiled a collaboration with Eli Lilly making Zepbound and the new weight-loss pill Foundayo available to eligible patients through the CVS Health app by early in the fourth quarter, covering both insured patients and those paying cash.

The company also launched expanded GLP-1 support across its pharmacies and MinuteClinic, including a $29 virtual visit, and participates in the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program offering certain drugs at $50 monthly through 2027.

CVS now operates roughly 9,000 stores and serves approximately 27 million medical members — the scale argument for why a company under pressure at the benefit-manager layer still has a defensible position at the counter.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau has launched an unprecedented law enforcement partnership with China and Russia, arguing that carefully controlled cooperation with two of America’s chief geopolitical rivals is producing results in the fight against fentanyl trafficking, cybercrime, child exploitation, and other international criminal networks, Reuters reports.

According to Patel, the collaborations involve narrowly tailored investigations focused solely on specific categories of transnational crime rather than broader intelligence sharing. The FBI director said the initiative has already led to joint operations, intelligence exchanges, and coordinated arrests.

As part of the arrangement, Chinese law enforcement officials have traveled to the United States to work alongside FBI personnel, while American agents have made reciprocal visits to China to investigate cases and exchange information. FBI officials also said the two countries have conducted joint raids and arrests under the program.

Patel returned from Beijing in late July after meeting with Chinese officials, and FBI officials say a similar visit to Russia is tentatively scheduled for October.

In interviews with Reuters, Patel described the new relationships as partnerships with “non-traditional partners,” stressing that they are limited to targeted efforts against crimes such as international child pornography rings, cyber scam operations targeting Americans, fentanyl trafficking, and other cross-border criminal enterprises.

The initiative, organized internally through specialized “working groups,” represents a dramatic departure from longstanding FBI practice. It has also drawn concern from members of the counterintelligence community, who warn that working closely with authoritarian governments could expose sensitive U.S. security information to countries that actively seek to undermine America’s military, economic, and intelligence interests.

One example cited by the FBI occurred in May, when agents partnered with China’s Ministry of Public Security and Dubai police during “Operation Sand Dollar.” According to the bureau, the raid targeted a major cyber fraud center in Dubai, resulting in 300 arrests, the seizure of $300 million, and the rescue of thousands of trafficked workers.

Chinese state media also reported that one suspect accused of committing “serious violent crimes” was returned from China to the United States under the new cooperative framework.

For years, U.S. officials have viewed both China and Russia primarily as sources of espionage and international criminal activity rather than partners in combating those threats. Patel, who was appointed FBI director by President Donald Trump, acknowledged those concerns but argued that the risks can be managed.

“They are both new and dynamic relationships, and we are extremely mindful of their adversarial approach on many matters,” Patel said. “They are not going to stop, but if we can go and have wins for America, then we must engage.”

Patel said the current relationship began following President Trump’s trip to China in May 2025 and has since expanded through two of his own visits to Beijing. According to Patel, cooperation now centers on four working groups covering cyber fraud, crimes against children, counternarcotics, and fugitive investigations.

He also said officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security have been invited to multiple FBI facilities in the United States to exchange intelligence and investigative information.

“Every month, they send their working-level MPS officers here, and the following month we go there,” Patel said. “They are speaking with us daily, which has also never happened before.”

Asked about the growing law enforcement relationship, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, “We have always believed that dialog and negotiation are the right way forward, and that military means offer no solution.”

Patel emphasized that the intelligence exchanged is tightly restricted and applies only to the four agreed-upon categories of transnational crime. He also insisted that these partnerships are not intended to replace America’s traditional intelligence alliances, including the Five Eyes network with Canada, Australia, Britain, and New Zealand.

“Five Eyes will always be our most important intelligence relationship. No one is trying to replace that,” Patel said. “Unlike military and traditional intelligence agencies, we have a unique lane to drive this dynamic change with law enforcement, which is an apolitical mission.”

While in Asia last month, Patel met with Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong and Vice Minister Xu Datong to expand what Chinese state media described as “practical cooperation” against a range of criminal activities.

The expanded cooperation marks a significant shift in U.S. law enforcement policy and reflects President Trump’s broader diplomatic engagement with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not everyone is convinced the strategy is wise.

“China and Russia are our enemies, period,” said Jeff Crocker, a former FBI supervisory agent who retired in 2024. “They are actively trying to harm our country physically, economically and militarily.”

Crocker warned that allowing Chinese officials access to FBI facilities, intelligence personnel, and other government infrastructure carries substantial counterintelligence risks. He argued that both Chinese and Russian operatives would likely exploit any opportunity to gather intelligence or penetrate sensitive systems.

“So this is great cover ⁠for them,” Crocker said.

Patel responded that every foreign visitor undergoes extensive vetting and is subject to strict counterintelligence safeguards. Three former FBI employees told Reuters that such visits typically involve extensive physical and electronic monitoring, particularly for representatives of countries viewed as America’s most dangerous adversaries.

“We know exactly who is coming here, and we vet them,” Patel said.

Neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Embassy in Washington immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Patel also revealed that the FBI has spent months quietly coordinating with Russian authorities on investigations targeting violent transnational criminal organizations.

“This stuff doesn’t happen overnight,” Patel said. “We’ve been at this for 15 months.”

An internal FBI memorandum reviewed by Reuters credited the bureau’s partnership with China’s Ministry of Public Security for several operations targeting Chinese pharmaceutical companies this year.

According to the memo, those investigations resulted in the arrests of nine individuals, the closure of two chemical manufacturing facilities and three related websites, and the seizure of fentanyl precursor chemicals “likely otherwise destined for the United States.”

The memo did not identify where those arrests or seizures occurred.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow specializing in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said fentanyl overdose deaths in the United States have dropped significantly since the winter of 2022, likely because of several factors, including cooperation with China and broader access to the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone.

“It could be that the people who were already vulnerable had already died,” Felbab-Brown said.

“I think that the cooperation is useful, should be fostered, and that it contributed to some extent,” Felbab-Brown said, referring to the decline in U.S. overdoses. “But how much is really hard to know, and there are a lot of complexities to it.”

The FBI memo also said Chinese law enforcement partnered with agents from the bureau’s Omaha, Nebraska, field office during a June operation that dismantled an international child sexual abuse materials network, resulting in the arrests of 16 suspects.

The growing partnership follows years of strained relations between Washington and Beijing. U.S. officials have long accused China of failing to stop the production of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, while Chinese authorities suspended cooperation after political disputes, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a measured assessment of the renewed cooperation. Speaking during a visit to the Philippines last month, Rubio described the effort to curb fentanyl precursor shipments as “a work in progress.”

“I think we’ve made some progress on that front, but not entirely where we need to be,” Rubio told reporters.

Patel said the framework developed with China and Russia could eventually serve as a model for law enforcement cooperation with other countries when doing so advances U.S. interests.

“The fact that we did it with China,” Patel said, “when everyone said, ‘Don’t do it,’ and, ‘You can’t do it,’ shows what we can do with almost anyone.”

President Donald Trump hailed Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Wednesday, calling the result a major boost for Republicans as they prepare for a high-stakes general election battle in one of the nation’s key swing states.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump reacted to El-Sayed’s projected win over Rep. Haley Stevens by arguing that the Democratic Party’s embrace of a far-left nominee will improve Republican chances of capturing the seat in November.

“Great news for the Republican Party,” Trump wrote. “El-Sayed, a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in his race with the Socialist. As usual, the Polls were way off on this one. She was not expected to do nearly as well as she did. Now, the Dumocrats crazy policies will only get worse!”

El-Sayed’s victory over Stevens marked one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries in the country and represented a significant triumph for the party’s progressive wing.

The win sets the stage for a November contest against Republican Mike Rogers, the former congressman, in a race widely viewed as one of the most consequential Senate elections of the year and one that could help determine control of the chamber.

The primary remained too close to call for much of Tuesday night before El-Sayed pulled ahead early Wednesday. Stevens later conceded the race and pledged to support his candidacy in the general election.

A former Wayne County health director, El-Sayed campaigned on a progressive platform that includes “Medicare for All,” campaign finance reform, and ending U.S. military aid to Israel.

Throughout the campaign, he cast himself as an outsider challenging the Democratic establishment and secured endorsements from prominent progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Following the primary, Van Hollen described the result as “a wake-up call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”

The contest underscored the ideological divide within the Democratic Party, with progressive activists lining up behind El-Sayed while establishment leaders rallied behind Stevens.

Stevens, who has served four terms in Congress, received the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including support from pro-Israel organizations.

Republicans are expected to make El-Sayed’s progressive positions a central issue in the general election campaign.

His support for government-run healthcare, opposition to U.S. military aid for Israel, and other left-wing policy proposals have already become key targets for GOP attacks as Republicans seek to portray him as out of step with Michigan voters.

Democrats, meanwhile, now face the task of uniting after an expensive and hard-fought primary battle that exposed significant divisions within the party.

The Michigan Senate race is expected to be among the nation’s most competitive and could play a decisive role in determining which party controls the Senate during the final two years of President Trump’s second term.

Republicans have already reserved substantial advertising time in support of Rogers as they seek to flip a seat Democrats consider essential to their hopes of reclaiming the Senate majority.

{Matzav.com}

An Indian-flagged cargo ship sank in the Red Sea on Tuesday after being attacked off the coast of Yemen, marking the first vessel lost in the strategic waterway since the Houthis renewed threats last month to target ships linked to Saudi Arabia.

The vessel, identified as the MSV Faize Noore Oliya, was struck about 13 nautical miles south of the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah before capsizing and sinking. Rescue teams from Yemen’s internationally recognized government saved all 14 crew members—13 Indian nationals and one Yemeni—and brought them safely to the port of Mokha.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemen’s internationally recognized government accused the Houthis of using an explosive-laden boat. The vessel had recently called at Saudi ports, matching the Houthis’ recent threat to target Saudi-linked shipping and disrupt traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The incident comes as the Israeli Navy conducts a large-scale exercise along Israel’s Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, including near Eilat, simulating attacks on strategic maritime assets. The drills follow threats by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against Israeli maritime interests and come amid growing regional military coordination.

Israeli defense officials view the Red Sea as a vital strategic corridor, carrying roughly 12% of global seaborne trade and about 10% of global oil shipments. Reports also indicate Israel has expanded its military and intelligence presence near the Gulf of Aden, including discussions about a possible foothold near Somaliland’s Port of Berbera to monitor and counter Houthi threats.

The latest attack has renewed concerns over the security of Red Sea shipping. After Houthi attacks began in late 2023, traffic through the Suez Canal plunged as vessels rerouted around Africa. With the Houthis again threatening commercial shipping, industry observers warn another wave of disruptions may be underway.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has withdrawn a nearly four-decade-old letter that gave Institutional Shareholder Services antitrust comfort for its proxy advisory business, stripping away a legal cushion the firm has operated under since the Reagan administration.

The division announced Wednesday that it is withdrawing a 1987 business review letter issued to Institutional Shareholder Services. The Antitrust Division framed the action around its commitment to promoting competition, reducing barriers to entry and ensuring compliance with the antitrust laws.

Under the business review procedure, a company describes proposed conduct to the Antitrust Division and receives a letter stating whether the division would challenge that conduct as an antitrust violation. Withdrawing one does not itself constitute an enforcement action. What it does is remove the assurance — and signal that the conduct described in the original letter may now be viewed differently.

Two Firms, One Market

Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis together control more than 90% of the U.S. proxy advisory market.

Their influence is difficult to overstate. These firms tell institutional investors how to vote on executive compensation packages, board slates, merger approvals and shareholder proposals across thousands of public companies. Their voting guidelines have shaped corporate governance to the point that companies routinely tailor governance decisions in anticipation of how the two firms will view them.

Neither firm owns a meaningful stake in the companies whose elections they shape. That gap between influence and ownership is the crux of the objection now coming from multiple directions in Washington.

The Campaign Around It

Wednesday’s withdrawal is one move in a broader effort.

In December 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors,” naming both firms explicitly and expressing concern that they use influence over shareholder proposals, board composition and executive pay to advance politically motivated agendas. The order directed the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Labor to increase oversight of both companies.

Among its instructions, the order told the FTC, in consultation with the attorney general, to determine whether proxy advisory firms are engaged in unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive practices under federal antitrust law. The SEC was directed to enforce antifraud provisions against voting recommendations, assess whether the firms should register as investment advisers, consider requiring expanded disclosure of methodology and conflicts, and analyze whether proxy advisers help investment managers coordinate voting decisions in a way that constitutes acting as a group.

The FTC has separately been examining whether the firms’ dominant market positions constitute anticompetitive behavior, with particular attention to conflicts where a firm advises shareholders on how to vote while simultaneously selling consulting services to the same company.

Attorneys general in Texas, Florida and Missouri have opened investigations and filed suits alleging the firms mislead investors by advancing agendas rather than basing recommendations on financial performance.

The firms have not lost every round. Federal judges issued preliminary injunctions this summer blocking Kansas and Indiana laws targeting proxy advisers, after both companies challenged the statutes as unconstitutional. And in July 2025, the D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating the SEC’s 2020 proxy advisory rules.

The Business Is Already Changing

The commercial pressure may matter more than the legal pressure.

Both firms have been repositioning their offerings toward research and customizable analysis rather than a single standardized voting recommendation. Glass Lewis announced last fall that it would end its benchmark proxy voting policy, and in November 2025 said it would register with the SEC as an investment adviser, following the path ISS had already taken.

The most consequential development came from a client. In early January 2026, J.P. Morgan Asset Management dropped both firms entirely, moving to an internal platform supported by artificial intelligence.

That is the scenario the two companies should fear more than a regulatory finding. Their product is a labor-saving device — a way for asset managers holding thousands of positions to discharge a fiduciary voting obligation without building the research capacity in-house. If AI tools let large managers do that internally at lower cost, the market shrinks regardless of what any agency decides.

Governance lawyers have flagged that the shift away from one-size-fits-all benchmark policies toward custom voting policies for individual institutional clients could be highly consequential for shareholder engagement and the outcomes of future proxy contests.

For corporate boards, the direction is clear enough. The single external recommendation that once determined a vote is fragmenting into many, and the firms that supplied it are losing both their regulatory shelter and their captive customer base at the same time.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Washington — U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro reportedly arrived at the White House this week carrying a large box of evidence intended to persuade President Donald Trump that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was caused by a faulty government installation—not by the Olympic canoeist and others who had been charged in the case.

According to The New York Times, Pirro entered Monday’s Oval Office meeting with a large white box filled with documents and evidence. The meeting included Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and White House Counsel David Warrington.

CBS News reported that the materials Pirro presented supported her determination that the Reflecting Pool’s damage resulted from a defective installation performed by a government contractor, rather than criminal vandalism committed by three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn or the other defendants.

The meeting took place only hours after Trump publicly criticized Pirro’s decision to dismiss the felony case against Hearn, saying she had “folded like an umbrella” and “choked.”

Trump has continued to insist that vandals were responsible for damaging the Reflecting Pool. Burgum also defended that position over the weekend, writing on social media that “the evidence is clear.”

Despite that, Pirro’s office filed a detailed court motion on Friday seeking to dismiss the felony charge against Hearn. Prosecutors argued they had been provided incomplete and misleading information by the Interior Department before the grand jury returned the indictment.

According to the filing, evidence reviewed after the indictment revealed that the Reflecting Pool suffered from what prosecutors described as a “rushed and botched installation.” Investigators also found damage across multiple sections of the pool liner, including areas that the alleged vandals could not have reached.

Reports said the Oval Office meeting became tense, with Pirro directly confronting Burgum and accusing him of giving the president an inaccurate account of what caused the damage.

Burgum reportedly defended his department’s handling of the matter while Trump heard arguments from both sides.

The Justice Department has also asked the court to dismiss charges against three additional defendants who had been accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool after reviewing the newly uncovered evidence.

The dispute has highlighted growing disagreements within the Trump administration over how the case was handled.

Although Pirro has long been regarded as one of Trump’s closest allies, reports indicate she concluded that the prosecution could not move forward after reviewing thousands of pages of documents and determining the government lacked sufficient evidence to prove the damage was caused by vandalism.

Trump made clear Tuesday that he remains unhappy with Pirro’s decision but said he has not yet decided whether she will continue serving as U.S. attorney.

“I just think she was totally wrong,” Trump told reporters. “I haven’t made a determination” about her future, according to The Wall Street Journal.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (VINnews) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block Palm Beach County’s investment in Israel bonds, concluding that the plaintiffs failed to establish a legal basis to pursue the case.

The lawsuit, filed last year by three Palestinian American residents, challenged the county’s roughly $1 billion investment in Israeli government bonds. The plaintiffs argued the purchases were improper and claimed the investments caused them harm because relatives in Gaza were affected by the war.

Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley ruled that the alleged injuries were too indirect to support a taxpayer lawsuit and said the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that the county’s investment decisions were legally responsible for the losses they described.

Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Mike Caruso, whose office manages the county’s investment portfolio, said the ruling confirms the investments were made in accordance with the office’s responsibility to preserve public funds, maintain liquidity and seek competitive returns.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs criticized the decision and said they are evaluating whether to appeal. They contend the county’s investment strategy violated state law by placing political considerations ahead of its financial obligations to taxpayers.

The case centered on investment decisions that began after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. County officials expanded their purchases of Israel bonds in the months that followed, saying the investments offered solid returns while also expressing support for Israel.

The plaintiffs also argued the county’s holdings represented an outsized share of its investment portfolio. County officials have said the investments remain consistent with their financial objectives.

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA (VINnews)- Former U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, a retired Navy commander and outspoken supporter of Israel, won the Democratic primary in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating three challengers and setting up a rematch with Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans.

Luria received roughly 79% of the vote, according to results reported by Virginia Mercury. Her closest rival, physician Nila Devanath, who was endorsed by the Tidewater chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, finished with about 17.5%. Candidates Bill Fleming and Patrick Mosolf trailed further behind.

The victory positions Luria to face Kiggans in the Nov. 3 general election. Kiggans unseated Luria in 2022. The district, which includes Norfolk and Virginia Beach, is considered one of the most competitive in the country. Donald Trump carried it by 0.2 percentage points in 2024, and the Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.

Luria represented the district from 2019 to 2023 and served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She spent 20 years in the Navy before entering politics. During the primary, she emphasized strong U.S.-Israel ties and opposition to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, positions that set her apart from Devanath.

She entered the race with support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Virginia Democratic leaders, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

“I’m ready to serve and deliver for the people of Hampton Roads who are being left behind by Jen Kiggans and Donald Trump,” Luria said in a statement after her win.

On CNN, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) reacted to Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

A small Nantucket business is at the center of a social media storm after posting a sign declaring “No Influencers,” igniting a fierce online debate over tourism, entitlement and the growing power of social media personalities.

Barstool Sports founder and Nantucket homeowner Dave Portnoy joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to weigh in on the viral controversy, arguing that the issue is not with all online creators but with those who treat the island as a backdrop for content instead of respecting its community.

“The type of influencers we don’t want in Nantucket are the people who don’t care about Nantucket, the community, the beauty of it,” Portnoy said. “They just want to come here, make videos about themselves and use Nantucket as a prop.”

Nantucket has long been known for its quiet beaches, historic downtown and small-island atmosphere. In recent years, however, social media has helped transform many vacation destinations into viral hotspots, drawing larger crowds and prompting concerns from some locals about congestion, commercialization and changing community culture.

Portnoy, who has spent years visiting the island, said he believes Nantucket should remain different from other high-profile summer destinations built around being seen online.

“You don’t come to Nantucket to be seen. You come to be laid back, enjoy the most beautiful place on earth,” he said.

He added that while there are many different types of influencers, he supports businesses that want to discourage content creators who prioritize viral videos over preserving the island’s identity.

“I firmly stand behind this sign,” Portnoy said. “The trashy, ratchet influencers go to the Hamptons, not Nantucket. We’re an island for a reason, to keep the riffraff ashore.”

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday urged Congress to permanently strengthen the Trump administration’s government-wide anti-fraud campaign, saying lawmakers must act to expand data-sharing, increase criminal penalties, and provide additional resources after federal investigators identified an estimated $230 billion in fraud.

Speaking during a Capitol-area roundtable on combating government fraud, Vance said the administration’s fraud task force has already uncovered approximately $230 billion in fraudulent activity and prevented another $56 billion in improper payments since its formation.

Vance said the initiative has brought together numerous federal agencies, but argued that its long-term success depends on Congress passing legislation to make the reforms permanent.

“This effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us,” Vance said. “In order to make this really work, we need our colleagues in Congress to really codify some of this stuff, to make sure that it becomes law.”

The vice president described fraud as a crime with two sets of victims, saying it not only costs taxpayers billions of dollars but also deprives vulnerable Americans of resources intended to help them. He pointed to programs such as Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance as examples of systems that have been exploited by fraud.

“The most obvious victim, of course, is the American taxpayer, who has their hard-earned tax dollars stolen from them to enrich people who are violating our laws and taking advantage of our country. But I think more profoundly, and more sadly, the second victim of fraud are the people who benefit from programs that the American people have set up in their generosity and in their kindness of spirit, and those programs don’t function as well or don’t even have the resources necessary to work because they’ve been stolen from by fraudsters,” Vance said.

A central focus of the discussion was improving the exchange of information between state governments and federal agencies. Vance argued that federal officials often lack adequate visibility into who is ultimately receiving benefits administered by the states and said Congress should require more consistent data sharing.

Andrew Ferguson, who also addressed the roundtable, argued that weak penalties and outdated government systems have allowed fraud to flourish. He said modern technology and improved data-sharing could stop many fraudulent claims before taxpayer money is ever distributed.

“Data is the enemy of fraud,” Ferguson said, adding that relatively simple verification tools could save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

Ferguson also called for significantly tougher punishment for those convicted of defrauding government programs.

“We want to work with Congress to dramatically increase the sentences associated even with low-level frauds,” Ferguson said. “To make every fraudster think long and hard about whether it’s worth facing a long time in jail before deciding to raid our programs.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller echoed those concerns, arguing that current criminal penalties have failed to deter large-scale fraud because many offenders receive relatively light sentences.

“This may be hard to believe that you could steal hundreds of thousands and ultimately millions of dollars and not do any significant jail time. I think probably the simplest explanation is that when Congress was drafting these statutes, they still lived in a high-trust society, and it eclipsed their imagination that there would be systemic, widespread, continual lying, fleecing, and organized crime to rip off hundreds of billions of dollars from the American taxpayer, which is what has happened. There needs to be strict, clear, mandatory minimums,” Miller said.

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley also addressed the gathering, presenting what he described as 10 “practical proposals” for Congress to strengthen the administration’s anti-fraud efforts.

“Fraud steals taxpayer dollars, but such corruption steals something even more precious: it steals the blessings and benefits of work,” Haley said.

Vance concluded by saying the administration will continue working with Congress to advance three primary objectives: expanding information-sharing between governments, imposing tougher penalties on fraudsters, and providing additional funding for fraud investigations. He also thanked officials across multiple agencies, describing the initiative as a true “whole of government” effort.

{Matzav.com}

CVS Health is dropping the price of an online weight-loss consultation to $29, a move that puts the country’s largest pharmacy chain into direct price competition with the drugmakers and telehealth startups now selling GLP-1 access straight to consumers.

The Woonsocket, Rhode Island company announced the overhaul of its weight management program Tuesday, positioning the $29 MinuteClinic online visit as a first step for eligible adults who want a clinical evaluation for GLP-1 therapy. The visits run around the clock, and CVS says there is no separate membership requirement and no recurring monthly fee attached.

The new price is a meaningful cut. MinuteClinic had been charging $49 for the same cash-pay weight-loss consultation, which covers the consultation itself and does not include the cost of any required lab work.

The Lilly Piece

Alongside the price cut, CVS is teaming with Eli Lilly on distribution. By the early part of the fourth quarter, the company says patients prescribed Zepbound or Foundayo will be able to see transparent pricing, including cash-pay figures, inside the CVS Health app and arrange pickup as soon as the same day at stores nationwide.

That is the strategic heart of the announcement. Patients can meet a licensed clinician online, receive a prescription where clinically appropriate, and collect the medication at one of more than 9,000 CVS Pharmacy locations — a loop that keeps the consultation, the fill and the follow-up support inside CVS.

On out-of-pocket cost, the company laid out several tracks. Eligible patients with commercial insurance using manufacturer coupons may pay as little as $25 a month, while those without insurance can get qualifying medications and doses for $149 a month through manufacturer vouchers. CVS is also participating in the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which lets qualifying beneficiaries obtain certain GLP-1 drugs for $50 a month through the end of 2027.

Sid Tenneti, senior vice president and interim president of pharmacy and consumer wellness, framed the changes around removing obstacles that stop people before treatment ever begins. The company’s argument is that combining the clinic, the pharmacy counter and the app in one place beats a patchwork of separate vendors.

Why $29 Matters

The number itself is small. The signal is not.

For most of the past two years, the economics of weight-loss medication have been controlled by the manufacturers and by a handful of venture-funded telehealth companies. Lilly sells Zepbound single-dose vials at roughly $299 a month through its own LillyDirect platform, and Novo Nordisk has pushed self-pay Wegovy pricing to levels that would have been implausible a year and a half ago. Novo’s NovoCare program opens at $199 for introductory months before stepping up to $349, and Costco’s arrangement with Sesame prices Wegovy near $349 while requiring a paid membership.

Those consultation fees have been the quiet variable. Telehealth visits through manufacturer partner networks typically run $25 to $99 depending on the partner, and advertised monthly prices frequently exclude consultation charges, membership surcharges, shipping and supply fees that turn a headline number into something considerably larger.

By pricing the visit at $29 with no subscription attached, CVS is attacking the fee layer rather than the drug price — the piece it actually controls. It is also using a low-margin front door to pull patients toward a pharmacy counter that generates revenue for years.

Retail context explains why the competition is this fierce. List pricing on the branded drugs still runs well above $1,200 a month, and most commercial insurers restrict coverage behind prior authorization and step-therapy requirements. Every dollar shaved off the entry point widens the pool of cash-paying customers.

The Retail Angle

CVS is not moving in isolation. Analysts have been arguing for months that large retailers with pharmacy operations are the natural winners as prescriptions shift toward direct-to-consumer channels — the customer acquisition cost is minimal when the patient is already walking through the door for household goods.

For CVS specifically, the calculation is straightforward. A patient who starts GLP-1 therapy typically stays on it for an extended period, returns monthly, and buys other items on the same trip. The chain has also been leaning on its pharmacists as an in-person support layer, a differentiator no mail-order platform can match.

The open question is whether Lilly and Novo Nordisk continue to route volume through retail partners or keep tightening their own direct channels. Both have built closed pipelines that capture the full margin. Wednesday’s announcement suggests at least one of them sees value in the 9,000-store footprint.

Prescriptions remain subject to clinical evaluation, and the drugs are not appropriate for every patient.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews)-The FBI opened an investigation into whether President Donald Trump was “wittingly or unwittingly” acting as a Russian agent after he fired then-Director James Comey in 2017, according to newly declassified documents released by the White House on Wednesday.

The probe, code-named “Oxferd Comma,” stemmed from Crossfire Hurricane, the bureau’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

A May 16, 2017, memo opening the investigation, approved by then-FBI General Counsel James A. Baker and Bill Priestap, assistant director of the counterintelligence division, stated: “Based on the facts and circumstances provided to date, the FBI believes that opening this investigation is the least intrusive method to address the serious national security risk posed by the activities alleged.”

The memo said the inquiry aimed to “determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes.” It also sought to examine whether Trump and others obstructed or conspired to obstruct related FBI investigations.

Trump initially cited Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as the reason for the firing. It later emerged that the president was frustrated that Comey would not publicly state that Trump was not a personal target of Crossfire Hurricane.

Trump was not under personal investigation for collusion during the 2016 campaign. His dismissal of Comey raised questions of possible obstruction of justice and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director.

Contemporaneous messages showed some FBI officials had doubts about continuing the collusion inquiry. In a May 19, 2017, text, then-Deputy Assistant Director Pete Strzok wrote to FBI special counsel Lisa Page: “I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”

The White House released the documents amid ongoing scrutiny of the Russia investigations. Former Just the News editor in chief John Solomon, now serving on a Trump administration election integrity task force, noted that the probe was opened after agents had cleared former national security adviser Michael Flynn of collusion claims and after the Christopher Steele dossier had been largely debunked.

Oxferd Comma was closed on April 9, 2019, with no charges filed against Trump. Weeks earlier, Mueller’s investigation found no evidence that Trump or his aides coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election, though it documented some contacts with individuals tied to the Kremlin.

A later review by special counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI’s original Crossfire Hurricane investigation was “seriously flawed” and lacked an adequate evidentiary basis.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had recommended Comey’s firing in a May 9, 2017, memo, citing the director’s public statements about the Clinton email probe as a violation of long-standing Justice Department policy.

Antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom climbed by 21% during the first six months of 2026, reaching the second-highest total ever recorded for the first half of a calendar year, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Community Security Trust (CST).

The report documented 1,926 antisemitic incidents between January and June, compared with 1,598 during the same period in 2025, according to The Times of Israel.

That works out to an average of 321 antisemitic incidents every month—nearly twice the monthly average recorded before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

Violent assaults saw one of the sharpest increases. The CST recorded 135 physical attacks during the six-month period, an 82% rise compared with the first half of last year. Antisemitic incidents in schools climbed 59% to 178, while cases connected to shuls increased by 31%.

One of the most alarming incidents occurred on April 29, when two visibly Jewish men were stabbed in London’s Golders Green neighborhood. According to the CST, that attack was followed by 71 additional antisemitic incidents over the next three days.

The report also highlighted a series of arson attacks directed at London shuls and other Jewish-linked properties, including the torching of Hatzolah ambulances and attacks on multiple synagogues. The CST said the attacks were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and were claimed by an organization that was subsequently outlawed by the British government.

According to the CST, antisemitic incidents also spiked following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran in late February. The report comes months after the October 2025 terrorist attack on a Manchester shul that claimed the lives of two Jewish mispallelim.

CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner warned that the growing wave of antisemitism poses a danger not only to Britain’s Jewish community but to the country as a whole.

“These attacks should concern everyone who cares about Britain and the threats against it, whether state-directed from Iran, or internally driven by Islamist, far right, far left, or other ideological extremes,” Gardner said.

“These attacks are directed against British Jews, but they are also attacks on Britain and our society,” he added.

British Policing Minister Sarah Jones described the report’s findings as deeply troubling and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to safeguarding Jewish communities.

“Antisemitism goes against our country’s values, and I will do everything in my power to protect our Jewish communities,” Jones said.

She noted the government’s recent commitment to invest £250 million (approximately $336 million) over the next three years to enhance security at Jewish schools, shuls, and community centers, including funding for additional police officers.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the surge in antisemitic attacks a “national emergency.”

“Thousands of Jewish families living in fear in their own country, and it is completely unacceptable,” Philp said. “Antisemitism has no place in Britain and real action needs to be taken to stamp it out.”

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The United Nations says Iran has executed at least 56 people on national security-related charges since March 19, warning that the Islamic Republic is increasingly using the death penalty to silence dissent and intimidate the population.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said 27 of those executed had been convicted in cases connected to anti-government protests. The U.N. also warned that more than 100 additional people are currently at risk of execution on similar national security charges.

“I am alarmed by the increase in executions and death sentences handed down in Iran since March, as well as by the continued use of the death penalty to instill fear in the population and suppress dissent,” Türk said in a statement.

Türk also expressed concern over Iran’s continued use of capital punishment in drug-related cases and urged Iranian authorities to immediately halt all executions and begin moving toward abolishing the death penalty. He also raised concerns about due process and the fairness of trials that result in death sentences.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to the allegations. Iranian officials have consistently defended the country’s judicial system, arguing that its legal proceedings comply with national law and that the death penalty is necessary to protect public safety and national security.

Iran remains one of the world’s leading executioners, drawing repeated criticism from the United Nations and international human rights organizations.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A detached portion of a SpaceX rocket collided with the moon Wednesday morning, a NASA official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

The impact was made by the 8,818-pound upper portion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket while traveling at a speed of 5,400 mph, according to Reuters.

The rocket stage is “expected to create a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep and throw dust and rock outward as ejecta,” the NASA official told Fox News Digital.

SpaceX launched the rocket in January 2025 as part of a mission to land the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander on the moon. The upper portion was not supposed to return to the moon, but was pulled back to the lunar surface due to “solar activity and gravitational forces,” the NASA official said.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Tuesday that the rocket portion had “a 100% chance of impacting the Moon.”

Despite the uncommon nature of manmade objects hitting the moon, NASA advised that there is no danger to Earth, adding that “a meteoroid with the same energy as the upper stage hits the Moon about every six days,” according to the official.

The discarded section was projected to impact the moon near the Einstein crater at 2:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to NASA.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also said the impact was not a cause for concern during a Wednesday morning appearance on “Fox and Friends,” adding that the development of reusable rockets will further decrease the likelihood of future impacts.

“First of all, I’d say we’ve made a ton of progress. America leads the world in this regard. It used to be the case that all rockets were disposed in the ocean. Now you’ve watched over the last few years, I mean, SpaceX has recovered more than 600 of their boosters by bringing them back in a spectacular way to land on ships and land back on land,” he said.

“First, it’s very infrequent to have things like the Falcon 9 second stage crash into the moon. Second, it’s not a big deal right now. The moon has clearly seen better days, but once you have reusable upper stages like Starship is doing, you’re not going to be throwing them away, you’re going to be turning them, landing them on the moon, and they’re going to contribute to the city block we’re trying to build on the lunar surface,” Isaacman concluded.

Not only was the impact expected to cause minimal damage, NASA hopes that it will actually be able to study the event and garner scientific insights from observation.

NASA will use the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the ShadowCam instrument aboard South Korea’s Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter to “look for chances to image the site before and after the impact,” the official told Fox News Digital.

“Image availability will depend on lighting, orbital timing, and spacecraft position, and it may take several days to receive imagery. Any data collected will help scientists better understand artificial impacts and their exploration implications,” the official added.

Fox News Digital contacted SpaceX for added comment.

Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell and Reuters contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has ordered 42 online retailers to stop selling illegal high-speed electric bikes, stand-up scooters and other motorized devices to New York City customers, saying the vehicles pose a growing public safety risk.

The cease-and-desist letters target companies accused of shipping motorized devices that exceed the city’s legal limits for speed, weight or power into New York City’s 175 ZIP codes. Officials said the devices cannot legally be operated on city streets and warned retailers they could face civil penalties of up to $2,000 for each illegal sale if they continue.

City officials said illegal high-speed e-bikes and stand-up scooters have been involved in more than half of rider fatalities involving those types of vehicles since 2017. Authorities cited 45 deaths involving illegal e-bikes capable of speeds above 25 mph and 14 deaths involving illegal stand-up scooters capable of exceeding 20 mph.

The announcement comes days after a 17-year-old was killed in a crash involving an illegal motorized device.

Under city law, e-bikes with motors exceeding 750 watts or capable of traveling faster than 25 mph, stand-up scooters weighing more than 100 pounds or capable of speeds above 20 mph, and certain mopeds without valid vehicle identification numbers are prohibited from being sold or operated on city streets.

Mamdani said the city will pursue enforcement against retailers that continue marketing or shipping prohibited devices to New York consumers, while Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said the growth of heavier and faster electric vehicles has increased the severity of crashes and risks to riders and pedestrians alike.

Agudath Israel of America is urging New Jersey residents to contact U.S. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker as the U.S. Senate considers the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent nationwide.

The legislation, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, passed the House of Representatives by a 308-117 vote, and now awaits action in the Senate. If passed and signed by President Trump – who is pushing strongly for passage – it would put the country on the time currently observed from March to November unless a state exempted itself before the act took effect.

The call to action comes after a delegation of Agudath Israel advocates, including Shlomo Schorr, Director of Legislative Affairs for Agudath Israel’s New Jersey Office, traveled to Washington, D.C., where they met with more than 20 Senate offices to discuss the proposal.

According to Agudath Israel, the meetings were encouraging, with many Senate offices acknowledging the concerns raised and indicating that senators are continuing to study the issue before deciding whether to support the legislation.

Schorr said the discussions were particularly significant in New Jersey.

“When we met with Senator Andy Kim’s office, we were told that although Senator Kim had previously sponsored the Sunshine Protection Act, he is now undecided and is carefully reviewing its potential impacts,” Schorr said. “That means New Jersey residents have a real opportunity to make their voices heard before a final decision is made.”

Agudath Israel’s Action Alert outlines two primary concerns with making Daylight Saving Time permanent.

The organization argues that keeping clocks on Daylight Saving Time year-round would push winter sunrises until after 8 a.m. in New Jersey, forcing many children to travel to school in darkness for much of the winter and increasing potential safety risks. The group also points to the nation’s brief experiment with permanent Daylight Saving Time in the early 1970s, which Congress repealed after widespread public opposition and concerns about children traveling to school before sunrise.

The organization also says the proposal would create significant challenges for the Orthodox Jewish community by delaying the earliest permissible time for Shacharis during the winter months. According to Agudath Israel, later sunrises would make it difficult for many working individuals to attend a morning minyan or even put on tefillin before leaving for work, while also creating scheduling difficulties for synagogues and yeshivos.

Schorr also noted that these concerns have long been recognized within the Orthodox community.

“In 1971, Harav Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l, described permanent Daylight Saving Time as a ‘gezeirah mamash al hatefillah’ and urged that it be opposed through every available means of advocacy,” Schorr said. “Those concerns remain just as relevant today.”

The Action Alert asks New Jersey residents to contact both of the state’s senators and urge them to carefully consider the impact of permanent Daylight Saving Time on children’s safety, religious practice, and daily life before supporting the legislation.

The renewed advocacy effort comes as President Donald Trump publicly called on Senate Republicans Tuesday evening to move the legislation forward.

“This is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “I am asking Republican Senators to release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side.”

The Sunshine Protection Act has received bipartisan support in previous sessions of Congress but has repeatedly stalled in the Senate. While supporters argue that permanent Daylight Saving Time would eliminate the need to change clocks twice a year, opponents have raised concerns about darker winter mornings, school safety, and the impact on sleep, health, and religious observance.

Fill out the Action Alert here.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged Tehran’s full backing for Hamas as negotiations over Gaza’s future continue, assuring the terror group’s leadership that Iran will support whatever course of action it chooses.

According to Iranian state media, Pezeshkian spoke Wednesday with Hamas Political Bureau chairman Khalil al-Hayya and reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to stand behind the terrorist organization throughout the ongoing diplomatic process.

During the conversation, Pezeshkian reportedly promised to support “every step, initiative, and decision” taken by the Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s leadership as negotiations over Gaza’s future move forward.

“The hearts and spirit of the Iranian people and officials are always with the Palestinian people, and Tehran will continue to support and stand alongside the Palestinian people,” Pezeshkian said.

Earlier in the day, Hamas Political Bureau member Basem Naim, who also serves on the group’s negotiating team, said Hamas is still waiting for an official reply from mediator Nikolay Mladenov “regarding what was agreed upon with him and the mediators concerning the roadmap for implementing Phase 2, especially in light of the high level of responsibility demonstrated by the movement in dealing with what was proposed to it.”

Naim also said Hamas “highly appreciates the mediators’ statement holding the enemy accountable for the ongoing crimes and the deliberate obstruction of the agreement.”

Meanwhile, reports Tuesday indicated that Israel’s defense establishment has tightened the approval process for military operations in Gaza following new directives issued by the country’s political leadership.

Under the revised policy, targeted eliminations will now require the personal authorization of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, significantly narrowing the authority previously held by lower-ranking commanders.

A security source emphasized that the new directive does not affect situations in which Israeli troops face an immediate threat. In those circumstances, forces will continue responding without delay under existing rules of engagement.

The change applies only to preplanned offensive operations against individuals who are not considered an immediate danger, including terrorists under intelligence surveillance. Previously, such missions could also be approved by regional or division commanders.

On Monday, mediators Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey released a joint statement sharply criticizing Israel, arguing that continued IDF operations targeting Hamas terrorists in Gaza could jeopardize the current ceasefire.

“The mediators stress the need for Israel to comply with all of its obligations under international law and to fully uphold its commitments under the ceasefire agreement, affirming that the continuation of these violations constitutes a breach of the agreement and undermines the efforts aimed at implementing its second phase, particularly following Hamas and the Palestinian factions’ announcement of their acceptance of the roadmap, especially the provision concerning the confinement of weapons,” the statement read, claiming that “these violations threaten the path toward de-escalation and exacerbate the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip.”

The three mediating countries also called on the international community “to assume its responsibilities and exert the necessary pressure on Israel to fulfill its obligations under international law and the ceasefire agreement, in a manner that ensures the completion of President Trump’s peace plan.”

The diplomatic push came after an extensive meeting involving the Board of Peace, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and senior Israeli officials. According to the Board of Peace, the discussions focused on eliminating terrorist weapons in Gaza, preparing for a transition to civilian governance, and establishing long-term security for both Israeli citizens and Gaza’s Arab population.

The Board of Peace said oversight of Gaza’s demilitarization would be carried out by an International Stabilization Force together with an Implementation Verification Committee, which would include representatives from both the United States and the Board of Peace.

El Al Israel Airlines reported net profit of $125.9 million for the second quarter of 2026, roughly double what the carrier earned in the same three months a year earlier, as flight demand surged once the airline restored its full schedule following the fighting with Iran.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $986 million, up 27% year over year. The results were released Wednesday morning in Tel Aviv and sent the airline’s shares up nearly 8% in early trading.

The profit figure is all the more striking because it absorbed a direct hit from the conflict. El Al says it lost roughly $55 million during the first nine days of the quarter as a result of Operation Roaring Lion, the Israeli campaign against Iran. Without that drag, quarterly net income would have landed near $190 million.

Most of the wartime damage, however, fell in the earlier period. El Al posted a $69 million loss in the first quarter of 2026 — its first quarterly loss in three years — as airspace closures and canceled routes stripped out revenue while fixed costs kept running.

Capacity Came Back, and So Did Fares

The turnaround traces to timing. El Al says it had its full operation back in the air by the start of May, and demand climbed sharply from that point forward. The carrier expanded available seating by 9% versus the year-earlier quarter, and still managed to raise what it collects on each of those seats.

Revenue per available seat kilometer, the industry’s core pricing gauge, rose 12% to $0.1156. Translated into plain terms: El Al flew more seats and charged more for them at the same time — the combination that produces outsized airline earnings when it holds.

Advance bookings suggest the pattern has legs. The airline’s booking backlog stood at $1.4 billion at the close of the quarter, compared with $1.2 billion at the same point in 2025.

Not everything moved in the carrier’s favor. Jet fuel costs rose during the quarter, driven by crude prices that have stayed elevated on fears of renewed hostilities between Washington and Tehran. A stronger shekel also worked against the airline, since much of its revenue is collected in dollars while a significant share of its costs sits in local currency.

Guidance Points Higher

With one month of the third quarter already behind it, El Al told investors it expects strong demand to carry through the summer. The company projects available seat kilometers will grow 6% to 10% against the third quarter of 2025, with revenue per seat kilometer rising another 4% to 7% as fares continue to firm.

Load factor — the share of seats actually filled — is expected to stay above 90%, a level that leaves the airline very little unsold inventory heading into its peak travel season.

The carrier also pointed to growth in its loyalty base. Frequent flyer membership rose by 270,000 over the past year to 3.7 million, and 514,000 customers now carry its co-branded credit card, an increase of 33,000.

The American Connection

For US travelers and investors, El Al is not a distant story. The airline runs the primary nonstop link between Israel and New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Newark, and pricing on those routes has been a persistent sore point for the American Jewish community and business travelers alike through nearly two years of disrupted service.

Wednesday’s results confirm what passengers have been feeling at the checkout screen: higher fares are doing a great deal of the work in El Al’s recovery. Seat supply grew by single digits while per-seat revenue grew by double digits.

Control of the company also runs through New York. Kenny Rozenberg, the healthcare operator who led the group that acquired the airline in 2020, and his son Eli Rozenberg hold a controlling stake now worth more than NIS 3.5 billion. That investment, made when El Al was near collapse during the pandemic shutdown, has appreciated dramatically — the shares are up roughly 400% over the past five years.

El Al carries a market capitalization of about NIS 8.4 billion. The stock had been down roughly 10% year to date before Wednesday’s report, reflecting investor caution over the war’s effect on Israeli aviation, before the earnings release reversed a chunk of that decline in a single session.

The larger question facing the airline is competitive rather than operational. Foreign carriers pulled out of Tel Aviv repeatedly during the fighting and have returned unevenly, leaving El Al with unusual pricing power on key long-haul routes. Whether the current margins survive the full return of international competition is the test that the next several quarters will settle.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Each year, New York City loses another piece of its history as beloved neighborhood establishments and longtime businesses close their doors, like Caputo Bakery in Carroll Gardens and Barbetta in the Theater District. But despite this constant evolution, many historic establishments have survived decades, and even centuries of change, still offering a glimpse into the city’s past. Ahead, we found some New York City institutions that still feel like classic New York, from charming Jewish delis and old-school steakhouses to century-old ice cream parlors, cafes, and shops.

Delis & appetizing

Zabar’s
2245 Broadway, Upper West Side

Credit: Zabar’s

Now nearing its centennial, the Upper West Side’s famed Zabar’s has come a long way since its 1934 founding. Established by husband-and-wife duo Louis and Lillian Zabar, the gourmet deli began as a 22-foot-wide shop on Broadway and West 80th Street, devoted to offering the highest quality coffee and smoked fish.

Louis arrived in the United States in the early 1920s after fleeing persecution against Jews in Ukraine. He rented a stall at a Brooklyn farmers market, where he reconnected with Lillian, whom he knew from his village in Ukraine and who had also fled the country to escape pogroms, as 6sqft previously reported.

Credit: Zabar’s

The couple married in 1927 and had three children: Saul, Stanley and Eli. The latter went on to found Eli Zabar’s, a chain of specialty food stores inspired by the food halls and markets of London and Paris, according to their website.

Saul, who went on to take the reins from his father, was honored in October, a week after his death at age 97, with the unveiling of vinyl posters depicting him in his signature white coat at the nearby 79th Street subway station.

Credit: Zabar’s

For more than nine decades, Zabar’s has cemented its status as a cultural and culinary icon cherished by generations of New Yorkers, tourists and celebrities alike. The store helped pioneer several food trends, including introducing Brie cheese to NYC in the 1960s, popularizing gourmet cookware in the 1970s and sparking the so-called “caviar war” with its selection of high-quality, affordable caviar.

The store has also been depicted in numerous television and film productions, including “You’ve Got Mail,” “Will & Grace,” “Dream On,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Mad About You,” “Friends,” “Sex and the City,” “The Nanny,” “Seinfeld,” “Heart of Dixie,” “Law & Order,” and “Gossip Girl.”

Now, the store has expanded across the block front and also offers its products online. Lines of customers still flock to watch as store workers carefully slice smoked fish, offer tastings of artisanal cheeses, display fresh-baked pastries, and roast its famed coffee blends.

Russ & Daughters
179 East Houston Street, Lower East Side

Photo of Russ & Daughters on East Houston Street by Jazz Guy on Flickr

From its humble beginnings as a herring pushcart on the Lower East Side, Russ & Daughters has grown into an internationally recognized culinary establishment. The 112-year-old Jewish deli traces its roots to Joel Russ, a Jewish immigrant from Strzyzow, Poland, who sold herring from a pushcart around the neighborhood from 1904 to 1907 before saving enough money to sign a lease for an appetizing shop on Orchard Street in 1914.

After several successful years, the business moved to its current location at 179 East Houston Street. In 1933, Joel renamed the store “Russ & Daughters” after his three daughters: Hattie, Ida and Anne. It became the first known American business to use “& Daughters” in its name, according to the company’s website.

Credit: Todd Van Hoosear on Flickr

The business’s continued success over the decades led it to open its first Brooklyn location in 2019, featuring a retail counter and Jewish bakery at 141 Flushing Avenue in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The location also serves as the company’s nationwide shipping facility.

In 2023, the company opened another location in Hudson Yards on the ground floor of the 50 Hudson Yards skyscraper at 34th Street and 10th Avenue. The 4,500-square-foot shop serves signature Jewish specialties, including smoked fish, bagels, bialys and babka, and offers seat-yourself dining, as well as caviar and a champagne bar.

Today, Russ & Daughters continues to offer a selection of appetizing foods for New Yorkers and international visitors alike, with its legacy carried on by fourth-generation owners and cousins Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.

One look at the original neon sign above its East Houston Street location transports visitors back to old New York and serves as a testament to the brand’s long and storied history.

Steakhouses

Old Homestead Steakhouse
56 9th Avenue, Meatpacking District

Credit: Old Homestead Steakhouse

For more than 150 years, the Old Homestead Steakhouse has whipped up sizzling platters of porterhouses and chops from its long-time flagship in the Meatpacking District. As the oldest continuously operating steakhouse in the country, the restaurant has seen a lot change over the years, but as co-owners and brothers Greg and Marc Sherry admit, “not much has changed” since their family took over the business in the 1940s, according to their website.

The steakhouse came under the Sherry family’s ownership when Greg and Marc’s grandfather, Harry Sherry, rose from dishwasher to owner. Although the brothers were next in line to take over the restaurant, their grandfather made sure they started as dishwashers, busboys, and food preparation assistants, teaching them firsthand what it would take to carry on the family legacy.

In the 1990s, Old Homestead became the first steakhouse in the United States to introduce Japanese Wagyu beef. The brothers worked alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help ensure Japanese beef producers met USDA standards, a process that ultimately contributed to the lifting of a federal ban on Kobe beef imports. That relationship has given Old Homestead close ties to Japanese beef producers, allowing patrons to enjoy some of the world’s most sought-after Wagyu.

Upon entering the steakhouse, guests are greeted by its charming old-world interior, where jazz music provides a fitting backdrop. Above the entrance rests the restaurant’s signature cow statue, Anabelle, reportedly gifted to the Sherry family by a Texan who loved the restaurant.

Keens Steakhouse
72 West 36th Street, Midtown

Credit: Edsel Little on Flickr

The history of Keens Steakhouse dates to 1885, when Albert Keen, manager of the famed theater and literary group The Lambs, opened the restaurant. As a prominent member of the former Herald Square Theater District, Keen quickly established the eatery as a popular gathering place for actors and stage workers, who would stop in between shows, according to the restaurant.

Keens did not serve women until the early 1900s, when English actress Lillie Langtry sued the restaurant after being denied entry and won her case, according to the New York Times. One of the restaurant’s upstairs dining rooms was later named in her honor.

Credit: Carl Mikoy on Flickr

Beyond its long history, Keens is also known for another unusual distinction: It owns the world’s largest collection of churchwarden pipes. Originating from a 17th-century tradition in which patrons checked their pipes at their favorite inns, the Midtown steakhouse began collecting pipes in the early 1900s and now has pieces associated with Theodore Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, J.P. Morgan and other iconic figures.

Today, the steakhouse is the only surviving business from the former theater district and, after Old Homestead Steakhouse, is the second-oldest continuously operating steakhouse in NYC.

Sweet treats

Economy Candy
108 Rivington Street, Lower East Side

Photo of Economy Candy on Rivington Street by Cory Doctorow on Flickr

Standing as the oldest candy store in the five boroughs, Economy Candy has been satisfying generations of New Yorkers’ sweet tooths since 1937. The business began as a pushcart outside a shoe and hat repair shop on the Lower East Side during the Great Depression. When the cart started bringing in more business than the repair shop, it eventually transformed into a proper storefront at the corner of Rivington and Essex.

Upon returning home from World War II, Morris “Moishe” Cohen and his brother-in-law took over the business and expanded its offerings to include candy, chocolate, gift baskets, dried fruit, nuts and other treats. Moishe’s son Jerry and his wife, Ilene, joined the business full time in the 1980s, when the shop moved to its current location at 108 Rivington Street.

After his father retired, Jerry and Ilene took the reins and ran Economy Candy together for more than three decades. They have since passed ownership to their son Mitchell, who joined the family business in 2013, and his wife, Skye, who joined in 2016, according to the company’s website.

The 2023 co-naming ceremony. Credit: NYC Council

The rich history of Economy Candy was honored in 2023, when the corner of Rivington and Essex was co-named “Morris ‘Moishe’ Cohen Way” in honor of its founder. Cohen’s family had pushed for the co-naming since Moishe died at age 97 in 2015.

Earlier that year, the brand expanded for the first time in its more than 85-year history, opening a new location in Chelsea Market called “A Taste of Economy Candy.” The outpost is a smaller version of the original shop, offering a rotating selection of treats and classic candies that changes monthly.

Ray’s Candy Store
113 Avenue A, East Village

Ray’s Candy Store in 2019, with Alvarez in the window. Image via WikiCommons

Ray’s Candy Store has been serving its signature egg creams, ice cream, and a multitude of other sweet and savory treats since 1974 under longtime owner Ray Alvarez. Born in Iran in 1933 as Asghar Ghahraman, Alvarez arrived in the United States in 1963 after deserting his ship while on tour with the Iranian Navy and swimming ashore in Virginia. After making his way to New York City, Alvarez worked for a decade as a dishwasher and waiter, saving $30,000 to purchase the store in 1974, according to the New York Times.

Since then, the store’s windows have framed the dramatic evolution of the East Village—and New York City as a whole—over the decades. In August 1988, when a riot broke out between police and protesters demonstrating against a newly imposed curfew in Tompkins Square Park, Ray’s remained open throughout the unrest. Alvarez told the Times he viewed all the “combatants” as “his customers.”

The candy store’s ties to significant moments in the city’s history expanded in 1992, when Curtis Sliwa, the red-bereted founder of the Guardian Angels, was kidnapped and shot by two gunmen after entering a stolen taxi outside the candy store.

Ray’s Candy Store remains one of the few places where New Yorkers out late in Lower Manhattan can count on finding the shop open, shining like a guiding light with no shortage of sweet treats.

Eddie’s Sweet Shop
105-29 Metropolitan Avenue, Forest Hills

When walking into Eddie’s Sweet Shop in Forest Hills and seeing its grand, ornate interior, it’s easy to think about the countless generations of New Yorkers who have enjoyed hot fudge sundaes and milkshakes behind the shop’s century-old marble countertops. Established in 1925, Eddie’s is the oldest ice cream parlor in the city, serving a wide variety of homemade ice cream flavors and decadent toppings for over 100 years.

History is immediately apparent upon entering Eddie’s. Its wooden-and-marble interior has remained virtually unchanged since the Citrano family purchased the shop from its previous owners in 1968, with the store’s refrigerator itself more than 80 years old, according to Time Out.

Vito Citrano, who now runs the business alongside his family, took over the shop from his father, Giuseppe. Vito makes the shop’s 18 ice cream flavors, whipped cream, and sauces by hand.

Cafes & other restaurants

Caffe Reggio
119 MacDougal Street, Greenwich Village

Credit: Thank You (25 Millions) views on Flickr

Over the course of its nearly 100-year history, Caffe Reggio in Greenwich Village has been a mainstay for New Yorkers, artists, musicians, and beatniks. The historic establishment, which claims to have introduced the cappuccino to Americans, still stands beneath its iconic green facade on MacDougal Street, serving its signature drink alongside lunch and dinner options.

Niso Cavallacci, second owner of Caffe Reggio, standing beside the espresso machine. Credit: Caffe Reggio NYC on Flickr

The cafe’s ornate 1902 Italian espresso machine serves as a testament to the cafe’s legacy through its glistening bronze exterior and intricate mechanics.

Domenico Parisi, who opened Caffe Reggio in 1927, spent his entire life savings—roughly $1,000—to purchase the machine, according to Village Preservation. As cappuccino grew popular in Italy at the start of the 20th century, Parisi is said to have brought the tradition to the United States, serving the drink in America for the first time.

Over the decades, the cafe stood as the neighborhood evolved around it. In the 1950s and ’60s, as the Village became a cultural hotspot for writers, musicians and beatniks, its walls hosted figures like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.

People standing outside Caffe Reggio in 1974. Credit: Caffe Reggio NYC on Flickr

Soon after, legendary musicians such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez frequented the storied space, along with many other cultural icons. The cafe also appeared in several films, including “The Godfather Part II,” “Serpico” and “Shaft.”

Today, visitors flock to the establishment to experience its history and, of course, its famed cappuccinos. Inside, a stunning array of antique artwork and furniture, some dating back to the Italian Renaissance, further evokes a sense of timelessness.

Nom Wah
13-15 Doyers Street, Chinatown

Credit: Marco on Flickr

Chinatown’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, Nom Wah, has been serving Hong Kong-style dim sum for more than a century from its tea parlor and bakery on the neighborhood’s famed “Bloody Angle.” The restaurant opened its first location in 1920 at 13-15 Doyers Street, a sharply angled block whose layout provided an ideal blind spot for gangs seeking to ambush rivals. Its original owners are unknown.

In the 1950s, Wally Tang began working at the restaurant, gradually rising through the ranks to become store manager before taking ownership of the establishment in 1974. In 2010, Wally retired and passed the reins to his nephew, Wilson Tang, who has since expanded the brand to Philadelphia, opened fast-casual outposts across Manhattan, and begun shipping its dumplings nationwide.

He also transitioned the restaurant from a traditional dim sum establishment that used metal carts to a “made-to-order” format with a menu, according to the New York Times.

Nom Wah’s connection to pop culture grew further in 2014, when a scene from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was filmed at the restaurant. The following year, the Met Gala hosted a pre-party there.

Sylvia’s Restaurant
328 Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem

Photo by Paul Sableman on Wikimedia

Sylvia’s has been serving Harlem with soul food, hospitality, and a strong sense of community since 1962, making it one of the oldest continuously Black-owned businesses in the five boroughs. Founded by Sylvia Woods, the business has grown from a modest eatery with a handful of tables into one of the neighborhood’s best-known restaurants, serving fried chicken, slow-simmered collard greens, mac and cheese, and a wide variety of other dishes.

Though Woods died in 2012, her legacy as the “Queen of Soul Food” lives on through the restaurant. She received numerous honors during her lifetime, including the Merit Award from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as citations from President Bill Clinton and Gov. George Pataki. In 2024, Sylvia’s was recognized by the James Beard Foundation, which named the restaurant one of “America’s Classics” for its contributions to American dining culture.

Sahadi’s
187 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Heights

Image via WikiCommons

A NYC staple for more than 130 years, Sahadi’s first opened in Lower Manhattan in 1895 before moving to Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, where it has remained ever since. Listed on the state’s Historic Business Preservation Registry in 2023, the Middle Eastern grocery store and cafe is known for its vast selection of more than 200 grains and spices, including bulk bins of freshly roasted nuts, imported olives and old-fashioned coffee beans. It has since expanded to include baked goods, homemade prepared foods and more.

First established in Lebanon, Sahadi Trading Company opened in Manhattan’s “Little Syria,” an area near the World Trade Center and Liberty Park that served as the center of the city’s Syrian community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1948, as construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel displaced the neighborhood, Sahadi’s relocated to Atlantic Avenue.

The corridor became known for its many Syrian businesses and, in the 1950s and ’60s, was known as the “Syrian shopping center of Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey,” as 6sqft previously reported.

While Atlantic Avenue has changed significantly over the years, Sahadi’s has remained a cherished neighborhood institution. Today, the business is operated by fourth-generation owners Christine Sahadi Whelan and her brother, Ron Sahadi, along with Whelan’s husband, Pat Whelan.

Photo courtesy of Industry City

In 2019, Sahadi’s opened a second location at Industry City, marking the first expansion in its more than century-long history. The 7,500-square-foot space offers 80 seats, Lebanese wines on tap, daily meze specials, grab-and-go options and one of the city’s only operational Saj griddles.

A few years later, in 2023, Sahadi’s announced it would return to Manhattan after 75 years, opening a new outpost in Chelsea’s Pier 57 food hall with seated dining and bar service.

Bars & taverns

McSorely’s Old Ale House
15 East 7th Street, East Village

Photo © James and Karla Murray exclusively for 6sqft

McSorley’s claims to be the oldest bar, and depending on how you count it, it might be correct. At the very least, the rustic watering hole’s sawdust-strewn floors and historic interior stand as evidence of its long and storied past. Established in 1854, the pub says it is NYC’s oldest continuously operating saloon. Over its 172-year history, it has seen generations of New Yorkers grace its tables and barstools for a pint of its “light” or “dark” ale, the only two alcoholic beverages it serves.

Originally opened as an all-male establishment, the tavern has seen much over the years, though its appearance might suggest otherwise. While female customers were admitted to most city bars by the 1960s, McSorley’s remained one of the last bars in the five boroughs to exclude women, adhering to its outdated credo of “good ale, raw onions, and no ladies.”

The policy remained in place even after the establishment was passed to former owner Daniel O’Connell’s daughter, Dorothy, in the 1930s. During the years she owned the business, she was reportedly only permitted inside on Sundays, after the bar had closed, according to their website.

A landmark 1970 court case brought by two female civil rights attorneys who were denied entry to the bar, Seidenberg v. McSorley’s, resulted in the creation of “McSorley’s Law,” which barred discrimination in bars, hotels, restaurants, airplanes, golf clubs and other public accommodations based on sex, as 6sqft previously reported.

Years later, in 1994, Teresa Maher, daughter of McSorley’s owner Matthew Maher, became the first woman to work behind the bar.

McSorley’s dark and light ale. Photo © James and Karla Murray exclusively for 6sqft

Droves of patrons still flock to the East Village to get a taste of the storied watering hole, enjoying its signature ales and good times with friends and strangers alike, as long as they follow McSorley’s golden rule: “Be Good or Be Gone.”

Neir’s Tavern
87-48 78th Street, Woodhaven

Credit: Neir’s Tavern

Nearing its 200th birthday, Neir’s Tavern in Queens is the “most famous bar you’ve never heard of,” occupying the corner of 78th Street and 88th Avenue in Woodhaven since 1829, nearly 70 years before the borough was incorporated into NYC. It is the longest continuously operating bar in the five boroughs and one of the oldest in the entire country.

Neir’s was originally called “The Blue Pump Room,” established across the street from the Union Course Racetrack. On race days, the venue drew crowds of up to 70,000, prompting the construction of several hotels to accommodate visitors and the establishment of the tavern. In 1888, when the racetrack closed, Louis Neir purchased the tavern and gave it the name it still carries today, according to Seton Hall University.

The oldest recorded photo of Neir’s Tavern. Credit: Neir’s Tavern

Neir expanded the watering hole, adding a ballroom, a bowling alley and space upstairs for a hotel. Famed actress, singer and entertainer Mae West reportedly gave one of her first performances at Neir’s Tavern as a child. Some historians also say the bar remained open during Prohibition as a speakeasy.

The bar’s connection to show business evolved further in the 1990s, when a scene from the classic mob film “Goodfellas” was filmed at Neir’s. Actors including Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco appeared in the scene.

As Woodhaven changed around Neir’s over the years, the bar’s status as a communal gathering place persisted. Generations of New Yorkers have celebrated milestones there, including having their first-ever drink, a tradition that has become part of the tavern’s legacy.

The tavern came to the brink of closure. In 2009, a local FDNY member and his group of friends purchased and restored the bar, but the building was sold to new owners in December 2018 without their knowledge, as 6sqft previously reported. Unable to negotiate a new affordable, long-term lease, the group faced the prospect of losing the tavern. However, former Mayor Bill de Blasio stepped in to help save the bar from closing.

Fraunces Tavern
54 Pearl Street, Financial District

Credit: Carl Mikoy on Flickr

No establishment in NYC is perhaps more synonymous with its revolutionary history than Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District. Constructed in 1719, the tavern calls itself the “oldest standing structure in Manhattan,” with a storied past that placed it at the center of the nation’s founding. The tavern is named for Samuel Fraunces, a patriot, spy, steward and gourmand who bought the former De Lancey Mansion and turned it into one of the city’s most popular watering holes.

Originally called “The Queen’s Head,” the tavern thrived among the wharves along the city’s waterfront. It became a hotspot for merchants, travelers, traders, and other seafarers, eventually becoming so integral to the region’s trade that the New York Chamber of Commerce was founded at the tavern in 1768, as 6sqft previously reported.

Less than a decade later, the Sons of Liberty made the tavern one of their favorite gathering places, and in 1774, they planned their New York Tea Party there. On August 23, 1775, Fraunces Tavern became directly involved in the Revolutionary War when an 18-pound British cannonball crashed through its roof.

As the centuries passed, the tavern was saved from being lost to history several times. In 1900, the Daughters of the American Revolution led a campaign to save the structure from demolition, and in 1903, the city acquired Fraunces Tavern through eminent domain, designating the property as a park.

The following year, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York purchased the building, prompting the city to withdraw its park designation. In 1907, the group began restoring and reconstructing the building as a restaurant and museum.

In 1965, the same year the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission was founded, the agency designated Fraunces Tavern a NYC landmark. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Today, the museum is open seven days a week, offering visitors an intimate glimpse into its historic interior and the city’s revolutionary past.

Specialty shops

Argosy Book Store
116 East 59th Street, Midtown

Credit: Argosy Book Store

Founded in 1925, Midtown’s Argosy Book Store has reached the century mark. Now in its third generation of family ownership, the store offers a vast collection of old and rare books across six floors of wall-to-wall shelves. Established by Louis Cohen, the shop originally stood along Fourth Avenue’s book row before moving to East 59th Street in the 1930s, according to ABC News.

The store offers a selection of antiquarian and out-of-print items, specializing in Americana, modern first editions, autographs, art, photography, antique maps and prints. It also offers thousands of books across a wide range of fields. For years, New Yorkers in search of the perfect gift have shopped at Argosy’s.

Casa Amadeo
786 Prospect Avenue, Longwood

Image via WikiCommons

The Bronx’s Casa Amadeo is the city’s oldest continuously operating Latin music store. Currently located in Longwood, Casa Amadeo’s story begins in East Harlem, where owners Victoria and Rafael Hernández became influential figures in the blossoming Latin music scene after migrating from Puerto Rico in 1919, according to the National Park Service.

In 1927, Victoria opened what might have been the first Puerto Rican-owned music store in NYC, Almacenes Hernández at 1724 Madison Avenue. The store supported the family and gave Rafael the time to focus on his music, which he would later become one of the most renowned composers in Latin America. The couple sold the store to a Puerto Rican record producer in 1939.

Two years later, in 1941, the couple opened Casa Hernández in Longwood, occupying ground-floor retail space at the Manhanset apartment building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

In the decades that followed, Casa Amadeo played a central role in the burgeoning Latin music scene of the mid-20th century, becoming a gathering place for musicians and a destination for new listeners looking to discover Latin music.

Today, Casa Amadeo retains many of its original features and continues to serve as a music hub for the community, preserving an archive of music for musicians and listeners alike. It remains one of the few surviving spaces that reflects the heyday of the Bronx’s Latin music scene.

C. O. Bigelow
414 6th Avenue, Greenwich Village

Photo by James and Karla Murray exclusively for 6sqft

Standing as the oldest apothecary in the United States, C. O. Bigelow’s Greenwich Village location is a time capsule and an NYC institution, serving the health needs of everyone from Mark Twain to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Established in 1838 at 102 Sixth Avenue by Dr. Galen Hunter as The Village Apothecary Shop, the pharmacy offers a degree of personalized attention rarely found at today’s large chain pharmacies.

In 1855, the store was sold to employee George Hooper, who in 1870 created its signature Lemon Body Cream, which remains one of the store’s most sought-after products. Ten years later, the store was again sold, this time to another employee, Clarence Otis Bigelow, who renamed it after himself, according to City Lore.

In 1860, the store relocated to its current location at 414 Sixth Avenue, now part of the Greenwich Village Historic District. In 1939, it was purchased by William Ginsberg, who passed it on to his son in the 1950s. His grandson, Ian, grew up working in the shop and joined the business in 1985. He remains the brand’s third-generation pharmacist and owner.

This book contains the original 1870 formula for the Lemon Body Cream. Photo by James and Karla Murray exclusively for 6sqft

The shop has connections to numerous influential figures. Thomas Edison reportedly purchased the pharmacy’s balm after burning his fingers while inventing the light bulb, while Mark Twain appears as a customer in the company ledgers from 1905 and 1906 under his real name, S. L. Clemens. Eleanor Roosevelt was also a regular customer between 1933 and 1942, when she lived nearby.

Besides filling prescriptions, C. O. Bigelow carries a wide variety of unique personal care products from around the world, including its own products and items sourced internationally. The store’s interior, with its tile floor, canvas ceiling, oak fixtures and other original architectural elements, offers a glimpse into what it might have been like to fill a prescription in the early 20th century.

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The post 17 NYC businesses that feel like old New York first appeared on 6sqft.

Following a series of court rulings and government decisions over the past year that led to the suspension of various budgets and benefits for bnei yeshivos, the left-wing organization Israel Hofsheet is now seeking to expand those efforts to local authorities, this time focusing on summer events and Bein Hazmanim activities.

According to a report in Haaretz, attorney Yael Weisel of Kalai-Rosen & Co., acting on behalf of Israel Hofsheet, sent letters to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara as well as the legal advisers of the Jerusalem, Ashdod, and Arad municipalities.

The organization is demanding that municipalities halt funding, grants, and benefits provided to institutions and events connected to yeshiva students whose military status is not regulated. The appeal cites a 2025 High Court ruling stating that “as a general rule, benefits that are granted directly or indirectly in connection with evasion of the draft—for example, benefits granted to a yeshiva student as such, when remaining in the yeshiva constitutes evasion of military service—should not continue to be provided.”

The new demand follows a series of measures taken over the past year, during which various budgets and benefits for the Torah world were canceled or reduced following High Court rulings and legal petitions. Among other things, funding for bnei yeshivos subject to military service was halted, additional benefits were reduced, welfare funding for yeshivos serving at-risk students was revoked and other support programs were affected. The organization now argues that the same policy should apply to funds distributed through local authorities.

Joining the demand was Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio, who appealed to the city’s legal adviser, Chaim Nagrasi, requesting that funding for the events be stopped.

“We oppose the Jerusalem Municipality funding events for bnei yeshivos who do not enlist, thereby encouraging draft evasion,” he said.

The Jerusalem Municipality responded that all municipal activities are open to the general public in accordance with the legal adviser’s guidelines. The municipality added that it is not the body authorized to examine the personal military status of participants and does not possess such information.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

WEST PALM BEACH (VINnews)-Former Mossad Director David Barnea has been appointed global president and chairman of Ondas Defense Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based defense contractor Ondas Inc., the company announced.

Barnea will oversee international expansion for the firm across the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The appointment comes two months after he completed a five-year term as head of Israel’s national intelligence agency. During his tenure, he directed major operations and advanced the agency’s integration of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities.

Ondas said the role is independent of Barnea’s prior government service. Internal Mossad legal advisers cleared the transition under rules that prohibit the sharing of restricted or classified government information.

In his new position, Barnea will work with senior leadership to identify capability gaps and integrate recent defense-technology acquisitions. Those acquisitions include autonomous ground robotics, aerial surveillance systems, precision-strike platforms and counter-drone technologies, which the company aims to combine into a unified multi-domain platform.

The move reflects Ondas’s broader consolidation strategy. The company has pursued multi-million-dollar acquisitions in the United States, Israel and Europe to supply AI-driven warfare systems to defense clients worldwide.

Israel will not pull back from its current positions in the Gaza Strip until the Hamas terrorist organization is completely disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu reiterated.

“I am standing firm on our security interests—we will not withdraw from our current lines until Hamas is completely disarmed,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language video posted to his Facebook page.

He added that Israel Defense Forces soldiers had been instructed “to do everything necessary to defend themselves, to defend our territory, to defend our citizens.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and his team believe they can persuade Hamas to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, he said, adding, “We are examining that.”

The Trump administration presented Israel with a draft agreement that Israel rejected, according to Netanyahu. “This is not our draft,” he stressed, adding that Israel had conveyed its own comments to the White House.

“We are standing firm on our interests,” the prime minister concluded.

In a podcast interview with Israeli historian and media personality Gadi Taub aired on Monday, Netanyahu expressed skepticism regarding Hamas’s willingness to lay down its weapons as required by the Board of Peace’s 15-point Roadmap for peace in Gaza.

“I don’t think Hamas is going to turn into a kitten—this predator,” Netanyahu said.

The 15 points were published last week, followed by concerns in Israel that they stipulate the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip before the terrorist group fully disarms.

When asked if Israel had missed the opportunity to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, the prime minister replied, “It’s not missed—it’s not completed. There’s still work to do … Hamas must be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, and only then [Gaza] can start reconstruction, including rehabilitating its fanaticism.”

Earlier this week, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza tasked with overseeing the ceasefire with Hamas, said after talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem that implementation of Trump’s Gaza plan had entered the “hard phase.”

“Long day in Jerusalem, sitting down with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team,” Mladenov wrote on X on Monday. “This is the start of the hard phase and I have never pretended otherwise. Not much of what we do now is dramatic. It is slow, grinding and technical work.”

Earlier on Monday, the Board of Peace stated that it and Israel “share a common understanding of the ultimate objectives. Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning [of weapons] is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators.” JNS

The New York Times Company lost roughly a sixth of its market value Wednesday after reporting its weakest quarterly digital subscriber additions in a year, a signal that the industry’s most successful paywall operator is no longer immune to the collapse in referral traffic reshaping the economics of American publishing.

Shares of the Manhattan-based publisher fell as much as 15.3 percent in Wednesday morning trading, changing hands near $63.80 and putting the stock roughly 26 percent below its 52-week high of $85.86 set in April. The company has now given back about 8.6 percent year to date, an unusual reversal for a name that had spent three years as the rare legacy media holding institutional investors were willing to own.

The trigger was subscriber math rather than the income statement. The Times added approximately 280,000 net digital-only subscriptions in the second quarter, short of the 295,300 analysts had modeled and down from 310,000 in the prior quarter. Total subscriptions across the company’s portfolio stand at about 13.35 million, with digital-only accounts making up roughly 12.80 million of that base.

Beats on Revenue and Profit Went Unrewarded

By conventional measures the quarter was strong. Revenue rose 11.2 percent from a year earlier to $762.5 million, ahead of the $752.1 million consensus. Adjusted earnings came in at 69 cents per share against a 67-cent estimate, up from 58 cents in the same quarter of 2025.

Subscription revenue reached $537.9 million, with the digital-only component climbing 16.4 percent to $409.7 million on a combination of subscriber growth and higher pricing. Average revenue per digital subscriber moved up to $9.72. Advertising, long the weakest leg of the business, showed genuine strength: total advertising revenue hit $149.1 million, with the digital portion jumping 20.7 percent to $111.4 million.

None of it held the stock. Two items in the release did the damage. The company guided to slower digital subscription revenue growth in the third quarter, and free cash flow margin dropped to 1.3 percent from 15.1 percent a year earlier — a cash conversion problem that undercut the headline profit beat.

The Traffic Problem Reaches the Top of the Market

The quarter’s subscriber shortfall came despite a news cycle that should have driven registrations hard. The U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran dominated coverage through the period, and the FIFA World Cup ran alongside it, feeding The Athletic. Historically, news of that magnitude has converted casual readers into paying accounts at an accelerated clip.

That it did not is the story investors reacted to. Search and referral traffic from Google has been declining across the publishing sector as AI-generated answers absorb queries that once produced clicks, and Wednesday’s results indicate the erosion has reached the outlet widely treated as the industry’s best-case scenario for digital subscriptions.

Chief Executive Meredith Kopit Levien addressed the dynamic directly on the post-earnings call, describing an information ecosystem shaped by a handful of large technology companies whose decisions keep reducing the flow of traffic to publishers. “The Times isn’t immune to that impact,” she said.

The company is also a plaintiff in ongoing litigation against OpenAI over the use of its journalism in AI training, a case in which the Times and other outlets have sought sanctions this summer. The commercial and legal fronts are converging on the same question: what a news archive is worth when machines can summarize it without sending anyone to the source.

The Path to 15 Million Just Got Steeper

Management has committed to reaching 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027. Hitting that mark from the current base requires averaging roughly 275,000 net additions every quarter for the next six quarters. This quarter cleared that bar by only about 5,000 accounts, leaving effectively no margin if the deceleration continues.

The bundle strategy — pairing the news product with The Athletic, Wirecutter, Cooking and the games franchise built around Wordle — remains the company’s principal defense. Bundled subscribers churn less and spend more, which is what has driven ARPU higher even as raw addition counts soften. Whether the bundle can substitute for the top-of-funnel traffic that search once delivered free of charge is the open question the second quarter did not answer favorably.

For smaller publishers watching from below, the read-through is unwelcome. The Times entered this transition with a national brand, more than 13 million paying accounts and a decade of head start on direct-to-consumer infrastructure. If those advantages produce a 15 percent single-day drawdown, regional and trade publications operating without them face a considerably narrower path.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

The IDF is preparing to establish polling stations inside Gaza, southern Lebanon, and Syria to allow soldiers deployed beyond Israel’s borders to vote in the upcoming national elections, according to a report by Army Radio.

The plan is part of a series of election guidelines issued by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir following a recent meeting with the General Staff. Zamir said the military’s primary objective is to ensure every soldier can vote while keeping the IDF out of the political arena.

The directives also prohibit inviting outside speakers with political affiliations and ban tours of politically sensitive sites during the election period. In addition, the IDF will review commanders’ speeches, letters, and official messages to ensure they do not contain inappropriate political statements.

Zamir also ordered the creation of a team to monitor soldiers’ activity on social media, respond to exceptional incidents, and reinforce rules prohibiting political activity by military personnel. He emphasized that the IDF must not be used for political campaigning and instructed commanders to be especially mindful of the large number of reservists serving during the election period.

The military will also make special preparations for sensitive dates expected to fall during the campaign, including the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack and the anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The IDF declined to comment on the Army Radio report.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Yashar chairman Gadi Eizenkot referred to Naftali Bennett’s pledge that he would officially declare Qatar an enemy state if elected prime minister as a “political gimmick.”

Eizenkot held a joint press conference on Wednesday at Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside former hostage Gadi Mozes, where he presented a draft government resolution to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre.

After his statement, Eizenkot answered questions from reporters on a range of issues. Asked about Naftali Bennett’s pledge to declare Qatar an enemy state, Eizenkot said, “You don’t declare Qatar an enemy state as an election gimmick. The issue needs to be examined thoroughly.”

Eizenkot said he shares the criticism of Qatar’s role but objected to the way Bennett presented the proposal.

“I hear the public debate, and I fully recognize the role Qatar plays against Israel—in Gaza and through its international activities. Israel should examine and make decisions regarding its policy toward Qatar, in consultation with the Mossad, the Shin Bet, and the National Security Council,” he said.

He then added: “I wouldn’t propose doing this as a political gimmick. I’m saying this as someone who knows the issue well from my time in the Security Cabinet. It should be made as a serious policy decision, not as an election slogan. Qatar plays a very negative role against Israel.”

Eisenkot was also asked whether Democrats party chairman Yair Golan would serve as defense minister in a government he hopes to form.

“I can think of coalition partners and party leaders who are more experienced and better suited to serve as defense minister,” Eisenkot responded.

Earlier this week, Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman said that Yair Golan should “just be quiet. That would be his greatest contribution to victory.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

YSR.

Agudath Israel of America appeared before the MTA board to press the agency over inappropriate advertisements that continue to appear across New York City buses, despite months of objections from community leaders and parents.

Avrohom Weinstock, Agudah’s chief of staff, told MTA officials that the ads promoting an adult-oriented museum are offensive to many riders and unsuitable for children who encounter them while traveling or walking through city neighborhoods.

The testimony came after months of outreach by Agudah, including a four-page legal letter sent to MTA leadership in July. The organization has urged the agency to remove the campaign and reconsider allowing similar advertisements on public transportation.

In a written response to Agudah, the MTA said the advertisements would rotate off the system within 60 days. However, multiple reports have indicated that the museum’s sizable advertising contract is scheduled to continue through the end of the year, raising questions and frustration over how soon the ads will actually disappear.

The concern became more urgent after the museum indicated that a later stage of the campaign could include advertisements covering the entire exterior of buses and featuring more inappropriate imagery. Agudah said raising objections during the current, more limited phase was therefore especially important.

Agudah urged the MTA to apply its existing advertising standards, which restrict certain advertisements promoting adult-oriented services and call for a safe and welcoming environment for riders and employees, including minors. The organization said it does not believe the current campaign complies with those standards.

“Please curtail this offensive ad campaign,” Weinstock told the board, while also urging the MTA to consult with representative community organizations to prevent similar situations in the future.

He also acknowledged Assemblymembers Kalman Yeger and Simcha Eichenstein and Councilwoman Inna Vernikov for voicing the community’s concerns and urging the MTA to withdraw the advertisements. Weinstock thanked the agency for engaging with Agudah, while emphasizing that more work remains.

Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president, noted that much of the organization’s advocacy centers on tangible needs such as school security funding and financial assistance for mosdos. This effort, he said, offers no material benefit, but remains deeply important because it helps parents raise their children with kedusha.

A federal report released Wednesday found that nearly every Jewish student surveyed on Canadian campuses experienced or witnessed at least one antisemitic incident — in some cases from professors and administrators — prompting the country’s three largest Jewish advocacy organizations to demand action from university leadership and governments at every level.

The Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism published the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences report, known as CASE, on August 5 in Ottawa. It was released alongside a ten-point set of recommendations from the Network of Engaged Canadian Academics, a non-partisan faculty group representing more than 400 Jewish and non-Jewish academics across some 54 Canadian institutions.

The headline finding — that 96 percent of Jewish students reported experiencing or witnessing at least one antisemitic incident — was singled out in a joint statement issued the same day by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. The three groups said the report demonstrates that antisemitism has embedded itself in Canada’s public institutions, universities included, at a moment when synagogues, Jewish day schools and Jewish-owned businesses are being shot at and firebombed.

The organizations tied the finding to a public acknowledgment by Prime Minister Mark Carney that the country is falling short in protecting its Jewish citizens, and called on administrators and officials to weigh the report and the accompanying academic recommendations seriously. “The drivers of this hatred—including antizionism—are well known,” the statement said, urging concrete protective measures for students.

Commercial Fallout Beyond the Campus Gates

For the business community, the campus numbers land against a wider pattern of losses that Jewish owners in Canadian cities have absorbed since late 2023. Storefronts in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have been targeted with vandalism, arson and repeat picketing, driving up insurance premiums, private security costs and the price of glass replacement for operators who in many cases run single-location businesses on thin margins.

Statistics Canada figures released in July put the disparity in stark terms: Jewish Canadians were targeted in hate crimes at 22 times the rate of the general population, despite representing roughly one percent of the country’s residents. A separate report issued in late July by the J7 group of major diaspora Jewish communities found 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks outside Israel in more than three decades.

The campus dimension carries its own economic weight. Canadian universities collectively enroll hundreds of thousands of international and domestic students whose tuition dollars underwrite institutional budgets, and campus climate has become a live factor in enrollment decisions, alumni giving and donor retention. Several Canadian institutions have already seen major gifts paused or withdrawn over their handling of protest encampments and faculty conduct.

What the Academics Are Asking For

The NECA recommendations focus on enforcement rather than new policy invention. The group urges institutions to apply the harassment and bullying rules already on their books to protect students targeted for any aspect of Jewish identity, including Zionism, and to adopt institutional neutrality policies binding not only on presidents but on departments and committees that have issued political statements of their own.

Other recommendations call for universities to denounce boycott campaigns aimed at Israeli scholars and institutions on academic-freedom grounds, to rewrite equity and human rights office policies to explicitly address antisemitism, and to require training delivered by an organization representing the mainstream Jewish community. The group also asks that research funding applications involving Judaism, Israel, Zionism or antisemitism be evaluated without prejudice, and that curricula be held to disciplinary standards rather than serving as vehicles for hateful ideologies.

Two structural asks stand out. NECA wants every campus to conduct an annual climate assessment backed by a centralized, transparent incident reporting system — the kind of measurable accountability mechanism corporate boards have long used for workplace conduct. And it wants each institution to fund a Special Advisor on Antisemitism reporting directly to the president or provost, creating a named office with budget authority rather than a committee assignment.

The recommendations arrive as pressure mounts from outside the country as well. U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, in Ottawa last week, publicly urged Canadian authorities to revoke visas and expand terrorism listings, telling the Canadian Press that Canada needs to do better. Canada’s own envoy post has sat unsettled since Deborah Lyons stepped down ahead of schedule in December 2025.

JBizNews Desk | Ottawa

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

NEW YORK (VINnews)-A New York University student accused of raising a flag bearing swastikas next to a Star of David on a campus building dedicated to a Jewish donor appeared in Manhattan court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing in his hate-crimes case.

Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, of Fairfield, Connecticut, wore a light blue button-down shirt and khaki pants to the hearing. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and criminal trespass as a hate crime, as well as first-degree aggravated harassment.

Prosecutors say Stepnowsky raised the banner during graduation events in May. The flag featured two swastikas, a Star of David, a New York University logo and was designed to resemble the school’s purple-and-white flags. It flew above the NYU Steinhardt Building, which is named for a billionaire donor to Jewish causes.

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Stepnowsky admitted to the act and said he did so because he was upset with how the university handled political issues related to Israel.

Stepnowsky was previously released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court in October.

After his arrest, NYU officials said they were investigating the incident, which they called “heinous,” and were considering a range of disciplinary measures, including expulsion.

Prominent Satmar philanthropist Mr. Yoeli Landau met with the Gerrer Rebbe on Tuesday and unveiled plans to establish a $1 million legal defense fund to assist bnei yeshiva facing Israel’s military draft decree, arrests, and related sanctions. During the meeting, Landau also announced that he will donate two new simcha halls for Gerrer chassidim in Yerushalayim and Arad.

Landau, widely known for his extensive support of Torah institutions around the world, entered the Gerrer Rebbe’s residence together with Rav Yechiel Chaim Lieberman, Av Beis Din of Or Chaim and Rosh Yeshiva of Machnovka Belz.

During the meeting, Landau presented a comprehensive initiative to establish a legal assistance fund dedicated to coordinating the fight against the sanctions and arrests targeting bnei yeshiva and to wage the broader legal battle against the draft decree, including pursuing avenues through international legal channels.

Under the proposed program, every ben yeshiva who requires legal representation in connection with the draft issue would receive assistance through the fund. Landau pledged that he and several associates would contribute $1 million to launch the initiative.

In addition, at the initiative of Rav Nechemiah Alter, who also participated in the meeting, Landau announced that he will finance the construction of two simcha halls for members of the Gerrer community who conduct their family celebrations in accordance with the takonos of the chassidus. One hall will be built in Yerushalayim, while the second will be established in Arad.

LONDON (VINnews)-Leading British Jewish organizations and the country’s chief rabbi have declined an invitation to meet a Conservative Party local election candidate previously jailed for antisemitic harassment, as party leader Kemi Badenoch defended his selection.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi activist, was selected to stand for the Conservatives in the Crewkerne South ward in Somerset’s local elections next May. In 2016, he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment after targeting then-Labour MP Luciana Berger with a sustained campaign of antisemitic abuse while she was pregnant.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis rejected the Conservatives’ offer of a meeting with Bonehill-Paine. In a joint statement, the Board and Jewish Leadership Council described him as “a former neo-Nazi with criminal convictions for antisemitic hatred” and said the severity of his crimes meant he still faces ongoing legal restrictions. They indicated they remain willing to meet Conservative officials to discuss the party’s decision-making process.

Badenoch has stood by the selection. She described Bonehill-Paine’s past crimes as “appalling” but said he had been rehabilitated, expressed contrition and now works in efforts against antisemitism, including training police officers. She has argued that a local councillor’s role would largely involve practical issues such as waste collection.

The Board of Deputies had earlier called on the Conservatives to drop Bonehill-Paine, saying his selection “beggars belief.” Berger and other critics have questioned whether someone with his record should hold public office, even after a decade.

The controversy comes amid broader scrutiny of political parties’ candidate vetting and approaches to antisemitism in Britain. Reform UK figures have criticized the Conservatives over the matter, while the story continues to draw attention in the context of national politics under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

America’s commercial real estate market is entering a new phase, and the greatest threat is no longer vacant office towers. It is refinancing.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in commercial mortgages originated when interest rates were near historic lows are approaching maturity. Property owners are increasingly discovering that even buildings with stable tenants and positive cash flow may struggle to refinance under today’s significantly higher borrowing costs. The challenge is shifting from finding occupants to finding affordable capital.

That change is quietly reshaping investment decisions across banks, insurance companies, private credit funds and commercial real estate owners.

For much of the past three years, headlines focused on remote work and empty office buildings. Those pressures remain, but lenders are now concentrating on a broader question: whether borrowers can refinance debt issued at 3% or 4% into a market where financing costs may be double that level.

The consequences extend well beyond office properties.

Apartment buildings, shopping centers, industrial facilities, hotels and mixed-use developments all face refinancing risk as loans mature. Even properties with healthy occupancy can see profits squeezed if higher interest expense consumes a much larger share of rental income.

That is changing how lenders evaluate risk.

Banks are tightening underwriting standards, requiring additional borrower equity and placing greater emphasis on debt-service coverage rather than simply property values. Insurance companies and private credit funds are stepping in to finance deals that traditional lenders may no longer pursue, but often at higher borrowing costs and with stricter terms.

The refinancing wave is also changing property values.

Commercial real estate is increasingly being priced based on financing availability rather than replacement cost or recent comparable sales. Buildings that cannot support higher debt payments are experiencing downward valuation pressure even when tenants continue paying rent.

For investors, the adjustment is creating both opportunity and risk.

Distressed asset funds are raising capital to purchase properties that owners can no longer refinance, while stronger landlords with conservative balance sheets are finding opportunities to acquire quality assets at prices unavailable just a few years ago. The next winners may be determined less by who owns the best buildings than by who has access to patient capital.

Regional banks remain central to the story.

Many community and regional institutions continue holding significant commercial real estate portfolios. While regulators say the banking system remains well capitalized, refinancing pressure will influence credit availability, loan growth and profitability across much of the sector over the next several years.

The broader business story is that commercial real estate is no longer simply adjusting to remote work or changing consumer behavior. It is adapting to an entirely different cost of capital. The properties that thrive will not necessarily be those with the newest amenities or highest occupancy—they will be the ones capable of generating enough cash flow to survive a permanently more expensive financing environment.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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For nearly a century, Maimonides Medical Center has been the hospital our community depends on when every minute matters. It has worked hand-in-hand with Hatzolah, askanim, and Rabbanim, providing care built around the unique needs of our families.

Now that is at risk.

What's Happening

Maimonides' leadership is seeking to transfer the hospital to a New York City run public hospital system. If approved, Maimonides would no longer be an independent, community-rooted hospital. Decisions affecting our care would ultimately be made by a city-run system, not by leaders accountable to our community.

This is not speculation. The proposal is currently tied up in court and is being challenged by trustees, local shuls, Hatzolah coordinators, and community organizations working to stop the takeover.

What's at Stake

A city takeover could mean more bureaucracy, longer wait times, less local accountability, a decline in the quality of care, and growing uncertainty about preserving the religious and cultural accommodations our community depends on.

Once control is gone, getting it back may be impossible.

But There Is Still Time

This fight is not over. Court challenges have already delayed the transfer, and the merger has not been finalized. Every day the takeover is delayed is another opportunity to protect Maimonides' independence and secure a better solution.

Take Action Now

The community's voice matters, but only if we speak up.

● Sign the petition today at ProtectMaimonides.com.

● Share it with your family, friends, neighbors, and anyone who could be affected by these changes.

● Contact your elected officials through the website with just a few clicks.

Every signature sends a clear message: Maimonides belongs to the community it serves.

Don't wait until it's too late. 

Sign the petition today at ProtectMaimonides.com

Iran’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that an agreement with Oman on a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz is being finalized, while cautioning against interference in the arrangement by what it called certain third parties and warning that the United States and Israel still pose a danger to vessels in the waterway. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had already told the Iranian cabinet that talks with Muscat were on their way to being concluded, and ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the two sides were converging on a corridor that is neither the northern nor the southern route but one both governments can accept.

Regional officials described an emerging framework under which ships would enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through one controlled by Oman, with service fees levied to cover security and protection of the maritime environment. Those officials said the talks remain live, that the final shape could change, and that any deal is tied to Washington lifting its blockade of Iranian ports. Under the reported terms, inbound traffic would hug Iran’s coastline while outbound traffic ran alongside Omani territorial waters, with no toll charged — instead a service fee funding maritime security, environmental protection and monitoring, with proceeds split evenly between Tehran and Muscat.

Any agreement that formalizes Iranian control over the strait would represent a significant strategic win for Tehran. Critics quoted in the reporting argue the arrangement would amount to de facto recognition of Iranian authority over an international waterway, and officials have raised concerns that naval mines still sitting in parts of the strait could compel commercial vessels to coordinate their movements with Iranian authorities. One Iranian negotiator said the agreement could run anywhere from one to three months and would produce a situation in which Iran is dominant.

Washington’s public posture has been more guarded. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday there had been progress but not finality on an agreement for free transit, expressing hope it would come together shortly. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC there was a chance of a deal within a day or two to open the strait and move toward more normal conditions, and when asked whether tolls would apply, said he expected freedom of movement. Separate reporting indicated the United States, Iran and Oman were closing on a 60-day interim arrangement to reopen the waterway without tolls, with an announcement targeted for as early as Wednesday. President Trump has framed the sequence as two phases — opening the straits first, denuclearization second — and told reporters the current round was Tehran’s last chance.

The stakes for American consumers and manufacturers run through the price of a barrel. Brent crude reversed early losses to gain 1.4% to $80.45 a barrel in early trading Wednesday, after sinking 5.3% on Tuesday as reopening prospects improved, while U.S. benchmark crude added 0.7% to $76.29. Prices snapped a two-day decline after Yemen’s Houthis said they had struck a Saudi vessel in the Red Sea, though they remain well below recent highs. Brent topped $126 a barrel in April at the peak of the conflict.

Roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas moved through the waterway before the war, and Iranian attacks on shipping have largely shut it down, driving up prices for fuel, fertilizer and other goods and unsettling economies well beyond the Gulf. That fertilizer channel matters for American growers heading into the next planting cycle, and the fuel channel is already visible at the pump. The Energy Information Administration expects Brent to average $74 a barrel in the third quarter, down $27 from its previous outlook, with retail gasoline averaging $3.80 a gallon this quarter against more than $4.20 in the second quarter.

The war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched strikes aimed at Iran’s missile program. An interim agreement in June reopened the strait and started a 60-day clock for talks on ending the war and settling the nuclear dispute, but it collapsed as hostilities over the strait escalated — and that deadline is now roughly two weeks out. Iran has in recent weeks repeatedly attacked ships using a corridor close to Oman that the U.S. military oversees and that was designed to bypass Tehran’s control, while Central Command continues escorting commercial traffic under persistent threat of Iranian missile fire.

The risk has not lifted: a cargo ship reported being struck by an unidentified projectile in the strait off the Omani coast, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, with damage confirmed by a British maritime security firm. For shippers, insurers and the American businesses waiting on Gulf cargo, the distinction between a route on paper and a route crews will actually sail is the one that counts.

JBizNews Desk | Dubai

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A 17-year-old bochur is in serious condition after nearly drowning Tuesday evening in the private swimming pool at his family’s home in Tzfas. Emergency personnel provided life-saving treatment at the scene before transporting him to Ziv Medical Center, where he was admitted in critical condition, sedated and on a ventilator.

Magen David Adom said it received a report at 9:39 p.m. of an unconscious teenager at a residence on Golan Street in Tzfas. Initial indications were that the bochur had lost consciousness due to an apparent medical episode while in the pool. He was pulled from the water before emergency responders arrived.

United Hatzalah medic Yechiel Roshetsky, who was first on the scene, together with fellow responders Yossi Markowitz and Chaim Meir Rothner, said, “Together with additional volunteers, we provided him with initial medical treatment, including respiratory assistance. He was then transported to Ziv Medical Center in Tzfas while sedated and on a ventilator in serious condition.”

MDA paramedic Oren Ne’eman and MDA motorcycle unit volunteer Ronen Hadassi said, “We found the teenager unconscious after he apparently lost consciousness due to a medical episode while in the family’s swimming pool and was pulled from the water. We provided life-saving medical treatment and transported him to the hospital in serious condition.”

The circumstances surrounding the apparent medical episode are under investigation.

{Matzav.com}

Complete Health Partners Holdings agreed to pay $14.1 million to settle federal allegations that it caused unsupported medical diagnoses to be submitted for Medicare Advantage patients, increasing government payments and the company’s own compensation.

The Justice Department said the Jacksonville-based management services organization allegedly used diagnosis codes between 2020 and 2023 that were not clinically valid, not supported by patient records or not considered in the patients’ care, management or treatment.

The disputed codes fell under two federal risk categories: HCC 55, covering drug and alcohol dependence, and HCC 59, covering major depressive, bipolar and paranoid disorders.

The settlement exposes a central vulnerability in Medicare Advantage, a program that now covers more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries.

Under traditional Medicare, providers are generally paid for each service they perform. Medicare Advantage instead pays private insurers a fixed monthly amount for every enrolled patient, with the payment adjusted according to the patient’s documented health risks.

The more serious conditions recorded for a patient, the more money the government may pay.

Complete Health held contracts that entitled it to a share of the payments Medicare Advantage plans received from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Prosecutors said that risk-sharing structure gave the company a direct financial interest in raising patient risk scores.

According to the government, Complete Health distributed incorrect coding guidance to physicians and coders, reviewed patient records for additional diagnoses and prompted doctors to attach conditions that were unsubstantiated or not clinically justified.

Once those diagnoses entered the system, CMS allegedly paid the Medicare Advantage plans more. A portion of that additional money then flowed back to Complete Health.

The case is significant because Complete Health did not need to bill Medicare directly to face False Claims Act liability.

The government’s position is that a management company can still be responsible when its coding guidance, physician prompts or compensation arrangements cause false information to enter the federal payment system.

That broadens the compliance risk across the health-care industry. Physician groups, management companies, insurers and outside coding vendors increasingly operate under contracts whose profitability rises with patient risk scores.

Federal investigators are therefore looking beyond the diagnosis itself to determine who encouraged it, who benefited financially and whether the condition played any genuine role in the patient’s treatment.

The case reached the government through Karen Bowers, a former associate director of risk adjustment at VIVA Health, who filed the lawsuit under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.

Those provisions allow private individuals to sue on behalf of the federal government and receive part of any recovery. Bowers will collect approximately $2.47 million from the settlement.

Complete Health operates affiliated provider groups in Florida, Alabama and Colorado. The company did not admit liability, and the settlement resolves allegations rather than a judicial finding that wrongdoing occurred.

The agreement arrives during a period of record False Claims Act enforcement.

Federal settlements and judgments exceeded $6.8 billion in fiscal 2025, the largest annual recovery in the law’s history. A record 1,297 whistleblower lawsuits were filed that year, surpassing the previous high set in 2024.

That surge has turned former compliance officers, coders and risk-adjustment employees into one of the government’s most productive sources of fraud cases.

For health-care companies, the Complete Health settlement carries a straightforward warning: every diagnosis that increases a Medicare Advantage payment must be clinically valid, properly documented and connected to the patient’s actual care.

Organizations whose compensation rises when patients appear sicker now face exposure extending beyond their own claims departments. Physician prompts, coding software, internal guidance, chart reviews and risk-sharing agreements can all become evidence in a federal investigation.

The dollars in this case are modest compared with the hundreds of billions flowing through Medicare Advantage each year. The theory of liability is not.

A company may never submit a bill to Medicare and still be held responsible for the codes its affiliated physicians enter—and for the money those codes generate.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For passengers on the budget Australian airline Jetstar, the days of cramming your bag into an overhead locker already full of your seatmates’ full-sized suitcases are coming to an end, but there’s a catch. The carrier will charge passengers for stowing carry-on bags in the overhead compartments, beginning in February 2027.

The move came after passengers and airline staff named “having bags weighed at the gate and struggling to find room in overhead lockers as the more stressful parts of the airport experience,” the carrier said in a statement on Wednesday. It makes Jetstar the latest low-cost carrier to introduce a payment system for carry-on bags, with budget airlines in the United States and Europe commonly charging passengers to use the compartments.

Passengers could stow a purse, laptop bag or small backpack that fitted within specified measurements under the seat in front of them for no charge, Jetstar said. The cost of using the overhead compartments in the cabin would start from 25 Australian dollars ($18) one way, with the price depending on the route.

Bags stowed in the lockers can weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and will no longer be weighed by airline staff as passengers line up to board, Jetstar said. The existing weight limit of 7 kilograms (15 pounds) will be scrapped for the small item placed under travelers’ seats.

Like many carriers worldwide, Australian and New Zealand airlines have already introduced charges for checked luggage, seat selection, and some dining and in-flight entertainment options. An industry analyst said, however, that Jetstar was the first to charge for use of the overhead lockers.

“It will ruffle feathers because Australian travelers have got such high expectations,” said Sharon Petersen, CEO of AirlineRatings.com. “For such a long time they lived in a bubble of full-service options only.”

Jetstar said the change would reduce frustrations at boarding gates.

“By giving customers an underseat bag with the option to add Priority Carry-on, we can make better use of overhead locker space, streamline boarding and help more flights depart on time,” Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully said in a statement.

She added that the move would ensure customers only paid for what they needed. Petersen, however, said Jetstar’s base fares remained higher than those of low-budget carriers in Europe that had brought in similar policies.

“Jetstar’s starting price is generally well above what Ryanair or Wizz Air can offer, largely because Australia lacks that level of competition and because wages, taxes and operating costs sit much higher here,” she said.

The IDF announced Wednesday that it has launched targeted strikes in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

In a statement, the military said the strikes were carried out in response to Hezbollah’s actions but did not immediately provide additional details about the targets.

At the same time, the IDF issued a rare evacuation warning to residents of the southern Lebanese village of Al Mansouri, marking the first such warning in several weeks. The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson instructed residents to immediately evacuate and move at least one kilometer north of the village.

“The violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah forces the IDF to act with force against it,” the spokesperson said, adding that the military does not seek to harm civilians. Residents were warned that anyone near Hezbollah terrorists, weapons, or military infrastructure would be placing their lives at risk.

According to Israeli security officials, the evacuation order follows the establishment of a Lebanese Army position inside an area covered by the ceasefire understandings, in what Israel says is a violation of the agreed terms.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Three kedoshei elyon had one common concept when it came to learning Torah – they were the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh (Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar 1696-1743) when he came to Eretz Yisroel; the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto 1707-1746) when he lived in Padua, Italy;  and Hagaon, Harav Chaim Volozhiner, (1749-1821) the famous talmid of the Gaon of Vilna.

They each had a yeshiva with ‘around-the-clock’ Torah learning, 24-hours a day, so that there would be no minute when the sound of Torah learning would not be heard in this world. The 24-hour period would be divided into shifts, and as one ended the next would begin.

Torah-24

A “Torah-24” Center has been opened in Yerushalayim and the Nasi is Maran Sar Hatorah, Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l.

• The first “Torah-24” center is in Yerushalayim

• 11 Kollelim with 163 avreichim will be learning at “Torah-24” every day

• Nigleh, Nistar, Chumash and Halacha – All under ONE ROOF

• Talmud Bavli / Yerushalmi – Kabbalah & Zohar – Rambam, Shulchan Aruch & Poskim, Zeraim – Taharos

• The following SIX kollelim – Kollel Hashkomas Haboker, Kollel Yerushalmi, Kollel Bavli, Kollel Choshen Mishpat/Even Haezer, Kollel Erev Shabbos, Kollel Kabbalah B’Chatzos (Tikun Chatzot, Etz Chaim, Zohar, Tehillim) – are fully operational

• 24 hour תורה learning cycle – 6:00 am to 6:00 am – is divided into different shifts

• Each kollel shift has its own program, Rosh Kollel and avreichim

• Detailed monthly and annual tests – written and oral – for all avreichim

• Already there are 77 avreichim metzuyonim, and a large number of candidates are vying for the remaining slots in the kollelim. All the avreichim are required to take rigorous monthly tests.

In the words of Gedolei Torah:

“Torah-24 תורה” – where the voice of Torah is not absent from within the walls of the kollelim, not even for a minute…

“The idea … of day and night shifts of non-stop kollelim… the full range of subjects of the Torah… the derech of the Ramchal, the Ohr Hachaim Hakodosh and Hagaon Reb Chaim of Volozhin.”

– Nasi Maran Sar Hatorah, Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l

“All who donate to and support “Torah-24 תורה” will merit all the brochos of the Torah, including those for refuos, yeshuos, parnossa tova and nachas from all their descendants, Amen”

– Maran Rosh Yeshivas Ponevez, Hagaon Harav Gershon Edelstein, zt”l

At “Torah-24 תורה”, exceptional avreichim do not pause for a moment while studying all the areas of the holy Torah, with a shift of remarkable scholars studying the holy Zohar and the recitation of Tikun Chatzos at midnight. 

All who donate and support this holy endeavor of “Torah-24 תורה” should see brocha and success … children and grandchildren immersed in Torah and mitzvos… fulfillment of all the hopes of their hearts for good and with brocha. 

– Maran Hagaon Harav Moishe Sternbuch, shlit”a

I join the esteemed Rabbanim and Gaonim, shlit”a, in endorsing the illustrious “Kollel Kabbalah b’Chatzos” designated for outstanding talmidei chachomim, masters of Torah and yiras Shomayim, who spend their nights in Beis Hashem, engaging deeply in the concealed dimensions of Torah during this auspicious time of Divine Favor…

I hereby call upon my generous brethren to support this endeavor with significant sums, for through this they will attain the great merit of the hidden Torah studied at night. May you all be blessed by Hashem with many blessings in accordance with the greatness of the endeavor that you are supporting!

– Maran Hagaon Hamekubal, Harav Yaakov Meir Shechter, shlit”a

“Support ‘Torah-24 תורה’ where the sound of Torah – nigleh and nistar – all hours of the day and night; and be blessed from shamayim that the Torah should never cease from your mouth; children bnei Torah; abundant parnassa and good health”

– Maran Hagaon Harav Shimon Badani, zt”l
Rosh Kollel Torah V’Chaim, Member Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah

“Torah-24 תורה” – groups of talmidei chachomim geonim in different shifts, delve in the subjects of Torah learning without interruption – Bavli, Yerushalmi, Dalet Chelkei Shulchan Aruch, Rambam, Kabbala, Midrash, Tana”ch and more.  “Torah-24 תורה” is in actuality a wonderful continuation of the heichalei hakodesh and battei midrash of our holy Rabbonim – the Ramchal, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh and the Nefesh Hachaim, zy”o. Who would not want to be part of this historical and amazing project “Torah-24 תורה”, and the greatness of its holy impact in both the supernal and lower realms?  “My brocha to all who support “Torah-24 תורה” – You should merit great abundance in both the spiritual and the material – supernal light, peace of mind, tranquility of the soul and bodily health. Only goodness and kindness should pursue you all the days of your lives, and you should dwell securely for your length of days.

– Maran Hamashpia Hagadol, ‘Reb Meilech’ Biderman, shlit”a

“Your kesher with ‘Torah-24 תורה’ will be a true ובהם נהגה יומם ולילה – and we will delve in them by day and by night”

– Maran Hagaon Harav Shraga Steinman, shlit”a – Orchos Torah

“Talmidei Chachomim of ‘Torah-24 תורה’ delve into all sectors of Torah – Bavli and Yerushalmi, Dalet Chelkei Shulchan Aruch, Rambam, Kabbalah – Nistar”

– Maran Hagaon Harav Shimon Gallai, shlit”a – Bnei Brak

Kollel Kabbalah b’Chatzos” is a precious link in the golden chain of the glorious Torah empire “Torah-24”… bringing tremendous delight to the Ribbono shel Olam. Fortunate are all those who take part in this great and holy endeavor.

– Maran HaMekubal Rav Abish Zehnwirth, shlit”a

For more “Torah-24” information click on: www.torah-24.com or call 718-766-5022

The Jackson Police Department says it has identified several suspects in connection with the recent burglary, vandalism, and bias crime at the BMG property on South Hope Chapel Road.

According to police, seven individuals unlawfully entered the property, caused extensive damage, and wrote antisemitic and anti-African American messages on classroom blackboards and other areas throughout the school. Investigators say the incident is being prosecuted as a bias crime in addition to burglary, theft, criminal mischief, and other related offenses.

Police also announced they are investigating three separate incidents of criminal mischief at the Chai Lifeline property on County Line Road as bias crimes. During those incidents, windows at the property were intentionally damaged. Due to the repeated nature of the vandalism targeting a Jewish faith-based organization, authorities said the incidents are being treated as bias crimes.

While suspects have been identified in the South Hope Chapel Road incident, police said no additional information about those individuals will be released at this time because the investigation remains active. Authorities said those responsible will face all applicable criminal and bias crime charges supported by the evidence.

Jackson Mayor Jennifer L. Kuhn issued a statement Tuesday saying she was “deeply disturbed” by the vandalism and said there is no place in the township for antisemitism, hate, or intimidation directed at any individual or group. Kuhn said Jackson is home to residents of many backgrounds, faiths, and traditions, and that every person deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood and free to worship without fear of being targeted over their religion or identity.

The mayor said she “unequivocally” condemned the act and commended the Jackson Township Police Department and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for their response and ongoing investigation. She encouraged anyone with relevant information to cooperate with law enforcement so those responsible can be held accountable.

Kuhn said the incident is a reminder that words and actions matter, and called for residents to reject hatred and prejudice in favor of civility and mutual respect. She said vandalism and intimidation “will not define” the township.

“To our Jewish neighbors, and to every resident who has been affected by this incident, please know that you have my full support,” Kuhn said, adding that Jackson Township “stands united against hate” and remains committed to ensuring every resident is treated with dignity and equal protection under the law.

In response to the incidents, the Jackson Township Police Department has increased patrols around sensitive locations throughout the township. Officials reiterated that there is no place in the community for crimes motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance, and urged anyone with information about either investigation to contact the Jackson Township Police Department. Residents are also encouraged to report any suspicious activity immediately.

NEW YORK (VINnews)-Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav was outbid in his effort to purchase Mohawk Day Camp in Westchester County, despite raising his offer to $80 million, according to a report.

Zaslav, whose adult children attended the camp, initially bid $68 million for the property after the $400 million summer camp empire operated by brothers Michael and David Shabsels entered bankruptcy. The intense bidding war prompted him to increase his offer, sources told Page Six.

That amount was still insufficient. Multiple parties entered the fray, with one alleged real estate hedge fund offering nearly $100 million for the camp, the report said.

Zaslav had described the bid as a personal family investment. “This is a personal family investment that reflects our lifelong belief that summer camp can be a wonderful part of a child’s growth, and Mohawk’s history as a successful camp experience for so many kids, including our own,” he previously told Page Six.

A source familiar with the process said Zaslav raised his bid because he “wanted to keep it as a family tie.”

Mohawk is among roughly 30 camps affected by the Shabsels’ bankruptcy, which has drawn interest from real estate investors, camp alumni, healthcare executives and other wealthy bidders. Some in the camp community have expressed concern that outside buyers may seek to change the operations of the long-running facilities rather than maintain them as traditional camps.

Hedge funds including Rubric Capital and Drazin Capital have also pursued properties from the bankrupt portfolio through an entity called American Youth Camping. That group has bid on at least five camps, including $14.6 million for Camp Echo and $5.4 million for North Star. Canadian investor Sam Drazin of Drazin Capital bid $8.7 million for Camp Windsor Mountain. Nursing homes executive Daryl Hagler offered $6 million for Camp Mesorah.

According to ZAKA, the man entered the water with members of his family, but at some point disappeared beneath the waves. Family members searched frantically along the shoreline and in the water for approximately two hours.

The search came to a heartbreaking end when a powered paraglider flying over the area spotted the man floating in the water. Local rescue personnel recovered him, but were forced to pronounce him dead at the scene.

Chaim Weingarten, ZAKA’s Deputy Director of Operations, said, “This is a devastating tragedy. The deceased entered the sea together with his family, and at some point he disappeared. For about two hours, family members searched for him on the beach and in the water until a powered paraglider flying overhead spotted him floating in the sea. Tragically, local rescue teams had no choice but to pronounce him dead. ZAKA remains in constant contact with the family and, together with the Foreign Ministry, is working with the local authorities to assist the family and bring the deceased to kevurah in Israel as quickly as possible.”

{Matzav.com}

Boro Park drivers woke up this morning to find the city's revived "Sticker of Shame" affixed to vehicles that remained parked during alternate side parking hours, marking the return of a controversial sanitation enforcement program that disappeared more than a decade ago.

City lawmakers have approved legislation allowing sanitation workers to once again place large warning stickers on vehicles that block scheduled street cleaning, reviving a practice that disappeared more than a decade ago.

The stickers are placed on vehicles that remain parked during posted street-cleaning hours, notifying drivers that their failure to move prevented sanitation crews from properly cleaning the street. City officials say the goal is not to embarrass motorists, but to encourage greater compliance with alternate side parking regulations so neighborhoods can be cleaned more effectively.

Supporters of the legislation argue that too many drivers simply accept the parking ticket rather than move their vehicles, leaving thousands of miles of streets partially uncleaned each week. They also point to past sanitation data showing street cleanliness improved significantly when the sticker program was previously in place.

The original program was paused after complaints that the stickers were difficult to remove and sometimes damaged vehicle windows. Sanitation officials now say adhesive technology has improved and that newer materials will be tested before the program is rolled out more broadly.

Not everyone agrees the stickers should return. Opponents argue the policy is unnecessary and believe the city should instead rely on existing parking enforcement or other measures to improve compliance without placing adhesive notices on vehicles.

Former New York City Councilman David Greenfield was among those criticizing the proposal, calling it "a blatant violation of due process." He added, "But everyone hates car owners, so behold, they're back."

With the stickers now appearing on vehicles in Boro Park, the renewed enforcement effort has officially arrived in the neighborhood, reigniting debate over whether the practice is an effective way to keep city streets clean or an unnecessary burden on drivers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge decried efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as he reluctantly dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group at the Trump administration’s request.

The move Tuesday closes the book on the Jan. 6 cases that were wiped out with Republican President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations last year, freeing from prison people convicted of violent of assaults on police and other crimes.

The Department of Justice in April acted to vacate the convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and others in the seditious conspiracy case who had their sentences commuted but did not receive pardons. It was a stunning reversal from the Democratic Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts in one of the most serious cases stemming from the Capitol attack.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers’ trials, criticized the department’s move, writing in his ruling that the government “asks to absolve these Defendants of crimes against the United States itself.” But Mehta wrote that he had no choice but to grant the administration’s request.

“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of Jan. 6. That book is now closed,” wrote Mehta, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama.

“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle. The court cannot write a different ending,” he wrote.

Juries in the nation’s capital convicted Oath Keepers leaders and members of another group, the Proud Boys, of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Biden. Rhodes was released from prison in January 2025 after Trump commuted the 18-year sentence he received in the case.

Rhodes, who did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, has denied any wrongdoing and described himself at his 2023 sentencing as a “political prisoner.” James Lee Bright, an attorney who represented Rhodes at trial, wrote in a text message that he was “disappointed in the tenor” of Mehta’s opinion, adding that it was “not necessary to inject his personal opinions in such a fashion.”

Trump has argued that the Jan. 6 defendants were treated unfairly by the justice system, saying the pardons were intended to end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people” and begin “a process of national reconciliation.”

More than 1,200 people across the United States were convicted of Jan. 6 crimes, including roughly 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement.

Most of the Jan. 6 defendants were granted “full, complete and unconditional” pardons, while Rhodes and other defendants in the seditious conspiracy cases only had their sentences commuted. Trump also ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that were pending before judges stemming from the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is adding six more states to the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, bringing the total to 15, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing three individuals familiar with the investigation.

An FDA investigation linked the outbreak, which has expanded to nine states, to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants and sourced from privately held Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico.

However, authorities are still looking for other potential sources.

Missouri, which is reporting 1,095 cases, is one of the states being added, the Post reported, citing a state health department spokesperson.

Patients who were interviewed by state and local investigators said they consumed Taco Bell before getting sick, the Post reported, citing a spokesperson.

Information was not immediately available about the five other states, the report said, adding that the individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Outbreak hits record levels

US cyclosporiasis cases have climbed to record levels this year, with the current outbreak among the largest caused by foodborne illness in recent US history. The infection can cause diarrhea, nausea and other gastrointestinal symptoms.

Michigan, the hardest-hit state, reported 11,508 cases on Tuesday, up by more than 200 from the previous day’s update.

The state also reported the first two deaths associated with the outbreak, noting that both individuals had significant underlying health conditions.

The CDC, whose surveillance lags state reporting by several weeks, has recorded 6,707 laboratory-confirmed cases nationwide, as of July 28, along with more than 11,500 suspected cases not yet confirmed through laboratory testing.

This post was originally published on here.

More than three decades after the murder of Ari Halberstam Hy”d, the U.S. Department of Justice has formally acknowledged that, if the attack occurred today, it would be investigated and prosecuted as a federal hate crime and civil rights violation.

The announcement was made in a July 23 letter from former U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to Ari’s mother, Devorah Halberstam, who has spent decades seeking recognition that her son’s 1994 murder was motivated by antisemitism. Clayton wrote that there is “no doubt” the case would be pursued today as a federal hate crime and said his successor, Jamie McDonald, shares that view.

Ari Halberstam, 16, was killed when Rashid Baz, a Lebanese-born taxi driver, opened fire on a van carrying Lubavitch yeshiva students across the Brooklyn Bridge. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to 141 years in prison before dying behind bars in 2023.

Alongside the recognition, the Justice Department pledged to devote additional resources to investigating and prosecuting hate crimes in New York as antisemitic incidents continue to rise. According to the NYPD, antisemitic incidents increased 8.5% during the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year. Jews accounted for 57% of all reported hate crime victims in the city, while antisemitic incidents in July alone were up 53% from July 2025.

Devorah Halberstam said the letter gives her hope that the federal government is committed to combating antisemitic violence. She vowed to continue her efforts to ensure no other mother has to endure the loss of a child because of hatred.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Dozens of extremist protesters rioted Tuesday night outside a recruitment information fair for Chareidi military service tracks in Yerushalayim, assaulting participants, surrounding retired Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, and hurling abuse at police officers. At least one protester was arrested.

The disturbance took place on Yaffo Street, where organizers were holding an informational event for young Chareidim interested in learning about specialized IDF service programs. Protest organizers had circulated calls through anti-draft hotlines urging demonstrators to converge on the location and block access to the event.

According to reports, protesters attempted to prevent attendees from entering the venue while chanting slogans against the gathering. Police officers who arrived to keep the entrance open and restore order were met with shouts of “Nazis” and “murderers” from members of the crowd.

Several violent incidents were reported during the protest. Demonstrators surrounded and blocked a taxi carrying one of the event organizers, attempted to force their way into the vehicle, spat at it, and kicked one participant before police officers managed to extract him safely from the crowd.

Journalist Rafi Perlstein was also identified by protesters, who accused him of promoting enlistment. Demonstrators allegedly chased him and several other participants through nearby streets while subjecting them to verbal and physical abuse. Police intervened to restore order, and at least one suspect was taken into custody.

Perlstein later wrote on X, “Nir the driver, thank you for saving me. I’m sorry you had to go through this.”

He continued, “I’m still trying to process what happened tonight. During the protest I was violently attacked. They grabbed my yarmulke and tried to steal my laptop. The police rescued me into a taxi. From there the situation only escalated. For many long minutes they tore apart Nir’s taxi while his son, a child with special needs, was sitting inside crying and terrified. I heard with my own ears people offering Nir money to throw me out of the taxi. A stack of bills was pulled out, and he chose instead to protect me with his own body.”

Perlstein added, “Thank you to Yehuda Chaimzon, who took painful blows alongside me, as well as spit, filth, and much more. People can disagree, demonstrate, and protest, but anyone who raises a hand against another person, spits, destroys property, and terrorizes a helpless child is not defending the Torah and is not making a kiddush Hashem. Violence must never become a legitimate language. We are truly better than this.”

A primary target of the protesters’ anger was retired Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, who had been invited to address the gathering.

As Winter left the venue following his remarks, dozens of demonstrators surrounded him, shouting insults and denunciations. One protester yelled, “Ofer Winter, there is no forgiveness for you. Inciter and misleader, woe unto you. You are harming the Torah. Hashem will repay you. Heretic, be ashamed. You have no portion in Judaism! Lowly traitor, traitor to the Jewish people.”

Winter, who previously served as commander of the Givati Brigade, commander of the 98th Division, and military secretary to Israel’s defense minister, has advocated integrating Chareidim who are not bnei yeshiva into military service while expressing respect for the Torah world. His name has also been mentioned in recent months as a possible future political candidate.

Responding to the incident, Winter said, “I had the privilege of speaking this evening to dozens of young men from the Chareidi community who are interested in meaningful military service during the service tracks fair. They are wonderful, pioneering young people who represent a significant segment of the Chareidi public. I regret the actions of the delusional extremist fringe of the Jerusalem Faction, which does not represent the Chareidi community and harms the entire Chareidi public. They will not deter me from continuing to help integrate the Chareidi community into the IDF in a manner appropriate for it.”

He added, “The extremists must be dealt with firmly, without harming the Torah world. I respect the Torah world and those who learn Torah, and I am not intimidated by a delusional fringe that, instead of learning Torah, wastes Torah study and harms the Chareidi community. As for those who chased me, I would recommend that the military police draft them tonight. They certainly are not Torah learners.”

The violence quickly drew political reactions. Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman sharply criticized the protesters, saying, “Right now in Yerushalayim, dozens of violent draft dodgers are rioting, spitting on, and cursing those who do serve.” He added that under the next government, “draft evaders won’t have time to chase soldiers and law-abiding citizens because they’ll be busy running through basic training.”

Former Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel also condemned the disturbances, stating, “The violence and persecution of Chareidi young men who merely wanted to learn about military service opportunities is a disgrace that has no place in the State of Israel. Draft evaders receive support, while those who enlist get the cold shoulder.”

He further asked, “Where is the minister of national security? Where is the prime minister? Where is Smotrich, who is afraid of the Chareidi power brokers? Silence is filth.”

{Matzav.com}

The Hamas terrorist organization has begun preparations to relocate the center of its covert operations from Qatar to Turkey, Kan News reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, which cited Palestinian Arab sources, most of Hamas’s clandestine units—including its planning and cyber divisions—are expected to move from Qatar to Turkey, while the terror organization’s public activities will remain in Doha.

The report follows a Kan News report on Tuesday that said Qatari authorities have begun restricting the activities of Hamas leaders in Doha. Under the new directives, senior Hamas officials must now obtain prior approval before holding any official meetings in the Qatari capital.

The new restrictions reflect Qatar’s dissatisfaction with Hamas’s decision to appoint Khalil al-Hayya as the organization’s leader instead of Doha’s preferred candidate, Khaled Mashaal.

According to Palestinian Arab sources, Qatar is punishing Hamas for backing a candidate more closely aligned with Iran rather than one considered closer to the Muslim Brotherhood.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Democrats Party chairman Yair Golan acknowledged that drafting the entire Chareidi public is not practical and the entire issue is “cheap populism.”

Golan added that the IDF is not capable nor interested in absorbing large numbers of Chareidi recruits without proper preparation.

Speaking at a panel held in recent days at the Molad Institute, Golan said: “There’s no issue that has become more of a victim of cheap populism than the drafting of the Chareidim,” he said. ” I want to tell you—you can’t draft all the Chareidim tomorrow morning, even if an amazing law were passed an hour from now.”

“And we wouldn’t want to draft them all tomorrow morning either, because we wouldn’t want to create an army that receives thousands of people in every draft cycle and has to establish separate frameworks for men. In short, it’s simply not practical.”

“We also wouldn’t want a population that lacks education, lacks motivation, and lacks physical capability. In short, that’s not how it works. Drafting Chareidim is a process, drafting Arabs is a process, and drafting Chareidi women is a process.”

Golan added that because each annual age cohort is growing, “the army will not grow in proportion to the size of the draft cohorts. That is simply not realistic.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

(AP) – President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found.

More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.

Parents and spouses of people in the military have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades. But the AP found they’re now routinely being detained for months as they try to adjust their legal status through the policies available to service members’ close relatives and even as the military continues to recruit by advertising immigration benefits for enlistees’ families. Experts warn that the reversal could undermine military preparedness even as the U.S. is at war in Iran. It’s left military members without emotional support and caretakers for their children, delayed deployments and forced some to take leave.

“How can I even focus on my military career because I have to worry about how my wife is doing?” said Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, who was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, when his wife was detained outside a Walmart in front of their 6-year-old daughter in July.

A handful of detentions of service members’ spouses have prompted public backlash and led to intervention by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to secure their release.

The Department of Homeland Security has said it does not compile data on these cases. The AP obtained information by analyzing thousands of federal court records compiled by Habeas Dockets, a project run by the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative; by reviewing existing media coverage; and by verifying information with family members and attorneys. The actual number is likely much higher than the 51 cases AP found.

The AP asked for comment from DHS on each case, including the individuals’ immigration and criminal history. The agency did not provide specific information about the majority of cases but noted that at least seven people had been removed from the U.S. before, at least eight had removal orders and at least two had drunken driving or drug-related convictions.

“DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military,” DHS said in a statement. “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The Pentagon declined to comment on the AP’s findings.

Service members are losing their safety net
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wendy Gbeve, 30, said she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since her father, Luis Alberto Ramirez Zavala, was detained by immigration officials last month. Gbeve was there when he was arrested at a routine interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Missouri about his pending application for legal status.

She spent hours refreshing the USCIS page to track where the government was taking her father: from a county jail in Missouri to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas. Finally, roughly two weeks after he was detained, she found out he had been deported to his native Mexico.

“It’s the most frustrating, helpless feeling,” Gbeve said.

Gbeve said ICE still hasn’t informed her family why her father was removed so quickly. Ramirez Zavala spent most of his life in the U.S. working as a ranch hand in rural Illinois.

Ramirez Zavala’s wife of 30 years, a legal permanent resident, is considering returning to Mexico to be with her husband. For Gbeve, whose husband is also in the Air Force, that would leave no one to watch their children, ages 2 and 4, if both were deployed.

“That would be our entire safety net,” she said.

Military members have had to take leave or delay a deployment
Some service members have been left caring for children alone.

Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, an aviation operations specialist who has served for more than a decade, said he would normally be involved in training soldiers at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Instead, he is on administrative leave, caring for his 5-year-old stepson, Noah, after his Brazilian wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, was detained in early July.

It happened during what the family thought was a routine appointment at a USCIS office in Alabama. Eliaser arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2019, and the couple was trying to change her status.

Immigration officials asked Jaramillo and his stepson to leave the room. Minutes later, they were told that Eliaser had been detained. The next time they saw her was inside a detention facility.

“It is really overwhelming because I need to take care of my kid by myself. No one is here to help me out,” Jaramillo said.

At least one active-duty soldier halted her imminent deployment after her husband was detained by immigration officers, leaving no one to care for their then-5-year-old son, court records show. A judge eventually ordered the husband released.

Trump’s policy is a reversal even from his first administration
A new policy, implemented in April 2025, states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Experts in military immigration law said this marks a stark shift from previous administrations across the political spectrum, including Trump’s first administration.

Dan Gividen, who served as ICE’s deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019 under Trump, represents a soldier’s father who has been in ICE custody for more than eight months. He said that during his time as an ICE prosecutor, immigration authorities rarely detained service members’ immediate family members unless they had committed violent crimes.

“We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That’s insane,” Gividen said. “The fact that they’re doing it now is just outrageous.”

ICE previously generally canceled past removal orders and allowed parents or spouses of troops to adjust their legal status, said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. She said that’s because the government wanted to ensure troops focused on their duties.

“It’s the same thing that happens if you don’t provide healthcare to the troops, or you don’t provide housing to the troops,” she said. If soldiers are preoccupied with detained or deported family, “they’re not concentrating on their job anymore.”

Even some congressional Republicans who are otherwise largely supportive of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown have pushed for the release of service members’ relatives.

“The immigration system is failing the honorable and good Americans,” Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said at a news conference in July advocating for the release of the wife of retired Staff Sgt. Wilmer Trujillo, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. DHS said she illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2005.

Although DHS said it does not have data on active-duty troops, it has released figures for former service members, who also qualify for immigration benefits along with their immediate families. From Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 26, 2026, immigration authorities detained 125 military veterans — placing 34 into removal proceedings — and arrested more than 150 immediate family members, DHS said in a letter to several Democratic senators.

Anh Dung Cong Tran, known as “Tony,” had both a father and son who served in the military. Tran came to the U.S. in 1990 through a program for children of American military personnel born in Vietnam. Tran, 56, was deported in July, having lived in the U.S. for decades with regular check-ins with immigration authorities after an assault conviction soon after his arrival.

His son Antonio Tran said his father persuaded him to enlist in the military in 2022. “He has a totally different view on America now,” said Tran, who was discharged as an Army specialist in March after a serious injury.

Benefits for service members include what’s known as parole-in-place
Military recruiters tout immigration benefits for troops’ families as a selling point to enlist.

One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: Those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example.

The policy was implemented under Republican President George W. Bush during the U.S. war with Iraq in 2007 and codified under Democratic President Barack Obama. DHS agencies can grant it on a case-by-case basis.

Under Trump, the average time it takes to receive military parole-in-place has more than doubled to 12 months, according to USCIS data. That leaves military families more vulnerable to being placed in ICE custody.

Recruiters are still promoting immigration benefits
The AP found that troops’ immediate family members have repeatedly been detained by ICE while applying for parole-in-place or seeking to adjust their status, including during immigration appointments.

Marine Cpl. Jose Manuel Vilchis-Valle’s mother, Ursula Borja Valle, was detained at an appointment in August 2025 and deported to Mexico within a week. She had lived in the U.S. since the 1990s without a known criminal record. Her son was attempting to help her clear up a decades-old removal order through the immigration benefits that military recruiters had used to help convince him to enlist.

“They basically told me that if you serve, and if you served honorably, you can help your parents,” said Vilchis-Valle, 23, who was honorably discharged shortly after his mother was deported. “In a perfect world, I wished, because of my service, they could have pardoned her.”

In other cases, ICE has detained people who had already been granted protection, with the agency later arguing in court filings that their parole status had been revoked.

In June 2025, the Marine Corps officially stopped advertising enlistment as a way to protect immigrant family members, in response to inquiries from the AP. But recruiters for the Army and the National Guard still promote it.

“For some service members, enlisting isn’t just about serving their country,” read an Instagram post published in late July by an official Army recruiter based in California. “It’s also about doing everything they can to help protect their parents who sacrificed everything for them.”

Recruiters are expected to highlight the benefits of service to attract applicants and military parole-in-place remains in effect, Army spokesperson Christopher Surridge said.

The National Guard said it does not track detentions of its troops’ relatives or which recruiters advertise immigration benefits and referred additional comment to DHS.

A soldier who helped patrol the border grapples with his father’s detention
For U.S. Army Specialist Romero Ralios, his father’s detention has left him remorseful about his deployment last year to the Joint Task Force Southern Border, where he spent nine months supporting U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

His father, Sebastian Ralios Tino, a Guatemalan landscaper with no known criminal record, was detained this summer. He lived in the U.S. for nearly two decades without legal status.

Ralios’ commanding officer, Capt. Mohamed Elmaola, told the AP he wanted to speak up because Ralios is a “phenomenal soldier” whose father should receive due process.

“It’s very hard to communicate and to have credibility as a leader when your own subordinates are unable to get support,” Elmaola said. “Considering he enlisted his time and his life into supporting and defending the United States Constitution, it is the right thing to do to support soldiers and their families.”

Romero Ralios now struggles to sleep at night due to the stress and wishes he had not been involved in immigration enforcement, even though he was just following orders.

“It was karma. I should’ve known,” Ralios told the AP. “All those families I broke. I have regrets.”

Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the transfer of approximately NIS 250 million in funding designated for Chareidi educational institutions and related programs, issuing an interim order that halts the allocations until the court hears a legal challenge to the approval process.

The temporary injunction came one day after the Knesset Finance Committee approved the budget transfers. The petition filed with the court argues that the committee’s deliberations were marred by procedural deficiencies.

In his ruling, Justice Alex Stein wrote that, due to the alleged flaws surrounding the Finance Committee’s proceedings, implementation of all budget transfers approved during Tuesday’s session should be suspended. The only exception is funding allocated for civilian emergency needs, which may proceed.

Justice Stein also directed that the petition be scheduled for an expedited hearing before a three-justice panel. He instructed the respondents to submit preliminary responses to both the petition and the request for a temporary injunction within 48 hours after the hearing date is established.

Until the court issues a final decision, the approved funding will remain frozen.

On Tuesday, following lengthy deliberations, the Finance Committee approved a package of budget transfers totaling roughly NIS 250 million. The funding was designated for a broad range of Chinuch and social welfare initiatives serving the Chareidi community and was intended to address longstanding funding disparities.

Among the largest allocations is a substantial increase in funding for preschool and kindergarten teachers in the Chareidi school system. For the first time, these moros will receive full government funding that reflects their years of teaching experience.

The approved package also includes funding for student transportation in the Chinuch Atzmai and Bnei Yosef school networks, along with subsidies for after-school programs in exempt (mosdos p’tur) and recognized-but-unofficial (mukar she’eino rasmi) educational institutions.

Additional allocations include support for Jewish cultural programming, educational and therapeutic services for at-risk and disengaged youth, assistance for teacher training in Chareidi high schools and post-high school educational programs, as well as funding for a variety of other initiatives aimed at strengthening Torah institutions and the broader Chareidi educational system.

By Julia Parker – JBizNews Desk

SAN FRANCISCO — Cloudflare launched a permanent identity tool and wallet service for AI shopping agents, a move aimed at helping consumers authorize software agents to identify themselves and make purchases with merchants. The rollout matters for retailers, payment companies and security providers as automated shopping moves closer to commercial use and raises new questions about fraud, authentication and transaction control.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed internet infrastructure company said the service is designed to give AI agents persistent credentials and spending capabilities, allowing merchants to distinguish authorized consumer agents from unidentified bots. The tools could help businesses decide which automated traffic to trust, which requests to block and how to complete purchases initiated by software rather than people.

For online merchants, the immediate business issue is operational. AI agents that can search, compare prices and initiate orders may create new sales channels, but they also increase the burden on fraud systems, checkout flows and customer-service teams. A verified agent identity could reduce false positives in bot detection and make it easier to set rules around refunds, purchase limits and account access.

Cloudflare’s move also positions the company deeper in the emerging infrastructure layer for agentic commerce, where technology providers are racing to control authentication, payments and data access. The company already sits between websites and much of their internet traffic through its security, content-delivery and developer tools, giving it a natural role in verifying whether automated requests should be treated as legitimate commercial activity.

Analysts say the commercial stakes are rising as companies test AI systems that do more than generate text or answer customer questions. Gene Alvarez, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner, has said the value of agentic AI depends on systems that can act reliably for users: “The key to unlocking agentic AI value lies in creating AI tools that are robust, dependable and specifically designed to perform as agents.”

That reliability problem is central to AI shopping. Consumers will need controls over what an agent can buy, how much it can spend and which merchants it can interact with. Retailers, meanwhile, need confidence that an agent is acting with user consent and that payment credentials are not being abused.

The initiative comes as large technology and payments companies, including OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard and Stripe, explore ways to make AI-assisted commerce easier to use. Their efforts range from AI product discovery to embedded checkout and tokenized payments, creating competitive pressure on infrastructure firms to support secure machine-to-machine transactions.

Cloudflare’s advantage is distribution. Millions of websites and applications use its network services, which could allow the company to offer merchants identity and trust signals without requiring them to rebuild their technology stacks. If adopted widely, the tools could also give Cloudflare more strategic leverage with retailers and developers as AI traffic becomes a larger share of web activity.

The company did not frame the launch as a replacement for existing card networks or checkout providers. Instead, the service appears aimed at the layer before payment settlement: proving that an AI agent is authorized, recognizable and operating within user-defined limits. That could make Cloudflare a gatekeeper for a category of traffic that has often been treated as suspicious by default.

For investors, the launch highlights how Cloudflare is trying to expand beyond its core web-security and performance businesses into higher-value software infrastructure tied to AI. The opportunity remains early, but agent identity and wallet controls could become important if retailers begin to see meaningful order volume from autonomous shopping assistants.

The main risk is adoption. Consumers must trust agents with purchasing authority, merchants must integrate new verification tools and regulators may scrutinize who is responsible when automated systems make costly or unauthorized decisions. For now, Cloudflare is betting that AI commerce will need the same thing the broader internet has long required: identity, security and a way to pay.

JBizNews Desk | San Francisco

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

YSR.

The NYPD is asking for the public’s help identifying a man wanted in connection with a strangulation assault that took place inside a commercial building in Boro Park last month.

According to police, the incident occurred on Shabbos, July 4, at approximately 9:20 p.m. at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 45th Street. Investigators say the unidentified man approached a 21-year-old woman inside a business before starting to choke her.

The victim started experiencing pain and difficulty breathing before the suspect then fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction before officers arrived.

The 21-year-old woman declined medical attention at the scene. Police have not released any additional information regarding a possible motive.

The NYPD has released images of the suspect and is asking anyone with information regarding his identity or whereabouts to contact Crime Stoppers. 

Persistent complaints about dropped calls, slow data speeds and unreliable cellular service in Lakewood could eventually become less common if SpaceX succeeds in its ambitious plans to expand into the wireless market.

Speaking during an earnings call this week alongside company founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer Elon Musk, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company expects to attract “quite a few” customers from the nation’s largest wireless carriers — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — by combining newly acquired wireless spectrum from EchoStar with a future generation of Starlink satellites designed to eliminate cellular dead zones.

“I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers, because I think our service will be better,” she said.

The comments come as Lakewood residents have increasingly voiced frustration over wireless service, particularly as the township’s rapid population growth has placed added strain on existing cellular infrastructure. Complaints of dropped calls, delayed text messages and inconsistent data connections have become a frequent complaint across town.

While she didn’t specify where they would be offering service first, Shotwell said the company believes its satellite-to-cell technology can provide coverage in areas where traditional cellular networks struggle, supplementing existing towers rather than replacing them.

The effort builds on Starlink’s growing direct-to-cell capabilities, which are intended to allow ordinary smartphones to connect directly to satellites when terrestrial service is unavailable or congested. SpaceX recently strengthened those ambitions by acquiring access to EchoStar’s wireless spectrum, giving the company additional frequencies that could support future mobile services.

If the technology matures as envisioned, it could also help alleviate congestion in densely populated communities where demand often exceeds the capacity of existing networks.

For Lakewood, where explosive residential and commercial growth has outpaced infrastructure in several areas, improved wireless coverage would likely be welcomed by residents and businesses alike.

U.S. stocks pushed further into record territory Wednesday morning as optimism over Middle East negotiations, lower oil risk and strong corporate earnings outweighed a sharp slowdown in private hiring and heavy selling in SpaceX and AMD.

At 9:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near 54,726, up about 640 points. The S&P 500 was near 7,790, roughly 53 points higher, while the Nasdaq Composite stood near 26,714, up approximately 129 points and the Russell 2000 edged up 2.65 points, or 0.09%, to 3,039.63. All three indexes are on pace for their strongest five-day stretch since April 2025.

The rally builds on an extraordinary Tuesday session. The S&P 500 jumped 1.79% to close at 7,736.52 — its first finish above 7,700 — while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.59% to 26,584.99 and the Dow added 907.47 points, or 1.71%, to 54,085.88.

The catalyst remains the war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments suggesting the United States and Iran may be closing in on an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz drove much of Tuesday’s advance, and President Trump said Wednesday that the strait would reopen “very soon” or Iran would be “hit very hard,” according to CNN. Iranian state media pushed back, reporting that any prospective Iran-Oman understanding on the waterway’s future has no bearing on reopening it.

Overseas markets set a constructive tone. Asian equities climbed overnight as investors weighed earnings and welcomed diplomatic movement between Washington and Tehran, with South Korea’s KOSPI leading gains at nearly 4%.

Market Movers

SpaceX slid about 11% after its first quarterly report since June’s initial public offering showed second-quarter capital spending at $18.4 billion — a sixfold jump driven largely by artificial intelligence buildout. Revenue reached $7.81 billion against a consensus near $6.93 billion, with a loss of nine cents per share. Shares traded near $111.81 premarket, below the $135 IPO price and far off the $225.64 record set on June 16. Additional pressure looms as the post-IPO lock-up begins expiring Thursday.

AMD dropped 8.5% premarket after second-quarter results failed to excite, despite adjusted earnings of $1.66 per share on revenue of $11.54 billion that edged past estimates. Third-quarter revenue guidance of roughly $13 billion came in about in line. The stock took a second hit after Elon Musk said SpaceX would source chips exclusively from rival Nvidia.

Arista Networks rose 12% on a strong quarter — adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share on $3.04 billion in revenue against consensus of 88 cents and $2.82 billion, with margins and third-quarter guidance both ahead of forecasts.

Disney climbed more than 3% after beating fiscal third-quarter estimates. Eli Lilly gained over 6.5% on an earnings and revenue beat and raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance, citing continued demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro. Circle Internet Group advanced more than 5% after naming initial partners for its Arc blockchain and doubling the midpoint of its full-year other revenue outlook to $320 million. Wynn Resorts rose 5% on adjusted earnings of $1.24 per share and revenue of $1.86 billion, both above consensus. CVS Health added more than 2.5% and lifted its adjusted earnings guidance for 2026 to a range of $7.90 to $8.10 from $7.30 to $7.50. Uber declined as soft results outweighed positive robotaxi news.

Commodities

Crude moved higher early Wednesday after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed an attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, reviving supply concerns, though September contracts had settled back to $75.58 a barrel, down 19 cents or 0.25%, by mid-morning. Separately, Indian authorities said an Indian-flagged vessel was struck and sunk by a projectile off Yemen without naming a party responsible, and the Houthis threatened last month to disrupt traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint at the Red Sea’s southern end.

Precious metals were the standout. Gold jumped $98.50, or 2.37%, to $4,251.10 an ounce, and silver futures rose 2.59% to $61.81 an ounce as investors sought safe-haven positioning against the Middle East backdrop. Bitcoin traded at $64,296.73, up 0.35%.

SanDisk reports after Wednesday’s close, with analysts looking for quarterly earnings of $34.45 per share on revenue of $8.39 billion. Shopify results are also due. Friday brings a fresh reading on the labor market.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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

America’s biggest clothing brands are discovering that one of their fastest-growing businesses isn’t selling new clothes—it’s selling the same garments twice.

Levi Strauss, The North Face, Calvin Klein and Pacsun are among the growing number of U.S. labels building company-operated resale businesses, reclaiming merchandise that once flowed through third-party marketplaces. In an apparel market squeezed by tariffs, higher sourcing costs and cautious consumers, used inventory is increasingly becoming one of the industry’s most valuable assets.

The economics are no longer speculative.

Secondhand apparel sales in the United States reached $55.5 billion in 2025, representing roughly 12% of the $458 billion Americans spent on clothing, footwear and accessories, according to ThredUp’s fourteenth annual resale report and GlobalData’s analysis. Globally, the secondhand apparel market reached $393 billion and continues expanding faster than traditional retail. Online resale in the United States alone is projected to grow to $40 billion by 2029.

For many retailers, resale is no longer simply a sustainability initiative. It has become a way to offset rising import costs while keeping customers—and valuable shopping data—inside the brand ecosystem.

For brands, control is the biggest advantage.

Merchandise that once disappeared into third-party resale marketplaces now moves through company-owned channels where pricing, presentation and customer relationships remain in-house. Levi’s sells certified pre-owned denim through its SecondHand program at lower price points, while Gucci operates a curated archival marketplace under its Vault banner. The North Face, part of VF Corp., refurbishes used products through its Renewed program at a Denver processing facility, where even damaged puffer jackets receive reconstructed panels and are sold as one-of-a-kind pieces.

Calvin Klein has taken a different approach, partnering with resale logistics company Trove and circular logistics specialist DeBrand through its Re-Calvin take-back program, which routes returned garments for resale, donation, recycling or downcycling. Trove also operates resale platforms for Patagonia, Michael Kors and Lovesac, allowing brands to outsource the complex logistics behind the growing business.

Resale Is Moving Into Stores

What changed most recently is location.

Resale spent years growing primarily online. Today it is increasingly moving onto the sales floor alongside full-priced merchandise.

Pacsun introduced its PS Vintage concept into 16 U.S. stores in April, creating dedicated sections separate from new apparel and reporting sell-through rates of roughly 20% in its strongest-performing locations. Faherty, which launched its Second Wave resale platform online in 2023, has begun installing shop-in-shop resale departments, including at its Williamsburg, Brooklyn, location. H&M recently opened a second vintage store-within-a-store in Beverly Hills, while Buffalo Exchange reports growing numbers of customers trading in used garments for store credit toward brands including Zara and Madewell.

Tariffs Are Accelerating the Shift

Rising tariffs have added new urgency to the trend.

The average tariff rate on U.S. apparel imports reached 35.1% in December 2025, the highest level in decades and a sharp increase from 14.7% at the beginning of the year. An executive order signed on February 20, 2026 extended the suspension of the de minimis exemption, requiring nearly all low-value imported parcels to pay duties regardless of their country of origin.

McKinsey estimates the tariffs will increase near-term sourcing costs by approximately 35% for apparel and 37% for leather goods. Not surprisingly, 40% of fashion executives now rank U.S. trade policy among their top three business risks, up from 25% just one year earlier.

Consumers have already begun adjusting their buying habits.

Fifty-nine percent say they would shift toward lower-cost options—including secondhand clothing—if tariffs continue pushing retail prices higher. Among millennials, that figure rises to 69%.

Retailers are responding accordingly.

More than half—54%—now view resale as a stable and predictable inventory source during periods of tariff uncertainty, while 76% of executives whose companies do not yet operate resale businesses say they are actively considering launching one.

The strategic opportunity extends beyond a single used jacket.

Nearly half of consumers now check resale listings before purchasing new products, including 58% of Generation Z shoppers. One in four consumers say a brand-operated resale platform increases their confidence in buying both new and pre-owned merchandise, while 43% of secondhand shoppers later purchase new products from the same company. Sales of branded mid-market resale apparel have increased 300% between 2021 and 2025.

The Business Still Has Limits

The economics remain compelling, but scaling resale is another challenge.

The North Face’s Renewed business processed approximately 96,000 items last year—a meaningful number, but tiny compared with the hundreds of millions of new products sold annually. Fewer than one-third of industry executives identified resale as a top priority for 2026, and only 7% plan significant investment in broader circular business models.

The reason is simple.

Collecting, inspecting, cleaning, authenticating and redistributing used clothing requires an entirely different operating model from ordering containers of new inventory. That complexity explains why many brands partner with specialists such as ThredUp, Trove and Archive instead of building the infrastructure themselves.

For now, resale is less a replacement for traditional retail than a hedge against a changing marketplace.

It provides brands with a domestic source of inventory that cannot be disrupted by tariffs, customs rules or overseas shipping delays while appealing to consumers who have watched apparel prices steadily climb for five consecutive years. Apparel prices stood roughly 14% above their 2021 level as of March 2026.

In an era of higher tariffs and increasingly uncertain supply chains, a used jacket already hanging in an American closet may prove more valuable to a retailer than a brand-new one still waiting to clear customs.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

ATLANTA (AP) — House Democrats are adding a dozen Republican-held seats to their list of targets for the November midterms, expanding the national campaign map to districts Donald Trump won easily less than two years ago.

The move brings the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of targets to 58, an ambitious list that reflects Trump’s diminished standing with the electorate and Democrats’ belief that they can capitalize on voters’ frustrations over the economy, the war in Iran and the chaotic nature of the Republican president’s second administration.

“MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves ‘safe’ have let down the people they were elected to represent, passing disastrous policies that are crushing working families and our communities,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement.

The expansion spans from GOP-held districts in swing states like Nevada to those in Republican strongholds Indiana, Arkansas and Tennessee and Democratic-dominated New York. The list includes DelBene’s counterpart at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina. The targets include other incumbents and some open seats.

Democrats need just a handful of seats to erase Republicans’ narrow majority and control the chamber for the final two years of Trump’s tenure. Republicans lost a net of 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first presidency.

Here’s a look at some notable new Democratic targets:

— NORTH CAROLINA 9TH: It’s notable for Democrats to target House Republicans’ campaign chairman. Trump won the district by 15 percentage points in 2024 against the Democrats’ presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. But Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein carried it in the same election cycle in his successful campaign for governor. Democrats note that since 2020, the district has gained 15,000 Black voters, who tend to vote for Democrats. The Democratic nominee is Richard Ojeda, who ran for Congress in West Virginia in 2018. He lost but got 44% of the vote in a district where Democrat Hillary Clinton got only 24% in the 2016 presidential election against Trump.

— ARKANSAS 2ND: Democrat Chris Jones, the party’s 2022 governor’s race nominee, is trying to unseat six-term Rep. French Hill in a district that once elected moderate Democrats. Trump won the district by 16 percentage points. The electorate is about 20% Black and has a growing Asian and Latino population. Democrats point to the March primary turnout, when Democratic ballots outnumbered Republican ballots for the first time since the 2018 primaries.

— FLORIDA 12TH: Held by Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis, this is one of the districts affected by Republicans’ gerrymandering efforts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gutting a Voting Rights Act provision that protected minority voting strength. But as part of the GOP redraw, Bilirakis’ Tampa Bay area district became more Democratic and about 14% less white, according to the DCCC’s analysis. Democrats will choose a nominee this month, but Washington party leaders are looking to Darren McAuley, a former Air Force surgeon, as the potential challenger.

— NEW YORK 21ST: Trump won this district by about 21 percentage points in 2024, but not long after that he pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination for U.N. ambassador because Republicans did not want to risk the seat with their narrow House majority. Stefanik, who launched a 2026 campaign for New York governor but dropped out of that race, is not seeking reelection to Congress. Now it’s an open-seat battle between Republican Anthony Constantino, a Trump-aligned businessman who is self-funding his campaign, and Democrat Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer. The district has been represented by a Republican since 2015, but Democrat Barack Obama won it twice in presidential contests.

LONDON (AP) — London police said Wednesday that a woman has been arrested after four people were stabbed in Covent Garden, a bustling area in the center of the capital that is full of attractions and popular with visitors.

The Metropolitan Police said four men, aged 34, 39, 42, and 52 were found with stab wounds and that a 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault. They said early indications suggest that it was a mental health-related incident and that scissors were recovered at the scene

The injured were taken to a major trauma center following the incident early afternoon Wednesday in Endell Street. No further update has been given on the extent of their injuries.

There is a significant police cordon around the scene of the incident.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said the service treated four patients at the scene and took them all to a major trauma center by road.

Police previously said that three people had been stabbed in the incident, but in a statement they later confirmed four people were found with stab wounds.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is sounding the alarm over what he believes is a dramatic ideological shift within the Democratic Party, arguing that it has been overtaken by communists and warning that the trend poses a serious threat to the country.

Appearing Tuesday on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Cruz singled out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as an example of that transformation.

“Comrade Mamdani in New York is a full-on communist,” Cruz said on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “He’s not a socialist. He is a communist.

“If you look at the candidates he endorsed … they embrace communism, they embrace Islamism, and they openly hate America,” Cruz said. “Trump Derangement Syndrome, I think, is a real medical condition. They hate [President] Donald Trump so much that it is driving them to crazy town.”

Cruz said some Republicans view the Democrats’ leftward shift as a political advantage, but he rejected that outlook, saying he is deeply concerned about the long-term consequences for the nation.

“Some Republicans are celebrating saying: ‘OK, good. They’re so extreme. We’re going to win the general election,'” Cruz continued. “I actually don’t put myself in that camp, because I don’t want one of our two major parties to be absolutely frigging nuts.”

According to Cruz, the growing influence of socialism and communism within the Democratic Party is harmful to the country, regardless of its political implications.

Cruz called what he described as the takeover of the Democratic Party by socialists and communists “bad for America.”

“Eventually, these lunatics will win,” Cruz said.

The Texas senator also pointed to Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, noting that the progressive contender has received the endorsement of left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker.

Cruz, who said that Piker blames America for the 9/11 attacks, lamented that this is where the “heart and energy and base” of the Democratic Party has gone.

He went on to argue that positions he views as mainstream—such as securing the southern border, prosecuting criminals, preventing transgender women from competing in women’s sports, and opposing gender-transition procedures for minors—have become unacceptable to much of today’s Democratic Party.

“That’s just an indication just to show how ridiculous it’s gotten. … They [Democrats] now stand for letting criminals go, letting murderers go, letting rapists go, letting child molesters go,” he said.

Cruz concluded by cautioning Republicans against becoming complacent, emphasizing that political power inevitably shifts over time and warning of the consequences if Democrats regain control while, in his view, embracing increasingly radical positions.

“You shouldn’t celebrate it, because this country is a pendulum,” Cruz added. “We swing back and forth. Democrats are going to win again.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be in this election cycle or the next, but they will win again,” Cruz said. “And if they’re all insane, if they’re all like this, the country is in deep trouble.”

{Matzav.com}

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s president said Tuesday that the central bank’s benchmark rate is already high enough to pull inflation back toward target, a position that puts her against the three policymakers who voted last week for an increase.

Anna Paulson said she is confident the current level of interest rates is sufficient to keep inflation moving toward the Fed’s goal, and that she remains open-minded about where policy heads next. Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” she said policy needs to be mildly restrictive and that it has been mildly restrictive, enough to bring underlying inflation back to 2% within an acceptable window, adding that she needs to see progress from here.

The comments matter for anyone financing inventory, equipment or commercial real estate, because they signal that at least one voting member sees no case for pushing borrowing costs higher — and no case for cutting them either.

The Federal Open Market Committee held its overnight target range steady at 3.5% to 3.75% at last week’s meeting, with inflation still running well above the 2% objective. Persistent above-target inflation drove three officials to dissent in favor of a rate hike. Chairman Kevin Warsh declined at his post-meeting press conference to indicate where he believes policy should go.

The vote split 9-3. Dissenters questioned whether the current setting is restrictive enough to push inflation lower. Paulson, a voting member, said siding with the majority was not a close call for her, and estimated that underlying inflation — stripping out energy supply shocks, tariffs and similar one-off pressures — is running somewhere between 2.4% and 2.8%. The core measure the Fed relies on for forecasting registered 3.3% in June, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday. She said she would be open to adjusting rates if that reading fails to come down.

That gap between the headline core figure and her estimate of underlying inflation is the whole argument. If the difference is genuinely explained by tariffs and the energy disruption tied to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the price pressure fades as those shocks age out, and holding rates steady is the right call. If it is not, the Fed has been under-tightening for months.

Paulson laid out that fork directly in an essay published Tuesday, writing that she sees two plausible scenarios for how current policy is affecting inflation and that incoming data will clarify which one is playing out and what adjustments, if any, are needed.

She also framed a test for herself: if policy is calibrated correctly, she would expect mounting evidence that inflation is easing, and if underlying inflation instead stays stubbornly elevated, the mere passage of time without improvement would itself be a signal. On the recent softening in some inflation readings, she called it welcome and a step in the right direction, but only one step.

For businesses, the practical read is that the cost of credit is unlikely to move in either direction near term. Commercial borrowers who have spent this year waiting for relief on floating-rate debt now face the prospect of carrying it into the fourth quarter. Companies that locked in fixed-rate financing during the low-rate era and face refinancing in 2027 have a narrowing window in which the rate environment might improve before those maturities land.

The tariff question sits underneath all of it. Import duties have been layered on through the year, most recently the Brazil action that took effect Friday, and the Fed’s judgment on whether those costs represent a one-time price-level adjustment or the start of something more persistent determines how patient the committee can afford to be. Paulson’s arithmetic assumes they wash out. The three dissenters are not convinced.

Paulson said her highest priority is delivering 2% inflation while sustaining full employment, and her remarks were her first public comments since the meeting. The interview was also her first with CNBC since taking the Philadelphia post.

Employers watching hiring costs should note what she did not say. She offered no signal that labor market softness is pulling the committee toward easing, and no indication that the three dissenting votes are gaining ground. The stated bar is evidence, and the next round of inflation data will supply it.

For now the operating assumption for anyone building a 2027 budget is a policy rate anchored where it is, a Fed chairman withholding forward guidance, and a committee that is genuinely split on whether the current setting is doing its job.

JBizNews Desk | Philadelphia

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

(JNS) – Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, released a nearly 14-minute documentary on Tuesday titled “The Union of Pinnacle Tenants: A Short History of NYC Housing” and focused on a group that he supported on his first day in office in January.

The short film addresses a tenant union spanning 93 buildings formerly owned by Pinnacle Group. It neglects to mention the group’s ties to the Crown Heights-based Palestine Solidarity Working Group, which says that displacement of tenants in Brooklyn is tied to the Palestinian cause.

The official city documentary depicts the union as a grassroots response to leaks, vermin, utility failures and other hazardous conditions in some 5,100 rent-stabilized apartments.

The union criticized Pinnacle, which was owned by Jewish real estate investor Joel Wiener, for raising money through Israel’s bond market. That is not mentioned in the documentary.

“From Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestine Solidarity Working Group of Crown Heights Tenant Union heightened the urgency of this campaign, to intentionally disrupt the connected processes of displacement between Palestine and Brooklyn,” the union states.

The group argued that tenants fighting poor housing conditions in Crown Heights were part of the same global struggle as are the Palestinians.

“Capital thinks and acts globally, and we have the capacity to do the same: to engage in robust internationalist struggle, building power from our couches and kitchens, our hallways and laundry rooms,” the working group stated, according to the union.

“We must reject the living conditions being thrust upon us here and the devastation of life and land in Palestine,” it added.

The union also made Pinnacle’s Israeli financing a central part of its case against the company. Its website states that Pinnacle began borrowing through the Israeli bond market in 2012 and had raised about $500 million by 2017.

“The Israeli occupation’s banks and institutional investors lend Pinnacle money to buy rent-stabilized buildings in New York, and Pinnacle pays them back with interest on those loans,” it states. “What this means is that in occupied Palestine, Zionist investors are counting on the displacement of rent-stabilized tenants in Crown Heights to see a return on their investments.”

The documentary doesn’t mention the Palestine Solidarity Working Group, Pinnacle’s Israeli bond financing or the union’s claims about “Zionist investors.”

Instead, it describes the union as emerging from conversations among tenants about building conditions, followed by the formation of tenant associations and organizing during Pinnacle’s bankruptcy.

Pinnacle entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2025 involving 93 buildings and approximately 5,100 rent-stabilized apartments. Summit Properties acquired the portfolio on April 1, 2026.

Mamdani’s administration sought to delay the sale and later said that its intervention helped secure a commitment from Summit to spend $30 million on repairs and address outstanding housing-code violations.

The documentary states that Summit also agreed to forgive millions of dollars in rent arrears accrued under Pinnacle’s ownership.

The film describes the union as a “grassroots effort” and closes by highlighting Mamdani’s housing agenda and Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Weaver faced backlash earlier this year after social-media posts resurfaced in which she called for the seizure of private property and described homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy.”

JNS sought comment from the mayor’s office about why the Palestine-solidarity organizing was excluded from a film billed as a history of the union and about whether Mamdani supports the union’s characterization of Israeli investors.

Mamdani has said that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state, and he campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested in New York. His spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that Mayor Zohran Mamdani should consider staying away from this year’s 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11 terrorist attacks if his attendance would add to the anguish of victims’ families, arguing that the day should remain centered entirely on those affected by the tragedy.

Speaking on Newsmax’s “Bianca Across America,” Giuliani, who earned the nickname “America’s Mayor” for his leadership in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, said the emotions of the families who lost loved ones must take precedence over everything else.

“I think Mayor Mamdani has to take into consideration that the most important thing here, to me at least in terms of the human part of it, are the feelings of these people that went through an indescribable experience,” Giuliani said.

His remarks come as some relatives of those killed on September 11 have publicly voiced opposition to Mamdani’s participation in this year’s memorial ceremony.

The president of the Catholic League has likewise urged Mamdani not to attend, pointing to concerns over the mayor’s previous remarks regarding radical Islam and the September 11 attacks.

Despite the criticism, Mamdani announced last week that he intends to be present at the ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the attacks, even as a petition circulated by some victims’ family members calls for his exclusion.

“I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration,” Mamdani said.

Giuliani suggested the controversy could be avoided if Mamdani voluntarily chose to remain away from the event as a gesture of respect toward grieving families.

“It could easily be decided that he, as a gracious act, decides, ‘I wasn’t really involved in this,'” Giuliani said. “He may say ‘they misunderstand what I say.’ I don’t think they do, but I’m sure he says that. ‘But out of deference to their feelings, I’m not going to make that day more difficult for them.'”

He emphasized that the annual observance exists to remember the victims and support the loved ones who continue to bear the pain of their loss, not to become a source of additional controversy.

“There is no point in evoking hurt on them,” Giuliani said. “This day is not about [him]. This is about these people who went through an indescribable loss.”

During the interview, Giuliani also reiterated his belief that the September 11 attacks were committed in the name of radical Islam, saying the terrorists themselves made that clear through their own words and actions.

“I know these people were killed in the name of his religion,” Giuliani said of Mamdani, a Muslim.

He acknowledged that many people interpret Islam differently but said the attackers repeatedly shouted “Allah Akbar” while carrying out the attacks.

Later in the conversation, Giuliani reflected on a recent meeting with Pope Leo XIV during the Canticle of Peace prayer gathering held in the Vatican’s Pontifical Gardens.

Describing the encounter as “very emotional,” Giuliani said the meeting carried special significance because of the renewed role his Catholic faith has taken in his life.

He explained that although he was deeply religious in his youth and even studied for the priesthood, he later drifted away from the Church. The events of September 11, personal losses, and more recent health struggles—including receiving last rites several months ago—ultimately drew him back to his faith.

“I’ve become much more spiritual,” Giuliani said. “I spend much more of my time reading about it, studying it, debating it.”

Before meeting Pope Leo, Giuliani said he made a lengthy general confession so he would be “in the proper state of grace,” explaining that he wanted to be spiritually prepared for what he viewed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Giuliani said the pope’s humility left the strongest impression on him.

“The first thing you come away with is, what a nice, regular man he is,” he said. “He is the Vicar of Christ. He’s the successor of Saint Peter … and he talks to you like you want to talk to him.”

He concluded by saying he hopes to have the chance to spend more time with Pope Leo in the future.

“I would just really enjoy having a half hour or one hour sitting with him and asking him a lot of questions,” Giuliani said. “I think he enjoyed it, too.”

{Matzav.com}

BERLIN (AP) — A drone with an explosive device was found at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport, a major freight hub, and a detonator was removed from the object, authorities said Wednesday.

Both the airport’s runways were closed and several flights, including one passenger plane, were diverted to other airports after a flying object was sighted near the airport shortly before midnight, police said, and an anti-explosives robot was deployed to check an object near the south runway.

A statement later Wednesday from Saxony’s state criminal police office and prosecutors in the state capital of Dresden said that an airport employee discovered a drone near the airport’s south runway with “an unknown explosive device,” and the object was examined by police. They removed its detonator. The statement didn’t elaborate on the nature of the device.

Meanwhile, an apparent second flying object collided with a freight airplane after it aborted a landing because the runway was closed, police and prosecutors said. The plane flew to another German airport, Hannover, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the northwest, where officials found slight damage.

The north runway at Leipzig/Halle was reopened after about two hours. The south runway was scheduled to be out of action for maintenance on Wednesday. Authorities said there was no danger to passengers or airport employees, and flights weren’t affected on Wednesday.

German Interior Ministry spokesperson Leonard Kaminski said that a drone was found at the airport but declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. He wouldn’t comment on German media reports that it was spotted near a Ukrainian plane.

The airport is a major cargo hub and the planes located there include Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft.

There was no immediate word on who might have been responsible.

In 2024, an incendiary device ignited at a logistics center at the airport and set fire to a freight container, part of a plot that Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind. The flight it was supposed to take was delayed.

Asked whether he sees any direct connection to the overnight incident, Kaminski said he doesn’t at this point.