Barack Obama took a swipe at President Donald Trump’s gold-themed White House renovations in a behind-the-scenes video released Monday to promote HBO’s comedy miniseries Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, joking about one of the administration’s most noticeable design changes.

The promotional footage shows Obama walking through a recreation of the Oval Office as it looked during his presidency. After looking around the set, he complimented the production team for its attention to detail, even noting the bowl of apples that had sat on his coffee table during his time in office.

“Nice job on the recreation,” Obama said. “You even have the apples. It’s fantastic.”

Obama then joked that one modern feature was missing from the replica.

“Although I do want to point out there’s no gold sign on the outside that says ‘Oval Office,'” Obama said as members of the production crew laughed. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

His remark referenced the gold cursive “Oval Office” lettering installed outside the entrance to the office on the West Wing late last year. The permanent sign, visible from the Rose Garden, replaced a temporary paper version and matches the style of the lettering used along President Trump’s Presidential Walk of Fame on the West Colonnade.

The sign is one of several decorative changes made to the White House during Trump’s second term. The president also added gold trim around the Oval Office doors, above the fireplace mantel, and along portions of the ceiling. During a March 2025 tour of the White House with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump defended the redesign.

“It needed a little life,” Trump said.

Other changes to the White House grounds include replacing the Rose Garden lawn with stone paving and creating the Presidential Walk of Fame, featuring gold-framed portraits and inscriptions honoring America’s presidents along the West Wing colonnade.

The administration’s most ambitious renovation plan is the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site formerly occupied by the East Wing, which was demolished last October. According to The Associated Press, the estimated price tag for the project has climbed to approximately $400 million.

Last Friday, a divided federal appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction preventing above-ground construction on the ballroom while a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation continues.

In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court concluded that the administration likely lacks the legal authority to proceed with the project without congressional approval. The ruling permits underground work related to security to continue and temporarily stayed the injunction for 14 days to allow the administration to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Trump has said he intends to appeal the ruling.

Obama appears as himself in HBO’s seven-episode comedy series, which uses Larry David’s signature style of humor to parody moments from American history. After making a brief appearance in the premiere, Obama returned in the season finale for a sketch offering a fictional explanation for the tan suit he famously wore during a 2014 White House news conference.

In the comedy sketch, Larry David portrays a presidential aide who accidentally spills a smoothie on Obama’s navy suit, leaving him with no choice but to wear the tan suit instead.

According to HBO, the series was written by Larry David and Jeff Schaffer, who also served as executive producers, with Schaffer directing the project. Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Ethan Lewis, and Vinnie Malhotra also served as executive producers through Higher Ground. All seven episodes are now available for streaming on HBO.

{Matzav.com}

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman claimed Wednesday that approximately 50 Hamas Nukhba terrorists were spotted conducting an exercise simulating an assault and takeover of an Israeli community, but that IDF commanders were instructed not to attack them.

Speaking from the Kerem Shalom area after visiting a U.S. base expected to host an international force operating in Gaza, Liberman said IDF troops identified the terrorists during the overnight hours two nights earlier.

“IDF forces identified an exercise involving around 50 Nukhba terrorists. They practiced raiding and taking over a Jewish community,” Liberman said. “IDF commanders on the ground asked to act immediately, but the political echelon’s instruction was: ‘You don’t touch anyone. You don’t fire even a single shot.’”

Liberman accused the government of returning to the containment policies that preceded the October 7 massacre.

“We are completely back to the same concept and containment that brought us the October 7 massacre,” he charged, claiming that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has surrendered Israel’s independence in security decision-making and that major Israeli actions now require coordination with the United States.

Liberman also alleged that Hamas continues to profit from goods entering Gaza, claiming that roughly 20% of the value of incoming merchandise ultimately reaches the terror group through taxes and other mechanisms.

He further accused the government of allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to enter Gaza through suppliers and claimed that Hamas-linked funds are being laundered through commercial transactions involving Turkey.

“This is simply bankruptcy,” Liberman said. “We weren’t in a situation like this even before October 7. This government has no right to exist.”

Following a meeting with security coordinators in Kibbutz Be’eri, Liberman said he had received additional information that he described as deeply concerning and accused Netanyahu of withholding details from both the public and members of the security cabinet.

“What I saw and heard is very worrying,” Liberman said. “I want to share with members of the political-security cabinet several details that the prime minister is hiding from them and from the public.”

Liberman did not publicly provide evidence for his claims, and there was no immediate confirmation from the IDF or Prime Minister’s Office regarding the alleged Nukhba exercise or an order preventing troops from striking the terrorists.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

During a hearing this morning, the New Jersey Local Finance Board rejected Lakewood Township’s request for nearly $12.9 million in additional property tax revenue above the state’s statutory cap, TLS has learned, with board members raising concerns about the township’s recurring reliance on cap waivers and the sustainability of its spending.

The board voted 4-3 against Lakewood’s request for an appropriations cap waiver totaling $12.9 million. The request was intended to allow the township to raise and spend more property tax revenue than otherwise permitted under New Jersey’s municipal tax levy and appropriations limits.

Lakewood officials told the board that the township faced significant financial pressures after losing millions of dollars in state funding that had helped offset expenses in prior years.

A township official said Lakewood received an $8.3 million cap waiver in 2025, along with an $8 million public health priority funding grant. The combined $16.3 million in additional funding was not available to the township this year.

Despite the loss of that funding, the township said it had reduced appropriations by approximately $3.3 million while seeking the $12.9 million waiver.

One of the largest areas of concern for board members was Lakewood’s snow-removal spending during this the past winter’s snowstorms.

Township Administrator Pat Donnelly said the township spent approximately $8 million on snow removal following an unusually severe winter, noting that Lakewood maintains more than 120 lane miles of roads and removes snow from every municipal road under its responsibility.

Donnelly said the township relied heavily on contractors during the storms, some of which required operations to continue for more than a week. The cost also included salt, brine, calcium and other materials needed before, during and after the storms.

In a typical year, Donnelly said, Lakewood spends approximately $1 million to $2 million on snow removal.

The township also sought federal reimbursement for some of the storm-related expenses following the state of emergency declared by the governor, but those efforts were rejected by the Trump administration, which the state is appealing.

Lakewood officials and local lawmakers have also pointed to the township’s relatively low level of state municipal aid as a factor in its financial challenges.

The state’s latest spending plan provides $1 million in discretionary municipal aid for Lakewood Township. While the funding represents a restoration from the governor’s proposal, it is a sharp reduction from the previous two state budgets, which provided $8 million and $7 million, respectively.

The municipal aid has been championed in recent years by state Sen. Bob Singer, R-Lakewood, and Assemblyman Avi Schnall, D-Lakewood, whose 30th Legislative District includes Lakewood.

Singer and Schnall have argued that Lakewood’s rapid population growth has placed extraordinary demands on local infrastructure and municipal services while the state’s existing funding formulas have failed to keep pace.

Despite being one of New Jersey’s largest municipalities, Lakewood receives among the five lowest amounts of municipal aid per capita in the state, according to figures cited by local officials and lawmakers. The resulting funding gap has placed additional pressure on the township to finance essential services, including police, fire, public works and other municipal operations.

The state funding issue adds another dimension to Lakewood’s request for cap relief: Township officials argue that the municipality is being asked to provide services to a rapidly growing population while receiving comparatively little state assistance.

Board members also questioned Lakewood about its longer-term financial outlook.

Donnelly said the township has been under a hiring freeze for nearly a year and is generally not replacing retirees or making promotions unless necessary to maintain staffing levels, particularly in areas such as police and public works.

He said Lakewood has also begun preparing a potential layoff plan and is examining ways to reduce costs and potentially lower certain levels of service.

“We recognize that there’s areas that we just need to financially find a way to kind of stuff as much as we can inside this envelope,” Donnelly told the board.

Explaining why he was voting against the request, Board member Robert Jackson, who himself is a former Mayor of Montclair, said he understood the financial pressures facing Lakewood but expressed concern about continuing to approve large cap waivers.

“I think that an ongoing environment where they’re coming in for cap relief and also 17% tax increases is beyond unsustainable,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he could not support maintaining what he described as the status quo without a more significant change in how Lakewood addresses its finances.

Another board member, Ryan Cooper, noted that the board had considered approximately $39 million in cap-waiver requests from Lakewood over the previous three years, including the current request.

The Local Finance Board director acknowledged the financial challenges facing Lakewood while also questioning whether New Jersey’s existing cap laws remain workable for municipalities facing inflation and rising costs.

The director said the state’s 2% tax levy cap was designed for a different economic environment and that the board was discussing potential fundamental changes to the state’s cap laws with the state Department of Community Affairs commissioner and legislative leaders.

At the same time, the director expressed concerns about Lakewood’s use of surplus funds and said the township would need to develop a plan to replenish those funds to avoid facing an even larger financial problem in the following year.

The board ultimately voted on a motion to approve the $12,927,234.41 cap waiver. The motion failed 4-3.

The rejection leaves Lakewood facing additional pressure to balance its 2026 budget within the limits of New Jersey’s existing municipal finance rules.

The township’s 2026 budget process includes a public hearing scheduled for Sept. 3.

Here is the arrangement at the center of the fight, in plain terms: the driver in the Amazon vest, driving an Amazon van out of an Amazon warehouse, does not work for Amazon. He works for a small local firm the company contracts with. Amazon pays the wages and sets the schedules and the quotas, but when something goes wrong on the street — a crash, an injury — the contractor is the one on the hook, not Amazon. A bill before the New York City Council would end that split inside the five boroughs and put those workers on the payroll of the company that actually runs the operation.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed that bill on Monday, Aug. 10, in a video released by his office. It has not passed. The Delivery Protection Act is still in the hands of the City Council following a hearing held this spring, and Council Member Tiffany Cabán’s office has been amending it with input from workers, unions, safety experts and contractor owners. The mayor’s backing is what moved this week, not the law.

The mechanics are straightforward. Operators of certain last-mile warehouses and storage facilities would have to obtain licenses from the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and meet new safety, training and employment standards. Workers performing core warehouse and delivery functions would have to be directly employed by the facility operator, with third-party contracting for those jobs generally barred after a phase-in period. The license could be pulled if a company shows a pattern or practice of violations. Cabán calls it “the most important municipal labor bill in the country,” and it would be the first law of its kind in the United States.

City Hall’s argument is about control. The mayor’s office says corporations dictate “hiring standards, delivery routes, steep productivity quotas” while denying that the people making the deliveries are their employees. Cabán has put it more bluntly, describing drivers saddled with impossible quotas and failing vehicles, after which Amazon can say “not my employee, not my problem.”

The build-out is what made this a live issue. At least 18 large last-mile facilities have opened across New York City since 2017, 11 of them since 2020 — warehouses where packages are sorted and sent out for the final leg to the customer’s door. A 2025 report from the city comptroller found that 78% of areas near those facilities saw an increase in injury-causing crashes after they opened.

Amazon is fighting it on cost and on jobs. The company has said the bill could push it to move warehouses outside city limits, putting local jobs at risk. A study Amazon commissioned puts the consumer cost at $664 more per household each year if the company had to comply. Amazon has also framed its opposition around the small, often minority- and veteran-owned delivery firms it contracts with, though Cabán’s office counters that many of those firms have Amazon as their only client and operate out of Amazon’s own warehouses. A coalition of trade groups called New York Delivers rallied against the bill outside the spring hearing.

On the other side, the Teamsters have driven the campaign, and the New York City Central Labor Council has lined up behind it, with president Brendan Griffith arguing that the rules never kept pace with last-mile delivery becoming part of daily life, and that warnings of fewer jobs and higher prices describe choices companies would be electing to make. The votes are largely there: more than 30 of the Council’s 51 members have signed on as cosponsors.

For businesses outside the delivery sector, the consequence sits in the legal question underneath. The bill tests when a company that controls the work is legally the employer of the people doing it — the joint employer and independent contractor line that governs franchising, staffing agencies, construction subcontracting and gig platforms alike. Because the measure reaches into contractor status and the regulation of interstate commerce, passage is widely expected to trigger extended litigation with implications well beyond the city.

The pressure is not coming from City Hall alone. Days before Mamdani’s endorsement, New Jersey’s attorney general sued Amazon under federal antitrust law, alleging the company used its market power to hold down pay for delivery firms and their drivers. Amazon responded that the complaint is “not grounded in fact” and that its delivery partners are independent businesses.

What happens next is a Council vote on an amended bill, followed almost certainly by a court fight. Companies that rely on subcontracted labor in the city have a window before then: the practical test in the legislation is control — who sets the route, the quota, the schedule and the standards. Firms that direct the work while holding it at arm’s length on paper are the ones the bill is built to catch, and the time to review those contracts is now rather than after a licensing regime takes effect.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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The boom in weight-loss drugs may have transformed the obesity market, but Novo Nordisk’s CEO says the industry is still only scratching the surface with tens of millions of Americans potentially eligible for treatment.

Novo Nordisk President and CEO Mike Doustdar joined FOX Business’ Cheryl Casone on “Mornings with Maria” to discuss the adoption of GLP-1 drugs, their potential economic impact and the company’s outlook for medicines, including Wegovy.

“We are clearly at early innings,” Doustdar said, pointing to the large population living with obesity and relatively limited use of GLP-1 medications. He said more than 100 million people in the U.S. are suffering from obesity, while “somewhere around ten, 15% in a good day” have used a GLP-1.

“There is a long runway still,” he said.

Beyond weight loss, Doustdar said wider use of the drugs could eventually help Americans save on healthcare costs while bringing broader economic benefits.

“I do think as we get there, not only you see the health benefits of these drugs, you also see the economical benefit of these drugs,” he said.

Doustdar pointed to medication use as one area where a healthier, smaller population could reduce consumption. He used insulin, another product sold by Novo Nordisk, as an example of how dosage can vary with body size.

“I sell insulin, and I know that a person who is larger does more insulin dose than someone who’s smaller,” he said.

He also pointed to the potential value of healthier people returning to work and becoming more productive, arguing that the benefits could extend beyond the number on a scale.

“Then of course comes on top of that, the economical value that comes from people getting back to work healthier,” Doustdar said. “People are more productive.”

The Chassidishe Agudas Yisroel faction of UTJ on Tuesday filed a detailed response challenging Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Solberg’s decision to prohibit political parties from recording which voters have already cast ballots on Election Day.

The response, submitted by attorney Avremi Yustman, outlines the historical origins of the practice, argues that the ruling is fundamentally flawed, and proposes three alternative methods that, according to the party, would preserve both election integrity and voter privacy.

At the outset of its filing, Agudas Yisroel revealed that it pioneered the voter-tracking system more than four decades ago. According to attorney Yustman, the party originally relied on what were known as “Thousand Sheets” (Dapei HaElef)—paper forms containing 1,000 numbered boxes. Polling station representatives would cross off each voter’s serial number after he or she voted, and runners would then deliver the updated sheets to regional campaign headquarters.

According to the party, the primary motivation behind the system has always been to minimize bittul Torah among bnei yeshivah.

“Many of our voters are yoshei ohalim, dedicated lomdei Torah, for whom avoiding bittul Torah is a supreme value,” the response states. The party explained that by knowing who had already voted, campaign workers could direct bochurim and other supporters to polling stations during less crowded hours, reducing time spent waiting in line and allowing them to return to learning as quickly as possible.

As technology advanced, the paper-based system evolved into computerized tracking using kosher cell phones. Representatives now enter voters’ serial numbers into a secure database, but Agudas Yisroel argued that the underlying objective has remained unchanged—to enable bnei yeshivah to vote as efficiently as possible while minimizing bittul Torah.

Attorney Yustman also challenged Justice Solberg’s characterization of voter-tracking systems as “a minor tool, one of many, and not an important one.”

According to Yustman, that assessment is fundamentally mistaken. He argued that Election Day is the culmination of months of organizational work and enormous financial investment, and that the few minutes during which a voter casts a ballot are among the most critical moments in determining whether a campaign succeeds.

To illustrate the importance of such systems, Yustman pointed to reports that the Likud Party has invested approximately two million shekels in its Elector voter-management application.

“As Chazal already said, ‘The money tells the story,’” the filing states. “No one spends such enormous sums on an insignificant tool.” For a party like Agudas Yisroel, whose voter base is organized around tightly knit communities, the filing argues that real-time voter tracking is its single most important Election Day management tool.

A substantial portion of the response focuses on what Agudas Yisroel describes as confusion between the concepts of privacy and ballot secrecy.

The filing argues that Israeli law already permits limited intrusions into voter privacy during election campaigns, such as providing political parties with voter rolls and allowing them to send campaign text messages. Ballot secrecy, however, concerns only one question—how someone voted—not whether that person voted.

To illustrate the distinction, Yustman offered a simple analogy.

“If someone is standing in line at a bank behind his upstairs neighbor, we know that he visited that particular bank. Has confidentiality been violated? Certainly not, so long as the person standing behind him does not know what occurred in his account—whether he made a withdrawal or a deposit.”

Likewise, he argued, knowing that someone arrived at a polling station and cast a ballot does not reveal how that individual voted and therefore does not compromise the secrecy of the ballot.

Toward the conclusion of its filing, Agudas Yisroel proposed three alternative solutions that it says would address concerns about digital information leaks while still allowing parties to monitor voter turnout.

The first proposal would place responsibility with the Central Elections Committee itself. Polling station secretaries would record voter participation using a secure Elections Committee application, and the committee would distribute updated turnout information equally to all political parties every few hours.

The second proposal calls for abandoning computerized systems altogether and returning to the original “Thousand Sheets” paper method. Party representatives would manually record voter turnout, and physical runners would deliver the lists to campaign headquarters, eliminating any possibility of online data breaches. Agudas Yisroel even attached a sample of one of the original “Thousand Sheets” to its filing.

The third proposal would introduce a voluntary reporting slip. Under this system, voters would receive an identification stub with their voting notice and, if they chose, could hand it to party representatives stationed outside the polling place as voluntary confirmation that they had already voted.

Justice Solberg’s ruling is expected to have its greatest impact on the field operations of the chareidi parties, which have long relied on real-time turnout information to identify supporters who have not yet voted and encourage them to exercise their right to vote.

Agudas Yisroel’s filing follows criticism from a senior political figure who described the ruling as “a severe blow to democracy.”

{Matzav.com}

President Trump signed an executive order Monday directing that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be given as three separate shots — a product that does not exist in the United States, has not been manufactured here in more than fifteen years, and that the company making the combined version says it sees no reason to build.

Merck discontinued its standalone measles, mumps and rubella vaccines — Attenuvax, Mumpsvax and Meruvax II — in 2008, and told the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in 2009 that it would not resume production. That was a demand decision rather than a safety judgment: the advisory committee had settled on combination shots, and the single-antigen versions had virtually no market. Reviving them is not a matter of restarting a line — manufacturers would need new clinical trials, reconfigured facilities and three separate FDA approvals.

Merck said its combined vaccine is supported by decades of clinical and real-world evidence, and that separating the shots could result in delayed or missed immunizations. GSK also makes an MMR vaccine, and splitting the product would be expensive and complicated for both companies.

The order conditions the MMR provision on such products becoming domestically available and gives the Department of Health and Human Services 90 days to present plans for offering single vaccines, including by working with the private sector and other countries. The instruction to spread immunizations across separate visits is qualified with language about doing so to the maximum extent feasible.

The order also recommends removing seven vaccines from the childhood schedule except for certain high-risk groups, narrowing it to shots covering 11 diseases. The administration signaled it will press states to rewrite their vaccine requirements to match the new federal guidance.

The document itself never uses the word autism; that connection came from Trump’s spoken remarks at the signing rather than the text. Speaking from the Oval Office flanked by health officials including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump said the administration was reducing the number of shots and spacing them across more visits, and suggested at one point that the MMR shot can be “quite lethal.” The CDC’s own guidance states there is no published scientific evidence showing any benefit to separating the combination MMR into three individual shots, and that receiving the vaccine is much safer than contracting the diseases. Two doses are 97% effective at preventing measles, according to the agency.

The pushback came from the president’s own party as well as the medical establishment. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Health Committee and is a physician, said breaking up vaccines would mean children need more shots for the same protection, not fewer, and would increase hesitancy. Cassidy cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy, saying at the time that Kennedy had promised not to change the childhood schedule. The American College of Physicians called the order part of a pattern of attempting to change vaccine guidance unilaterally rather than through transparent scientific review. American Academy of Pediatrics President Andrew Racine said the order does nothing to support families of children with autism.

This is not the administration’s first attempt. Under Kennedy, the CDC already cut shots covering six of 17 diseases from the schedule, only to have the move blocked in federal court, and at least 28 states have refused to accept the changes and are holding to the earlier recommendations. The judicial stay came in March. The AAP has continued publishing its own schedule, and the American Academy of Family Physicians issued 2026 schedules in March aligned with it.

The commercial stakes reach well past Merck. Manufacturers with meaningful exposure to routine childhood immunization revenue include Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech, GSK, Sanofi and Merck. Sanofi is among the largest U.S. childhood vaccine suppliers through its DTaP combination products, and its shares were already down 11.2% year to date before the order; Moderna fell 4.28% on the session when Bloomberg first reported the order was under consideration on Aug. 6. The near-term risk for these companies is less about mandates than uptake — public confidence drives volume, and a fragmented schedule requiring more appointments historically produces lower completion rates.

The timing is what makes the disease math uncomfortable. The CDC counted 2,371 confirmed measles cases through July 30 across 34 outbreaks, already exceeding all of 2025 and making this the worst measles year in more than three decades, with Utah’s outbreak topping 500 cases. A national verification committee is reviewing U.S. measles elimination status this month, and the Pan American Health Organization is scheduled to rule in November on whether the country still qualifies as free of endemic transmission — a designation held since 2000.

For parents, there is unlikely to be an immediate change in vaccine access, and the order is expected to draw legal challenges.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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The Los Angeles Lakers are changing hands once again, this time in a blockbuster transaction that values the legendary NBA franchise at an unprecedented $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for an American professional sports team. According to ESPN, businessman Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger are purchasing the club from Mark Walter, eclipsing every previous record for a U.S. sports franchise sale.

“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world. We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss,” Kushner and Iger said in a statement to The Post.

“Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”

Walter, who also serves as the principal owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, only acquired the Lakers’ controlling stake from the Buss family last year in a transaction that valued the franchise at roughly $10 billion, which was itself a record-setting figure at the time.

The NBA’s Board of Governors officially signed off on Walter’s purchase last October, with Jeanie Buss remaining the team’s governor under an agreement that kept her in that role for five years following the sale.

According to ESPN, Walter will continue to retain ownership of the Dodgers despite selling the Lakers.

League approval is still required before the latest sale can be finalized. The transaction is expected to take several weeks, with the NBA Board of Governors not scheduled to meet again until September.

The record-breaking sale comes as Walter’s Guggenheim Investments is facing scrutiny from federal regulators. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly investigating how approximately $16 billion in loans made to companies affiliated with Walter or his TWG Global organization ultimately ended up with insurance companies under his ownership after passing through a third party, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life – an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family,” Walter said in a statement to ESPN.

“I am grateful to Jeanie Buss, the Buss family, the players, and the staff for welcoming me into this chapter. The Lakers belong to Los Angeles, and I have every confidence the best is still ahead.”

Before reaching an agreement to purchase the Lakers, Kushner and Iger had reportedly been pursuing an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas. Instead, they shifted their focus to acquiring one of the league’s most storied organizations in what has become the richest sale in American sports history.

Kushner, 41, is the founder and managing partner of Thrive Capital. He is the son of U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner and the brother of White House official Jared Kushner.

Iger, 75, led The Walt Disney Company during two separate stints as chief executive, serving from 2005 through 2020 before returning for a second term from 2022 until stepping down earlier this year.

In 2024, Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, became the controlling owners of Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League.

The new ownership group inherits a Lakers franchise entering a new chapter following the end of LeBron James’ tenure. With James now playing for the Philadelphia 76ers after spending eight seasons in Los Angeles and helping deliver one NBA championship, the Lakers are building around superstar Luka Doncic while also strengthening the roster by acquiring center Walker Kessler and bringing back guard Austin Reaves.

{Matzav.com}

The slowing U.S. labor market is presenting more challenges for a housing sector facing affordability challenges, with would-be homebuyers struggling to save amid persistent inflation and a less dynamic employment outlook.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released the jobs report for July, which showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shed 23,000 jobs for the month, when economists had expected a gain of around 80,000. While the unemployment rate declined to 4.1%, it was due to a decline in the labor force participation rate as more individuals exited the workforce.

“The labor market is really the underpinning of the housing market,” Realtor.com Senior Economist Joel Berner told FOX Business in an interview. “When people don’t feel confident about their jobs and their income, they’re not very likely to make a huge purchase like buying a home.”

Berner said the July jobs report was a “pretty rough report” between the economy losing jobs on net for the month with wages growing at a slower pace than inflation.

“This is not a great recipe for the housing market,” Berner added. “Not only does it affect people’s confidence, but it affects how much they’re able to save for their down payments.”

He noted the decline in the labor force participation rate and suggested that could lead to “slower job growth, slower wage growth, less competition from workers to get those higher wages.

“That just means more of the same of what we’ve been talking about — that wages will grow slower than inflation and people will struggle to save, and then struggle to buy homes,” he added.

Relief on the affordability front is also unlikely to arrive for prospective homebuyers in the near term because mortgage rates have trended higher in recent weeks and are likely to remain around their current levels through the end of the year.

“In this high mortgage rate environment — mortgage rates just jumped to their highest point in the year — it’s kind of a double whammy for first-time homebuyers especially,” Berner said.

“They’re not able to save as much for a down payment, and then when they go to buy a home, they have to finance more of their purchase at higher rates, so the affordability squeeze is really coming from all angles,” he added.

Berner said he sees the higher mortgage rate environment persisting through the end of the year since the Federal Reserve appears more likely to hike interest rates than cut amid elevated inflation despite the slower labor market.

“I think the mortgage rate environment that we’re currently living in is about where we’ll be for the remainder of the year,” he said, adding that the softness in the market is likely to persist.

“We’re really seeing a slowdown in terms of listing prices this year, a little bit higher sales activity than last year, because buyers and sellers are kind of meeting in the middle at a better pace than they were in the last couple of years,” Berner said.

“But this high mortgage rate environment just means more tepid demand from potential homebuyers, and that means more falling prices and potentially fewer listings coming onto the market as well, because sellers are looking around saying, ‘I don’t know if I can sell my home for a price that I want,’ and just deciding to forego doing that,” he said.

The United States has presented Iran with a new proposal that would provide Tehran with gradual access to frozen Iranian funds and partial sanctions relief in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to unrestricted commercial shipping without transit fees, according to a report Wednesday.

Diplomatic sources cited by the UAE-based Erem News said the proposal is being conveyed to Tehran through Pakistan as mediators seek a breakthrough in negotiations over the strategic waterway.

Under the reported framework, the arrangement would be renewed on a monthly basis and conditioned on Iran maintaining full freedom of navigation through the Strait without imposing fees or other restrictions on vessels.

In return, Washington would authorize the release of an agreed-upon portion of Iranian assets frozen abroad each month, according to a timetable that remains under negotiation.

The proposal is aimed at bridging two major sticking points in the talks: Washington’s demand that Iran abandon any attempt to charge ships for passage through the Strait, and Tehran’s demand that the United States end its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Diplomatic sources described the proposal as a temporary arrangement rather than a comprehensive agreement. It is reportedly separate from parallel negotiations between Iran and Oman aimed at reaching a broader settlement.

The reported offer comes as commercial shipping through the Strait remains severely depressed amid continuing tensions.

Shipping data showed that only eight vessels were observed transiting the Strait on Tuesday, down from an average of approximately 12 per day over the previous 10 days. It marked the lowest daily level of vessel traffic since August 5.

The Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with the Trump administration demanding unrestricted passage for international shipping while Iran has sought sanctions relief, access to frozen assets and an end to the U.S. blockade.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Thousands of travelers encountered significant delays Tuesday evening at Ben Gurion Airport as long lines, baggage processing bottlenecks, and flight delays disrupted operations throughout the terminal. The congestion comes despite the date not having been projected as one of August’s busiest travel days, just weeks before the airport is expected to handle more than 2.8 million passengers during the month.

Passengers reported that delays began almost immediately upon entering the airport, with lengthy waits at check-in counters and baggage drop-off stations. At the same time, numerous departing flights were delayed as congestion spread throughout the terminal.

According to sources familiar with airport operations, one of the primary causes of the disruption was a shortage of personnel among the ground handling companies responsible for servicing passengers, baggage, and aircraft. The staffing shortfall, they said, has made it difficult to keep pace with the heavy passenger volume.

One traveler described the scene to the Hayom newspaper, saying, “More than two hours since we arrived and we still haven’t checked our bags. Biggest chaos I’ve ever seen.” She added that, in addition to regular travelers, the terminal was crowded with large groups of young participants in the Birthright Israel program. “Flights are leaving five minutes apart, and every second someone else gets pushed ahead of us,” she said.

For many passengers, the delays continued even after completing check-in. One traveler headed to Crete said that after finally boarding, his flight remained on the ground for nearly two additional hours before takeoff.

“We boarded an hour late, and then sat on the plane for almost another hour before takeoff while they loaded the luggage. It was a complete mess,” he said. According to the passenger, travelers seated nearby were booked on a flight to Rhodes that had originally been scheduled to depart at 2:00 p.m., but they were informed during boarding that the departure had been pushed back until 7:00 p.m.

The heavy traffic seen Tuesday night comes as aviation officials continue preparing for one of the busiest travel periods of the year. August is expected to bring record passenger volumes through Israel’s main international airport.

Current forecasts indicate that more than 2.8 million passengers will pass through Ben Gurion Airport this month, averaging approximately 100,000 travelers per day. That would represent an increase of roughly 24 percent compared to August of last year.

Even so, Tuesday’s disruptions stood out because Aug. 11 had not been identified in advance as one of the month’s peak travel days. The long waits and widespread flight delays have raised concerns about how the airport system will cope on dates expected to see even heavier passenger traffic.

Much of the pressure centered on the airport’s ground handling operations. While many travelers associate these services with Ben Gurion Airport itself, passenger check-in, baggage handling, and aircraft servicing are carried out by several private ground service companies that operate on behalf of the airlines.

As a result, delays in baggage processing and aircraft turnaround times cannot automatically be attributed to Ben Gurion Airport or the Israel Airports Authority. Instead, they may stem from operational bottlenecks, staffing shortages, and the ability of the ground service providers to handle the volume of passengers.

The Israel Airports Authority has already taken steps to prepare for the busy summer travel season. During July, it advised passengers to arrive approximately three hours before departure, complete online check-in whenever possible, verify their departure terminal in advance, and use self-service baggage tagging and drop-off stations when available.

Tuesday night’s events, however, highlighted the limitations of those recommendations when the primary bottleneck occurs within the baggage handling and ground service system. Even travelers who arrived several hours before their flights found themselves waiting for extended periods before completing the departure process.

A democratic socialist campaigning on a $20 minimum wage, guaranteed paid leave and a freeze on new data center construction came within roughly 3,200 votes of winning Wisconsin’s Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday, a result that should get the attention of employers far beyond the state.

State Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by less than half a percentage point. Crowley, who briefly left the race before re-entering with the backing of retiring Gov. Tony Evers, now faces Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, endorsed by President Trump, in November. 

For businesses, Hong’s platform was significant. She backed raising Wisconsin’s $7.25 minimum wage to $20 by 2030, statewide paid family and medical leave, restoring public-sector collective bargaining rights and creating a state-run public bank. She also supported a statewide moratorium on new AI data centers — potentially shutting one of America’s emerging technology investment markets to new projects while billions of dollars are chasing power and land.

But Hong’s economic agenda was only part of the concern.

Her record on Israel and antisemitism became an issue among Jewish voters and raised broader questions about workplace and community safety. Hong sought to repeal Wisconsin’s restrictions on state contracts with companies that boycott Israel and opposed the state’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. She also appeared and raised money on programs hosted by online personalities who have faced accusations of antisemitic rhetoric. Hong has said appearing on a platform does not mean she endorses everything its host has said and has explicitly condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia, discrimination and hatred. 

Those distinctions matter, but so do the concerns raised by Wisconsin Jewish leaders. One Jewish Democratic activist warned during the campaign that Hong’s rhetoric could undermine Jewish community safety, while the Milwaukee Jewish Federation said political leaders’ decisions about which voices and platforms they elevate help shape an environment in which antisemitism can be minimized or excused. 

There is a business dimension to Hong’s boycott position as well.

Hong was the lead Assembly sponsor of legislation introduced this year to repeal Wisconsin’s restrictions on government entities contracting with businesses engaged in boycotts of Israel. Such measures are part of the broader BDS debate, whose economic consequences do not stop with Israeli companies. 

Palestinian employment is deeply intertwined with the Israeli economy. Before the Gaza war, more than 100,000 Palestinians held permits to work in Israel, and those wages injected billions of dollars into the Palestinian economy. Earlier boycott campaigns also demonstrated the potential unintended consequences: when SodaStream moved its West Bank factory following sustained BDS pressure, hundreds of Palestinian employees ultimately lost their jobs. 

That makes the debate more complicated than simply being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. Policies intended to economically isolate Israeli businesses can also put Palestinian jobs and incomes at risk.

The larger lesson from Wisconsin is difficult for American businesses to dismiss.

This was not New York City or San Francisco. Wisconsin is a manufacturing-heavy battleground state that President Trump carried in 2024. Yet a candidate openly running as a democratic socialist — advocating a $20 minimum wage, greater government intervention in private markets, restrictions on AI infrastructure investment and repeal of the state’s anti-BDS contracting rules — came within roughly 3,200 votes of becoming the Democratic nominee for governor.

Crowley offers businesses a more conventional governing profile, emphasizing fiscal stability and bipartisan dealmaking rather than Hong’s more sweeping economic program.

But Hong’s narrow loss may ultimately be the bigger business story.

The politics did not win Wisconsin on Tuesday. It came remarkably close.

JBizNews Desk | Madison, Wis.

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An Israeli court has approved a class-action lawsuit seeking 350 million shekels ($116 million) against Anita Gelato Ltd., which operates the Golda and Anita ice cream brands, over claims that products marketed as “sugar-free” contained substantial amounts of sugar.

The Central District Court in Lod found sufficient grounds to examine allegations that consumers could have understood the “sugar-free” labeling to mean that the products contained no sugar, rather than simply no added sugar.

Golda, one of Israel’s largest ice cream chains, has more than 100 locations across the country.

The ruling does not determine whether the company violated the law. That question will be examined in the class-action proceedings.

The case centers on Golda’s hazelnut and coffee flavors. Plaintiff Sol Yarkoni commissioned laboratory testing after purchasing about half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of the ice cream from a Golda branch in January 2024.

According to test results submitted to the court, the products contained about 6.6 grams of lactose per 100 grams. Lactose is a naturally occurring sugar found in milk. Israeli regulations cited in the case set a maximum of 0.5 grams of sugar per 100 grams for products labeled “sugar-free.”

Yarkoni, who said she avoids sugar for health and dietary reasons, told the court that she suspected after eating the ice cream that it contained sugar. She subsequently sent samples to a Health Ministry-approved laboratory for analysis. The reported lactose content was more than 13 times the threshold cited in the case.

The lawsuit covers consumers who purchased products marketed as “sugar-free” from Golda and Anita over a seven-year period. Yarkoni is seeking refunds for affected customers as well as compensation of up to 300 shekels ($100) per class member.

The claim also alleges that the tested products contained polyol-based sugar substitutes that were not adequately disclosed to consumers.

In its defense, Anita Gelato Ltd. challenged Yarkoni’s credibility and motives, arguing that she appeared to have anticipated legal action when she purchased the ice cream. The company cited, among other things, the fact that she photographed her receipt immediately after the purchase.

The company also argued that consumers understand that milk-based ice cream naturally contains lactose and that “sugar-free” therefore means that no additional sugar has been added.

Judge Iris Rabinovitch-Brun rejected that argument at this stage of the proceedings, finding that there was reason to believe that sugar content would be a material consideration for consumers purchasing ice cream specifically labeled “sugar-free.” The judge also found grounds to conclude that the product may have been purchased and consumed under the impression that it was sugar-free.

The court further questioned why the chain could not have used wording such as “no added sugar” if that was what it intended to communicate.

The class action will examine whether Golda breached consumer-protection and labeling laws, violated applicable standards or statutory duties, or was negligent or unjustly enriched. The court will also consider whether the company was required to provide clearer information about the products’ sugar content and other ingredients.

An expert opinion submitted by Yarkoni said that consuming ice cream containing sugar could pose health concerns for people with diabetes. The opinion further stated that products containing the level of lactose identified in the testing would likely not have met criteria associated with “sugar-free” labeling by the Israel Diabetes Association.

Anita Gelato Ltd. said it had removed the products as a precaution while rejecting the allegations. JNS

An investigation by Australia’s ABC News has found that Meta’s content monetization program paid revenue to accounts operated by far-right activists, neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, raising questions about how the tech giant enforces its own eligibility policies.

The ABC News Verify investigation, based on a public data archive maintained by the nonprofit What To Fix, identified several controversial accounts that reportedly received payments through Meta’s revenue-sharing program.

Among them was Hugo Lennon, an Australian far-right activist who has been photographed alongside self-described neo-Nazis. Lennon was recently removed by police in Melbourne after shouting racist abuse at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to Australia. Video of the incident was posted to Lennon’s Facebook page, which the investigation said had been monetized since September 2025.

The investigation also found that extremist news site The Noticer began receiving Meta payments in November 2025. The outlet has reportedly been promoted within Australian neo-Nazi circles, while its account on X was previously suspended for violating the platform’s policies.

Other pages identified as receiving monetization payments included Anti-Immigration March for Australia and a page operated by activist Monica Smit, who has promoted conspiracy theories and medical misinformation.

Meta’s Content Monetization program allows approved creators and publishers to earn a share of advertising revenue generated by Reels, photos and other posts. In 2025, Meta reportedly distributed approximately $3 billion to some 16.2 million accounts worldwide.

The system rewards engagement, meaning content that generates large numbers of views, comments and interactions can produce higher earnings. Researchers have warned that this can create financial incentives for provocative or inflammatory material commonly known as “rage bait.”

According to Meta’s policies, certain racist content and medical misinformation are not supposed to qualify for advertising revenue. However, the ABC investigation found accounts that apparently continued generating income despite posting material that raised questions under those rules.

Meta said it maintains clear policies governing monetization and that violations can result in penalties or account suspensions. The company also said distinctions must be made between offensive expression and content that contributes to real-world violence.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Fenway Sports Group is not selling Liverpool. It is selling a piece of it. The Boston-based company that has controlled the English soccer club since 2010 has been negotiating to sell roughly a third of the club to an outside investor group — one that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — for cash, while keeping majority control and day-to-day command of the operation. The stake under discussion is more than 30%, worth about £1.35 billion, or close to $1.8 billion.

The price sets the club’s total value at £4.4 billion, roughly $6 billion, which would rank among the largest deals the sport has seen. Sky News reported on August 10 that Fenway is preparing to announce the transaction as soon as this week. Nothing has been formally announced yet, and both sides have declined to discuss timing publicly.

The buyers are led by Amit Bhatia, a British businessman who is the son-in-law of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and who was previously a shareholder and vice-chairman at Queens Park Rangers before stepping away from that club earlier this summer. Bezos is the largest name attached to the group. Also participating is Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder, whose fortune is estimated above $32 billion. Fenway acknowledged the approach in a statement last month, saying an investment consortium led, managed and represented by Bhatia had expressed interest in a strategic minority investment in the club.

For Bezos, this would be a first. He looked at buying the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Commanders in the past and walked away from both. Soccer has never been on his list. His participation says less about the sport than about the asset: top-tier European clubs are now traded the way infrastructure and media properties are, priced on global broadcast revenue, sponsorship reach and scarcity of supply.

The arithmetic behind Fenway’s side of the table is the part worth studying. The group bought Liverpool for £300 million in 2010, when the club was in financial distress. If the current deal closes at the reported valuation, the franchise has multiplied roughly fourteen times in sixteen years, and Fenway monetizes part of that gain without giving up the asset. The last comparison point is recent: when Dynasty Equity bought a small interest in 2023, the club was valued at more than £3.3 billion, about $4.5 billion. The new number is a third higher in under three years.

That trajectory explains the buyers as much as the seller. American money has been moving into English soccer steadily, and half of the Premier League’s 20 clubs are now primarily controlled by U.S.-based investors. One driver is availability — NFL and Major League Baseball franchises are increasingly closed to new buyers or simply unaffordable, while a Premier League club remains within reach for technology and finance fortunes. Rising American viewership of the sport has done the rest.

Liverpool supporters should temper expectations about what the cash buys on the field. The Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules cap what clubs can lose against revenue, so an injection of this size does not translate into an open transfer budget. In practice the money tends to go toward stadium capacity, training facilities, debt reduction and balance-sheet cushion — the items that let a club compete with state-backed rivals without depending entirely on matchday and broadcast income.

There is a legitimate caution attached, and it has been voiced by soccer finance analysts since the report surfaced: investors of this size put money in to earn a return, and the presence of a group with this much capital raises the question of whether a minority position stays a minority position. Fenway retains control under the structure as described. Whether the same is true in five years is a separate matter.

What happens next is procedural but not automatic. Fenway must issue the announcement, the parties must sign definitive documents, and the incoming owners must clear the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test before the shares change hands. Until that sequence completes, the deal is an agreement in principle carried by reporting rather than a closed transaction. For Fenway, the fix to a familiar problem — how to fund a club competing against sovereign-backed budgets without selling it — is a partial sale that brings in outside billions and leaves the boardroom intact.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

NEW YORK (AP) – Google on Wednesday unveiled its latest lineup of Pixel phones, with slimmer cameras that include more a powerful zoom and artificial intelligence features designed to help users accomplish things with fewer taps and swipes.

With the improvements, the search giant hopes to give users a reason to buy new models and expand the number of people using its AI tools.

“Google continues to tout new software features, primarily around AI, as the reason to upgrade,” said Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall. He noted the company has added a way to extract photos from videos, a teleprompter, video stabilization, and an improved speech-to-text feature.

While the Pixel phones are not as popular as Apple’s iPhone, Google has been steadily increasing the amount of AI on its Pixel phones since 2023.

Apple, meanwhile, has been lagging behind. It announced new AI advances in June, focusing on how the technology can help with people’s day-to-day lives, with a focus on privacy and security — using Google’s Gemini AI model to do so.

Google said in a presentation to reporters last week that the new phones will double the previous storage size, starting at 256 gigabytes, and feature 30 hours of battery life and faster wireless charging. The company has eliminated the 128 gigabyte Pixel 11, which had been its lowest-priced option at $800.

Get your first look at the Pixel 11 family. Refined hardware, made to last. Fresh colors. New cameras. And designed for Gemini Intelligence. #MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/2zTSWvynjH

— Google (@Google) August 12, 2026

Beginning Wednesday, U.S. customers can order the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, starting at $900, $1,100 and $1,300, respectively. The Pixel Pro Fold, meanwhile, starts at $1,900. That’s a $100 increase for each phone from last year’s prices.

New features include live translation for videos, podcasts and voice messages. In the Pro models, a tool called HiLight lets you assign a color to your favorite contacts and have the phone light up in that color when they call and your phone is placed face down. It complements Pixel’s “Flip to Shhh” feature that puts the phone in “do not disturb” mode when it is placed face down.

Google is also offering a free six-month subscription to its AI Pro plan to anyone who buys the more expensive Pixel 11 Pro or Pixel 11 Pro XL models. The company is hoping to hook more people on the AI Gemini tool kit, which it assembled to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Camera upgrades include a new mode called Magic Capture, which automatically takes a series of photos and video with a single tap of the shutter button. Google said the cameras also feature improved light sensitivity and, for Pro models, Instant Night Sight captures shots in dark environments faster, so you don’t have to hold your phone still while waiting for exposure.

Google also introduced a tracking device for the first time. Called Pixel Tag, it will cost $30 for one or $100 for a four-pack and is compatible with phones running Android 9 or higher.

An Israeli woman and her daughter have been missing in Vienna since Friday, with Israel’s embassy in Austria appealing Tuesday for urgent help locating the pair.

Mali Yahalomi, 50, and her daughter Liel Yahalomi, 23, were last seen in the Austrian capital, according to the embassy. The two have had no contact with their family since Friday.

The embassy asked anyone with information about their whereabouts to call +43 6763672304 or contact local police. It also urged the public to share the missing persons alert on social media.

Israeli officials, Austrian authorities and representatives of the Jewish community are involved in an intensive effort to locate the mother and daughter.

According to the latest report, both Mali and Liel missed their scheduled flight from Prague and did not arrive before check-in closed, raising further concern as the search for them continues.

An Israeli official described the scale of the search:

“The whole world is on its feet trying to find them.”

The embassy does not believe the disappearance is related to a nationalistic incident, Channel 12 reported.

Neither the Israeli embassy nor the outlet provided further details about the pair’s last known sighting or the nature of their trip.

Austria has been among the European countries friendliest to Israel in recent years, as ties have soured with much of the continent over the war against Hamas in Gaza.

As the Elul zeman approaches, Slabodka Rosh Yeshivah Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch delivered a stirring address to tens of thousands of bnei yeshivah gathered in Beit Shemesh for the siyum of the “V’Talmudo B’Yado” program organized by the Ichud Bnei Yeshivos. Calling on bnei Torah to prepare for Elul and Rosh Hashanah with renewed commitment, Rav Hirsch urged them to break free from mediocrity by accepting a concrete and demanding commitment to limud haTorah.

At the beginning of his remarks, the Rosh Yeshivah reflected on the decrees and hardships that the Olam HaTorah has endured over the past year. He said that as the Yom HaDin approaches, every individual must ask himself what genuine change he can make in order to merit a better year.

“We are just days away from Elul. We are returning to the yeshivos and approaching Rosh Hashanah,” he said. “We remember last Rosh Hashanah, and looking back we now understand what was written then. All of the decrees against us, all of the hardships, and all of the hatred directed against us—all of it was decreed by Hashem.”

The Rosh Yeshivah stressed that ordinary resolutions will not be enough given the current circumstances.

“We are approaching another Rosh Hashanah, when our fate will once again be written, and we must think about what we can do to change it. Certainly, if we want things to change, it requires something drastic. General chizuk alone is not enough. If there is not something drastic, there will be no change.”

Rav Hirsch then cited the Sforno on the posuk, “Re’eh Anochi Nosein Lifneichem Hayom Berachah U’Kelalah,” explaining that a person must avoid living an average, mediocre life and instead choose the path that leads to blessing and success.

“We must learn from this not to be mediocre,” Rav Moshe Hillel said. “We need to strive for outstanding success. That is what is demanded of us—to leave mediocrity behind and rise to higher levels.”

Continuing, he quoted the teachings of Rav Yisroel Salanter, explaining that true avodas Hashem cannot be limited to actions that come naturally through habit and routine.

“A person was created to toil, to wage the battle of serving Hashem, and is obligated to work hard in avodas Hashem. It is not enough merely to preserve what his natural tendencies already allow him to do on their own.”

The Rosh Yeshivah observed that many people—including bochurim—simply continue along the path of habit while neglecting areas that require genuine effort.

“They attended cheder, then yeshivah ketanah, then yeshivah gedolah, and later kollel, simply following their natural course. But whatever demands extra effort is often neglected. Rav Yisroel says that in such a case, a person is not serving Hashem at all—it is merely his nature carrying him along.”

Rav Hirsch emphasized that escaping mediocrity means fulfilling the will of the Creator even when it runs contrary to one’s personal inclinations.

“The foundation of serving Hashem is to observe and fulfill even those things that a person’s heart does not naturally desire. That is what it means not to be mediocre: to do what Hashem wants out of obligation and with the understanding that we simply must do it.”

The Rosh Yeshivah also quoted the teaching of his rebbi, Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, explaining that many people hesitate to accept the ol Torah because of a mistaken assumption. A person fears the burden, when in reality accepting the ol brings with it “true wealth and genuine happiness.”

Rav Hirsch illustrated the point by referring to fasting on Yom Kippur. A person who is hungry and thirsty does not debate whether to eat because he knows with certainty that it is forbidden.

“It is difficult, but it is obvious that this is what we do. There is no argument,” he said.

He explained that the same attitude should apply to the obligation of limud haTorah.

“A person who accepts the ol Torah and realizes there is no alternative but to learn—that he cannot waste time and cannot limit himself only to what comes easily—is like someone on Yom Kippur regarding eating. Then he has no problem at all. On the contrary, he will actually feel that ‘Hashem’s Torah is perfect and restores the soul; Hashem’s commandments are upright and gladden the heart.’”

The Rosh Yeshivah then presented the assembled bnei yeshivah with a practical goal.

“Each person should accept upon himself the obligation of a fixed number of hours. Ten hours is the minimum—but it must be accepted. Some will say this is not for them, only for exceptional older bochurim. A bochur may think, ‘I’m an ordinary bochur. I’ve done all sorts of things. What does this have to do with me?’”

To answer that concern, Rav Hirsch quoted the Chofetz Chaim, who explained that the yetzer hara tries to prevent a person from taking on meaningful commitments by making him feel inadequate.

“When the yetzer hara sees that a person wants to undertake something great, it fills his heart with sadness and causes him to think that this mitzvah is not meant for him, but only for the great people of the generation and the outstanding masmidim. The Chofetz Chaim says that this is the yetzer hara.”

While urging dramatic personal growth, Rav Hirsch stressed that lasting change should be implemented gradually and in a practical manner.

“Each person should accept upon himself several hours each day during which there is absolutely no wasted time—only learning. He should establish those hours and recognize that they represent his ol. From there, he will be able to continue growing further and further.”

The Rosh Yeshivah concluded with a heartfelt tefillah that these practical commitments would arouse Heavenly mercy as the Yom HaDin approaches.

“Perhaps this practical commitment will arouse Heavenly mercy before the Yom HaDin. Then, b’siyata diShmaya, we will truly merit a Rosh Hashanah of being inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

{Matzav.com}

A senior Iranian official said Wednesday that Tehran does not consider itself bound by a ceasefire with the United States, claiming Washington violated the agreement just 48 hours after it was reached.

“From our perspective, there is no ceasefire to extend because it never began,” the official told Reuters. “The U.S. violated the agreement 48 hours after we reached it and withdrew from it several days later.”

The official said discussions are continuing over a possible U.S. return to the memorandum of understanding reached between the sides, but acknowledged that there has been “no progress.” He stressed that the current negotiations are not focused on extending the ceasefire.

The comments come two days after President Donald Trump renewed his warnings to Tehran. Trump said Iran had demanded compensation for damage suffered during the war, but responded that the United States would also demand compensation from Iran for Americans and others harmed by the regime’s actions over the years.

Trump said he instructed U.S. representatives to raise the compensation issue in any future negotiations with Tehran.

Under the memorandum of understanding previously reached between the sides, the United States and regional partners committed to developing a reconstruction and economic development program for Iran worth at least $300 billion. A mechanism for implementing the plan was expected to be established within 60 days.

Iranian officials have also presented a sweeping list of demands for any broader agreement with Washington, including an end to U.S. military threats, an end to operations against Iran and its proxies, the lifting of the naval blockade, the withdrawal of American forces from the region, compensation for war damage, sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian assets.

The latest remarks underscore the deep divide between Washington and Tehran as diplomatic efforts continue with little indication that either side is prepared to accept the other’s key demands.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Honolulu is going to the municipal bond market this week for about $196 million, with roughly $9.4 million of it earmarked for Skyline — the automated rail line that has already cost more than three times its original estimate and still has five years of construction ahead of it.

The rail slice is small relative to the deal, which is worth understanding: Skyline is not being financed by this one sale. The system runs on a half-percent surcharge to Hawaii’s general excise tax, federal transit grants, and city general obligation bonds issued on behalf of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, drawn down as construction bills come due. This week’s issue is one more increment in a funding stack assembled over nearly two decades.

What that stack has produced so far is already running. Skyline opened June 30, 2023, and has carried more than 5 million riders across 13 stations from East Kapolei to Kalihi, averaging close to 12,000 weekday passengers with better than 99% service reliability. Segment 2 opened in October 2025, adding five miles and four stations serving Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, the Māpunapuna industrial area and the Kalihi Transit Center. The system set a weekday record of 12,902 rides in late January.

The trains are driverless and elevated almost the entire way, powered by third rail, with platform screen doors — the first large-scale publicly run U.S. metro built that way. Hitachi Rail supplied the cars and operates the line for Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services.

The unfinished piece is the one that matters commercially, because it is the segment that reaches where people work. Segment 3 runs three miles from Kalihi Transit Center to Civic Center with six new stations — Mokauea, Niuhelewai, Kūwili, Hōlau, Kuloloia and Kaʻākaukukui — cutting through Iwilei, Chinatown and downtown Honolulu. Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini won the $1.66 billion design-and-construction contract for that work in August 2024, after resubmitting a bid on a job the city had shelved when pandemic-era pricing came in too high. Tutor Perini was the only bidder, and the contract came in about $300 million above what the agency had budgeted in 2020.

HART now expects the first guideway span in early 2027, major construction finished in 2030 and passenger service in 2031. Downtown utility relocation work wrapped up July 22.

The cost history is the reason this project draws attention well beyond Hawaii. The 18.9-mile, 19-station line was originally supposed to be done in 2020 for $3 billion, and HART has filed at least six recovery plans with the Federal Transit Administration explaining how it would finish given cost escalation. City documents attached to a 2025 bond official statement put the total estimated cost at about $10.076 billion — roughly $9.568 billion in capital plus about $508 million in financing charges.

For bondholders, the debt picture has actually been improving. Long-term debt tied to the project fell to about $815.4 million from $934 million a year earlier. Bonds the city issued on HART’s behalf account for roughly three-quarters of total liabilities and are scheduled to be fully retired by 2031 — the same year service is supposed to begin downtown. HART’s fiscal 2025 audit came back with a clean opinion.

Federal money remains contingent on delivery. The project secured a $1.55 billion full funding grant agreement from the FTA’s New Starts program in 2012. Awarding the downtown contract triggered release of the next $250 million under the amended agreement, and opening Segment 2 had $125 million of additional federal funding riding on it.

The line will also stop short of where planners once intended. Under the FTA-accepted 2022 recovery plan, Honolulu postponed the final 1.25 miles of guideway, the last two stations at Kakaʻako and Ala Moana, and the Pearl Highlands parking garage. HART says reaching Ala Moana Transit Center remains the goal, with buses bridging the gap from Downtown and Civic Center stations in the meantime — noting that original forecasts had only about 10% of riders headed to Kakaʻako or Ala Moana as final destinations.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi has set a target of 25,000 daily rides. Current weekday counts sit at roughly half that, on a system that is still missing its downtown terminus.

JBizNews Desk | Honolulu

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Thousands of Vizhnitzer chassidim from across Eretz Yisroel gathered Tuesday night at the main Gerer bais medrash in Yerushalayim for a massive “Mekadshei Shemecha” maamad led by the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, who made a rare public appearance despite his recent weakness. During the gathering, the Rebbe’s directives were presented, including a firm call not to enlist in the army or any military-related framework and to strengthen emunah in the home.

The event also served as a major fundraising campaign on behalf of the Association of Vizhnitzer Institutions. Participants were deeply moved when the Rebbe arrived despite his weakened condition. The gathering had originally been scheduled to take place in Meron, but because of the Rebbe’s health, it was relocated to Yerushalayim near Moshav Ora, where the Rebbe has been staying in recent days.

The central theme of the evening focused on Kiddush Hashem and the current challenges facing the Olam HaTorah. The program opened with an emotional presentation by the children of the American “Yiddish Nachas” group, highlighting mesirus nefesh for limud haTorah. Later, chassidim presented a dramatic reenactment of “Prison 10,” depicting a chossid sitting in chains while continuing to learn Torah.

Moments before the Vizhnitzer Rebbe entered the hall, his brother-in-law, Rav Menachem Ernster, Rosh Yeshivas Vizhnitz, led the crowd in reciting Shma Koleinu using the Yamim Nora’im nusach. Rav Yaakov Mordechai Hager, Av Beis Din of Vizhnitz Elad, then recited Tehillim.

One of the evening’s most stirring moments came with the arrival of the Gerer Rebbe, who attended to express solidarity with the Olam HaTorah and reinforce the resolve to preserve Torah learning. Thousands of Vizhnitzer chassidim greeted the Gerer Rebbe with thunderous singing, while the Vizhnitzer Rebbe personally honored and accompanied him. Rav Chaim Meir Hager, Av Beis Din of Vizhnitz, welcomed the Gerer Rebbe and warmly thanked him for hosting the gathering in the Gur bais medrash.

During the assembly, the Vizhnitzer Av Beis Din read the Rebbe’s message to the assembled crowd. In his remarks, the Rebbe instructed his followers not to enlist in the army or participate in any military track, to strengthen their children with words of emunah and mesirus nefesh, and to contribute kofer nefesh in light of the current situation.

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Ten weeks after her passing spawned a worldwide campaign for peace, footage has emerged of eight year old Charlotte Herzberg making a mistake that was, perhaps, divinely inspired.

As previously reported on VIN News, footage of Charlotte singing Abie Rotenberg’s classic Neshome’le went viral when it was released by singing sensation Shaindy Plotzker shortly after Tisha B’Av. An August 11 social media post added an extra dimension to the story, with Plotzker revealing that Charlotte had actually sung one word of the lyrics incorrectly.

“If you know the original song Neshomele, which was put out by R’ Abie Rotenberg many years ago, the lyric goes as follows, ‘let me stay here up in heaven, where it’s safe and I’ll be pure,’” said Plotzker.

But after listening to the clip on repeat after Charlotte’s passing, Plotzker realized that her young soloist had changed the words “it’s safe” to “I’m safe.”

“It’s almost like in that moment her neshama knew,” shared Plotzker. “It’s like Charlotte’s sending us a message that she’s safe – I’m okay.”

In addition to taking comfort in the switch-up, Plotzker said that it brought home an important lesson.

“It reminds me that Hashem plans every little thing in our lives,” said Plotzker. “We don’t always get the answers, but sometimes, it clicks. Because when Charlotte changed one lyric six months ago, we had no clue what it would mean to us now, and it’s just a reminder that Hashem is in every. Single. Moment. Because every step is perfectly planned.”

Plotzker’s Neshome’le was recorded in June just days after Charlotte’s passing. Recorded at a breathtaking estate in Alpine, New Jersey, it features the Shaindy Plotzker Voice Students, included a solo by Charlotte that had been recorded months earlier, and as of this writing, had garnered 101,000 views in just two weeks’ time.

Having forgiven the driver of the car that hit Charlotte as she was riding her bike, her parents created Shalom for Charlotte, encouraging people to put aside grudges and hard feelings as a zechus for her neshama. With Charlotte’s story touching hearts all over 100,000 acts of shalom have been made since that time, with a small fraction of those acts of forgiveness reported at www.ShalomForCharlotte.com

The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].

Question:

Dear Mayor,

Thanks for always listening and trying to make our town the best it is.

The bus stop on Rt 9 and 5th street north bound in my opinion is in the wrong place. It’s 10 ft off 5th street and whenever the bus stops it could be a 3-5 minute stop and it blocks the 5th st traffic.

Is it possible to get the stop moved 15-20 feet closer to 6th street so it doesn’t block the traffic.

Thanks

Response from Mayor Coles:

Thank you for picking up on that. We need to get NJ Transit to approve the move, but I will ask our engineer to reach out to them to get the process started.

Take Care

Ray

Question:

Dear Mr. Mayor,

We are very thankful that the Township and the utilities have scheduled much work during this month when the streets are quieter. It shows much consideration to frustrated residents.

However, it’s a bit much. I tried to get home (Sunset area) from the Post Office on Swarthmore today. After going down New Hampshire and Pine, I hit a detour on Pine, and ended up back on Cedarbridge. I wasn’t sure if I could head down MLK Drive back to Pine, so I went further up Cedarbridge and hit traffic due to lanes closed by Oberlin. Things like this happen daily.

Is there a way the Township could report street closures to Waze in real-time, so we can take the best route on our first try?

Thanks,

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good afternoon

I will ask traffic and safety if there is a way to alert Wayz to planned closures.

Thanks

Ray

—————–

Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]

Have a question for the Chief? Send it to [email protected]

U.S. stocks opened higher Wednesday, August 12, with technology leading after July inflation came in exactly where Wall Street expected and strong earnings from three AI-infrastructure companies reignited the artificial-intelligence trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up 5.6 points, or 0.01%, at 53,797.47. The S&P 500 jumped 37.3 points, or 0.48%, to 7,765.46, putting the index back in record territory, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 235 points, or 0.89%, to 26,680.47.

The morning’s economic reports delivered a relatively friendly combination. Consumer prices rose 0.1% in July and 3.4% from a year earlier, down from June’s 3.5% annual rate. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, increased 0.2% for the month and 2.5% year over year, down from 2.6%. All four readings matched economists’ expectations. Separately, mortgage applications rose 3.6% in the week ended August 7 as the average 30-year mortgage rate eased to 6.77% from 6.81%, providing a modest pickup in housing demand.

The inflation report matters because it takes some immediate pressure off the Federal Reserve after July unexpectedly produced job losses. The Fed has held its benchmark rate at 3.50% to 3.75% for five straight meetings, and at the July session three voting members dissented in favor of raising it. Traders moved slightly further toward expecting a hold in September, with the probability around 55% following the report. Treasury yields moved lower, with the 10-year yield around 4.65% to 4.67% Wednesday morning.

The bigger fuel for the Nasdaq is corporate earnings. CoreWeave surged more than 20% after reporting second-quarter revenue of $2.58 billion, up 112% from a year earlier, and lifting its outlook as its AI-computing backlog climbed to roughly $104.2 billion, before more than $25 billion of additional commitments secured early this quarter.

Super Micro Computer jumped about 10% after fiscal fourth-quarter revenue nearly doubled to $11.12 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.70 a share came in at nearly double what analysts expected. Gross margin was the number that moved the stock, rising to 17.6% from 10.1% the prior quarter against company guidance of 8.2% to 8.4%. Management said it booked more than $60 billion in new orders during the quarter and guided fiscal 2027 revenue to a range of $65 billion to $72 billion, against $39.1 billion in the year just ended. Revenue for the quarter did fall roughly $610 million short of estimates, a miss investors largely set aside.

Nebius Group, which reported Wednesday morning, climbed more than 12% on revenue of $582.3 million, up 454% from a year ago, and its first positive quarterly adjusted earnings at $236.2 million.

That AI strength is spreading beyond the headline names. Shares tied to networking, optical equipment, servers and data-center infrastructure also moved higher, including Lumentum, Coherent, Marvell, Applied Digital and IREN. Cava gained after stronger traffic helped lift quarterly results. Outside technology, Definium Therapeutics rose about 20% after the New York biotechnology company said its LSD-based tablet met the main goal of a late-stage anxiety trial. Intel remained the counterweight to the day’s optimism, under pressure after enlarging its planned common stock sale to $20 billion from $15 billion to fund its own computing buildout.

For investors worried that enormous AI capital spending might be slowing, CoreWeave, Super Micro and Nebius delivered the opposite message: customers are still committing billions of dollars to computing capacity.

The one complication is energy. Brent crude remained near $89 a barrel and U.S. crude around $84 as negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz remain unresolved. That means Wednesday’s cooler inflation report is looking backward: much of the latest oil increase occurred after the July measurement period and could begin appearing more clearly in August prices.

Elsewhere in commodities, gold rose about 0.8% to roughly $4,400 an ounce and silver gained 1% to $65.30. The dollar was little changed, with the dollar index near 99.8. The yen remained the soft spot at about 159.4 to the dollar, close enough to 160 to keep Japanese intervention in the conversation.

For the rest of Wednesday, investors have several checkpoints. The weekly petroleum inventory report landed at 10:30 a.m. ET, one of two potential movers for oil on the day. A 10-year Treasury auction at 1:00 p.m. will test demand for government debt, followed by the July federal budget report at 2:00 p.m. After the closing bell, Cisco, StubHub and Coherent are among the companies scheduled to report earnings. Above all, any new U.S.-Iran or Hormuz headline can still quickly move oil, Treasury yields and the broader market.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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

Hatzolah of Mill Basin/Canarsie held its annual members and family BBQ on Tuesday evening, bringing together volunteers, their families, community leaders and supporters for an evening honoring the dedication of Hatzolah members and their families to the community.

A highlight of the evening came when Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso announced that his office is allocating funding to cover the full cost of a brand-new ambulance for Hatzolah of Mill Basin.

Reynoso told the crowd that the Mill Basin ambulance follows previous Borough Hall commitments to fund new ambulances for Hatzolah divisions in Williamsburg and Boro Park.

“Two years ago, I made a commitment to Hatzolah in Williamsburg that I would give them a brand-new ambulance, and I did that,” Reynoso said. “The following year, Borough Park gave me a call and said, ‘I heard somebody’s getting a new ambulance. I want one.’ So we gave Borough Park one.”

Reynoso joked that word of the previous allocations eventually reached Mill Basin through Mill Basin Hatzolah board member Gil Cygler, whom the borough president praised for his persistent advocacy on behalf of the organization.

“Gil, who calls my office 10 times a week to make sure the money is where it needs to be, that’s the type of effort that people need to make to really affect meaningful change in people’s lives,” Reynoso said. “Gil, as a board member, you’re worth your weight in gold. Thank you so much for everything you do.”

“And this year, we’ve been able to allocate one new ambulance to Mill Basin Hatzolah,” Reynoso announced to applause. “So congratulations to you all from Borough Hall.”

Sources tell YWN that Reynoso’s allocation will cover the entire cost of the new ambulance, which has already been ordered and is expected to arrive, b’ezras Hashem, by next summer. Mill Basin Hatzolah board member Gil Cygler played a major role in securing the funding, with Reynoso’s senior advisor, Yanky (Jacob) Eisdorfer, also instrumental in helping bring the funding for the new ambulance to fruition.

Reynoso additionally acknowledged Assemblyman Kalman Yeger for previously matching a Borough Hall commitment toward another Hatzolah ambulance, noting the significant investment that has been made in new Hatzolah emergency vehicles across Brooklyn.

The borough president used his remarks to praise Hatzolah’s lifesaving mission and the willingness of its volunteers to respond to anyone in need, regardless of background.

“A lot of people don’t know the work that Hatzolah does,” Reynoso said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, volunteers are going to show up to help save your life. They don’t ask how much money you have, where you live, what you look like or what religion you’re from. If you need your life to be saved, they will show up.”

Reynoso also praised Hatzolah’s rapid response and thanked its volunteers for the critical work they perform throughout Brooklyn.

The annual BBQ, held at the home of the Shasho family, honored Hatzolah of Mill Basin’s members and their families for their dedication and the countless hours they devote throughout the year to responding to emergencies and serving the broader community.

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(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Lockheed Martin announced the launch of Strigo, a new defense system that integrates radio-frequency (RF) sensors, missile datalinks, and missile seeker technologies on Monday.

According to the announcement, Strigo solution systems can be configured and adapted for use in a variety of missions, such as air defense, missile defense, and surface-to-air engagements.

Lockheed Martin also announced the establishment of a dedicated product center to support Strigo, a move that is intended to advance the new solution system’s concept-to-delivery model.

The Strigo Product Center, which was created less than two years before its announcement, houses operations for developing and producing new RF sensor and missile technologies, in addition to serving as a storefront for the system.

Lockheed Martin aims to turn ‘what if’ into ‘what’s next’

“By putting proactive research and development at the forefront, the Strigo Product Center lets us test and deploy new solutions at unprecedented speed,” Lockheed Martin Sensors and Global Sustainment vice president and general manager Stacy Kubicek said of the new system and center. “That’s how we turn ‘what if’ into ‘what’s next’ faster than ever before.”

According to Lockheed Martin, the product center has already been used to support the innovation of defense technologies from the initial design stage, through testing, and to operational capability in a matter of months. 

The product center’s rapid pace of development and the adaptable nature of the Strigo system are intended to help the US and its allies counter emerging threats and maintain an advantage on the battlefield.

Lockheed Martin noted that technologies developed at the Strigo Product Center informed aspects of the development of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 2 seeker package. 

Lockheed Martin stated that thus far, it has committed $250 million to the Strigo Product Center to fund innovation and development.

Kubicek described the establishment of the center as an investment intended to “reshape the way we develop and deliver next-generation, mission-ready capabilities, ensuring our warfighters have the solutions they need the moment threats evolve.”

This post was originally published on here.

The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $975 million after no ticket matched all six winning numbers in Monday night’s drawing, making it the largest lottery prize of 2026 to date. While the advertised jackpot is approaching the $1 billion milestone, the eventual winner would receive substantially less after taxes if opting for a lump-sum payment.

The winning numbers drawn Monday night were 6, 37, 54, 55, 64, with Red Powerball 10.

The winner of Wednesday night’s drawing will be able to choose between receiving the full $975 million jackpot in 30 annual payments or accepting a one-time cash payout of approximately $422.3 million, the option selected by most jackpot winners.

If the cash option is chosen, the federal government’s mandatory 24% withholding would immediately reduce the payment to about $320.9 million.

Depending on the winner’s total taxable income, the federal tax rate could ultimately reach 37%, lowering the after-tax payout to roughly $266 million.

Those who choose the annuity option would receive annual payments of approximately $32.5 million before taxes. After applying the top federal tax rate of 37%, each yearly payment would be reduced to about $20.5 million.

State taxes could further reduce the winnings. Some states, including New York, impose taxes on lottery prizes, with New York’s rate reaching 10.9%, while states such as Texas, Florida, and California do not tax lottery winnings.

Last month, Powerball expanded ticket sales to the United Kingdom for the first time. Officials said the move is expected to increase jackpot growth by adding more ticket sales to the prize pool.

Under the U.K. version of the game, jackpot winners are required to receive their prize through annual installments over 30 years and are not offered a lump-sum cash option. The U.K. National Lottery currently advertises the jackpot at £503 million (approximately $679.5 million), a figure officials say reflects the estimated value of the 30-year payout after accounting for exchange rates and U.K. tax requirements.

The current jackpot surpasses this year’s previous largest lottery prize—an $800 million Mega Millions jackpot won by a ticket holder in Florida last week. Among Powerball winners this year, the largest claimed jackpot had previously been a $250.8 million prize won by a player in Arkansas.

The next Powerball drawing is scheduled for Wednesday night. If no one wins, the jackpot is expected to become the first U.S. lottery prize to exceed $1 billion since December 2025.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot remain 1 in 292.2 million, unchanged despite the addition of U.K. players. Those odds are even longer than Mega Millions, where the chance of winning the top prize is approximately 1 in 290.4 million.

{Matzav.com}

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, jet-powered aerial drones and sea drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a “unique” nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Russia invaded more than four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers. Both countries have Black Sea shorelines.

Ukraine’s uncrewed fleet has succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country’s biggest accomplishments of the war.

But Ukrainian officials reckon that Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on prosecuting the invasion, despite his bigger army’s slow and costly progress on the battlefield and U.S. diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Putin is planning “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Tuesday, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.

Those reports have also said recently that Russia is expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are hard for Ukrainian air defenses to counter.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is also trying to scale up its weapons manufacturing through agreements with partner countries, as both countries apparently plan to fight on.

Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure
The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday.

The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure in the Krasnodar region city, he added.

Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the region overnight.

Russian air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

In Novorossiysk, an eight-year old child was killed in the attack, and a person wounded when his house in the Temryuk region was hit later died in hospital, Kondratyev said. He added that 12 other people in the region were wounded.

Debris from downed drones fell on the territory of four industrial plants and 21 residential buildings, according to Kondratyev, but officials gave no details of any damage.

Novorossiysk is also home to a key international oil terminal. The Grushovaya oil transshipment complex near Novorossiysk is one of the largest transshipment hubs in southern Russia for oil and petroleum products.

Last February, the U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they have impacted U.S. oil interests in Kazakhstan.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

In illegally annexed Crimea, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, the city’s Russia-appointed head Mikhail Razvozhayev said, adding that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.

Russian drone attacks kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that Russia fired 138 long-range strike drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles at Ukraine during the night. Damage was recorded at 16 locations across the country, it said.

In the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said Wednesday.

The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.

As Elul zman gets underway, Bnei Torah everywhere have an opportunity to bring the beis medrash into their own home or office. A daily iyun shiur given by Rav Gershon Ribner Shlita will IY”H be made available via live Zoom webinar, allowing anyone, anywhere, to re-join yeshiva and immerse in a deep level of Torah learning throughout the zman.

Rav Gershon Ribner is a highly experienced Rosh Yeshiva, prolific speaker and lecturer, and the bal mechaber of the Apischa D’Bava series, Apischa D’Shmaytza series, Shiurei Govoha, and Nesiv Govoha on Shas. His popular Hashkafa Q&A series can be found at www.rebgershonribner.com or on any podcast platform, where thousands of listeners have come to know his clarity and depth.

The shiur will follow a structured daily schedule designed to give participants the full yeshiva experience:

Early morning, participants can prepare the sugya with their chavrusa on their own time. At 1:00 pm, join the live iyun shiur, delivered by a world class maggid shiur, running until 1:25 pm. In the evening, take a deeper dive into the shiur with a chavrusa or independently, using the mareh mekomos provided each day.

This zman’s Limud will be the 10th perek of Bava Metzia. For anyone who misses the live shiur, a replay will be made available later in the day, ensuring no one has to miss out on this rare opportunity for consistent, high level Limud Hatorah.

To register for the live Zoom webinar, click here: Webinar Registration

The IDF issued an unusual Arabic-language warning to residents of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, saying Hamas has intensified interrogations and torture of civilians since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025 — an acknowledgment that the terrorist organization continues to exercise significant control over Gaza’s population.

“Beware: Since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, the IDF and Shin Bet have identified that Hamas has increased its interrogations and torture against you,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman said.

“Hamas is carrying out harsh interrogations involving torture against residents of the Gaza Strip as part of its desperate attempt to strengthen its position,” the statement continued.

The IDF also accused Hamas of continuing to exploit civilian infrastructure for its operations.

“Hamas exploits civilian buildings, including schools, hospitals and mosques, for military purposes,” the IDF said. “These facilities are used to carry out arbitrary arrests and systematic torture.”

Israeli military correspondent Doron Kadosh noted that the statement also highlights a broader reality inside Gaza: despite the war and subsequent ceasefire, Hamas continues to maintain mechanisms through which it controls and intimidates the civilian population.

The IDF’s assessment indicates that the terrorist organization retains the ability to detain residents, conduct interrogations and enforce its authority as it attempts to preserve and strengthen its grip on the Strip.

The statement comes amid continuing questions over Gaza’s postwar governance and efforts to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military and governmental capabilities.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — Apple has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle federal allegations that a manager at one of its Virginia stores made antisemitic comments and discriminated against a Jewish employee, according to court filings.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Apple over alleged treatment of Tyler Steele, a longtime employee at the company’s Reston, Virginia, store.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, Steele converted to Judaism in 2023 and subsequently faced difficulties obtaining time off for the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening through Saturday evening.

The agency alleged that the store manager made antisemitic comments, told Steele he had body odor, required him to work on the Sabbath and warned him against discussing the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel with colleagues.

The EEOC said Steele was fired in January 2024, days after he declined a request to work on a Friday.

Apple denied wrongdoing in court filings. The company and the EEOC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the settlement.

The EEOC had accused Apple of violating federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination and retaliation in the workplace. The agency had sought back pay and other damages for Steele, including punitive damages.

The settlement was filed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, nearly a year after the EEOC filed its lawsuit.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, delivered a forceful defense of Jewish communities in Yehudah and Shomron during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, declaring that Israel’s presence in the region is permanent while accusing the international body of applying a double standard in its treatment of violence.

The Security Council session was convened to discuss recent developments in Yehudah and Shomron.

Speaking before the council, Danon insisted that Jewish communities in the region are an enduring part of the Land of Israel and should not be portrayed as temporary or illegitimate.

“The Security Council must understand a simple truth: we are not going anywhere. Jewish communities will stay in Judea and Samaria. Jewish communities are not temporary outposts, nor obstacles to peace. They are permanent homes, thriving neighborhoods where families live. Judea and Samaria is where our people’s eternal connection to the Land of Israel began,” Danon declared before the council.

Danon also criticized what he described as the UN’s inconsistent approach to reporting violence in the area, arguing that attacks involving Israelis are characterized differently from those committed by Palestinian Arab terrorists.

“When Israelis are involved, this body uses a collective label, ‘settler violence.’ But when Palestinian radicals carry out attacks, you refer only to the ones responsible. That is not justice. that is prejudice,” Danon stated.

{Matzav.com}

The federal government spent April recruiting video gamers to run American airspace, and the pitch worked. The Federal Aviation Administration has hired more than 2,000 gamers to train as air traffic controllers, hitting 94% of its hiring goal for the year, according to the Transportation Department, with another 2,000-plus candidates in the pipeline behind them. The reasoning is plain: the job is watching several moving objects on a screen, deciding fast, and talking while doing it — which is what the applicants had already been doing for years for free.

The agency launched the campaign in April specifically to reach gamers, arguing they bring multitasking, rapid decision-making and strong spatial awareness to the console, and to pull in younger adults who had never considered the career. The recruitment spot opened on an Xbox logo and cut between gamers and controllers working their screens, under the line that they had been training for this already.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the results in a social media post on Aug. 9. He said the campaign broke multiple FAA hiring records, including the most candidates hired in a single year, and credited what he called the agency’s most streamlined hiring process. Speaking Tuesday at Newark Liberty International Airport, Duffy said much of what gamers do while playing is what controllers do managing traffic in the air, and noted that many current trainees started out as gamers.

The response when the hiring window opened was the first sign it would work. The Transportation Department said the agency took 12,350 applications in 24 hours, with 10,779 of those applicants judged qualified — more than double the previous first-day record.

Behind the campaign is a staffing hole that has been years in the making. The FAA counted about 11,000 certified professional controllers in April against a staffing target of 12,563, with roughly 4,000 more in the training pipeline. That 12,563 figure is the full staffing target set in the agency’s 2026 Controller Workforce Plan. The FAA’s 2025 workforce report laid out a plan to hire at least 8,900 controllers over four years, which against more than 6,800 expected departures would net roughly 2,000 additional controllers by the end of 2028. Short staffing is what produces the ground stops, holding patterns and flow restrictions that ripple through airline schedules and freight timetables on any given afternoon.

The economics of the job explain why the pitch lands with people who skipped college. Controllers need no college degree, and those who finish the FAA Academy and complete on-the-job training earn an average of about $155,000. Only about a quarter of controllers hold a traditional four-year degree, which is why the campaign was aimed at young people on alternative career paths. For a 22-year-old with no student debt, few paths reach six figures faster.

Getting hired is not the same as working traffic, and the gap between the two is where the story gets sober. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, under 31 years old, and able to speak clearly over radio equipment. They have to pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment, clear medical and security review, complete training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, and then finish further training at their assigned facility before they can certify to work traffic alone. That last stretch runs one to three years. Washing out is common, and the 2,000 hires announced this week are people who entered that pipeline, not people currently separating aircraft.

That timeline is the real constraint on relief for airlines and passengers. A controller hired this summer is unlikely to be certified at a busy facility before 2028, which means the towers and radar rooms running short today will still be running short through the next several peak travel seasons. The campaign fixes the front end of the funnel; academy throughput and facility training capacity determine how fast anyone comes out the other side.

There is also less novelty here than the campaign suggests, and that is a point in its favor. The FAA’s own surveys found that nearly all recent academy graduates already identified as gamers — the trait was in the workforce long before anyone advertised for it. A 2021 FAA recruiting video made the same argument, with one controller comparing the work to Call of Duty for the peripheral awareness it demands and another likening it to reading an opponent’s next move in a basketball game. What changed in April was where the government went looking. It stopped screening for those traits through résumés and started buying ad time in front of the people who have them.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind has sharply criticized the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, accusing him of endangering the Jewish community by condemning those who speak out against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Hikind said he believes the Rebbe’s remarks were driven by political considerations rather than purely l’sheim Shamayim motives.

“I wish I could believe that it was lishmah, that it was sincere, that it was all about Torah and it was all about God,” Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, told JNS. “But I don’t believe that for one second.”

Hikind said he was stunned when he first read the Rebbe’s comments.

“I was flabbergasted, shocked and had to take a second look at the statement from Satmar, because I really couldn’t believe it,” Hikind told JNS. “They’ve done a lot of radical crazy stuff, but this goes beyond the pale.”

The controversy stems from remarks delivered Sunday by Rav Zalman Leib during his annual address marking the 47th yahrtzeit of the Satmar Rov, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum. According to Hikind, those comments place New York’s Jewish community at greater risk.

“We know that the police department has itself talked about the incitement that’s going on,” he told JNS. “We know that the Justice Department is looking into it. Everyone has been calling on the mayor to tone down his rhetoric, and what the Satmar Rebbe said this week undermines the Jewish people and endangers the Jewish people in New York.”

Rav Zalman Leib told his chassidim that publicly attacking Mamdani violates the Torah’s approach to Jewish life in golus.

“Recently, we have witnessed a terrible provocation against the nations by heimishe Yidden,” by Jews, “through the incitement against the mayor of New York City,” the Rav said.

“We must remember that we are in exile,” he reportedly said. “The novi Yirmiyahu instructed the Jewish people: ‘Seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray to God on its behalf.’”

“An observant Jew must follow the Torah’s path and accept the decree of exile,” he added.

The Satmar Rebbe also argued that labeling Mamdani an antisemite is a mistake.

Mamdani has publicly said that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state and campaigned on arresting Israel’s prime minister should he visit New York. His spokeswoman has also stated that shuls violate international law when they host pro-Israel events.

“To denounce the mayor and brand him an antisemite constitutes a true provocation against the nations,” the Satmar Rebbe reportedly said. “As though the provocation against the nations taking place in Eretz Yisroel,” in Israel, “were not enough, they are now bringing it here to the United States as well.”

Hikind said he believes there may be political calculations behind the Satmar leadership’s position.

“I can’t tell you how many programs they have, but I guarantee you eventually we’re going to find out that they are benefiting from this rhetoric,” he told JNS.

“Instead of protecting the Jewish community, they are protecting Mamdani,” he said. “Mamdani is thrilled with these comments coming out of Satmar and patting them on the back. There are ‘good Jews and bad Jews,’ and now Satmar are the ‘good’ Jews.”

He went even further, arguing that Satmar has aligned itself with those who supported Mamdani politically.

Satmar is “in bed with the radical Jews, the 35% who voted for Mamdani” and who “undermine the Jewish people,” Hikind told JNS. “They’re in bed with those people. They’re on the same page.”

David Myers, professor of Jewish history at UCLA, told JNS that Satmar’s position reflects two longstanding ideological principles that distinguish it from much of the Orthodox community.

According to Myers, Satmar’s anti-Zionist outlook is rooted in its belief that Jews should not hasten the arrival of Moshiach through political action, while its understanding of dina d’malchusa dina requires Jews in golus to respect and obey the governing authorities.

He added that Satmar has also historically maintained a pragmatic approach toward secular government.

“We must add one other key feature of Satmar political behavior: a transactional pragmatism that has always enabled Satmar leaders to engage with and accommodate to secular political leaders in exchange for tangible benefits,” Myers told JNS.

Myers noted that the anniversary of Rav Yoel Teitelbaum’s passing is one of the movement’s most significant annual events, together with the anniversary of his liberation from Bergen-Belsen.

“It is certainly an opportunity to reaffirm Rav Yoelish’s central principles, but the swirling debates around Mayor Mamdani’s views also prompted Rav Zalman Leib to weigh in with his own, decidedly Satmar perspective,” the scholar said.

“Both as a matter of submission to the sovereign and as a reflection of pragmatic accommodation, it is important to honor the city’s leading official,” he said.

While acknowledging Satmar’s anti-Zionist views, Myers said that alone does not fully explain the Rebbe’s comments.

“The fact that they share an anti-Zionist sensibility is interesting but not, ultimately, dispositive, in my view,” Myers told JNS.

“Rav Zalman Leib’s remarks are a reminder that Orthodoxy is hardly a monolithic phenomenon and that there are very sharp differences between competing groups,” he said. “It should serve as a further admonition against those who would ascribe to Jews a single political view or sensibility.”

“Satmar has, for years and years, built up a way of approaching things in which they prefer to try to make deals and try to protect what they can with the ruling authorities,” said Moshe Krakowski, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School.

Krakowski also argued that Satmar today is not as aggressively anti-Zionist as it once was.

He described the movement as operating more in a “non-Zionist slash anti-Zionist mode.”

That distinction, he said, makes it easier for Satmar to separate criticism of Israel from attitudes toward Jews.

“If they felt closer to Israel and to the State of Israel, then you could imagine that that stance might be a little bit more difficult,” he told JNS. “It wouldn’t make it impossible, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that they are non-Zionist.”

Hikind insisted that Jews have an obligation to defend themselves in the face of rising antisemitism.

The elder Rav Teitelbaum, he said, “never would have done this,” especially at a time when antisemitism is increasing across New York City.

“I know we’re in exile. I know. I get it,” he told JNS. “But that doesn’t mean that Jews should not defend themselves or that Jews should not protect their communities.”

“The Jewish community is under attack,” Hikind said. “There is such fear. People talk about whether there’s a future in New York and a future in America because of what’s going on, and what does the Satmar Rebbe do on this very important anniversary of the old Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Teitelbaum—who never would have done this, never—they attack those who stand up and speak out.”

“That’s what they’re doing?” Hikind told JNS. “In the name of God? Shame, shame, shame.”

{Matzav.com}

Could New York actually turn red?

Republican Bruce Blakeman is within striking distance of Gov. Kathy Hochul — and is running ahead of where Lee Zeldin stood at the same point four years ago — according to a stunning new Siena College poll.

Hochul leads the Nassau County executive by just 10 points among likely voters, 49% to 39%, as the race for governor barrels toward the Nov. 3 election.

That’s closer than Zeldin was in August 2022, when Hochul held a 14-point advantage, 53% to 39%.

And that race ended up being a nail-biter.

Hochul ultimately defeated Zeldin by just six points, 53% to 47%, in one of the strongest Republican statewide performances in New York in years.

The new numbers are particularly striking because Hochul is dramatically underperforming other Democrats running statewide.

Attorney General Letitia James leads Republican Saritha Komatireddy by 18 points, 54% to 36%, while Comptroller Tom DiNapoli holds a whopping 23-point advantage over Republican Joseph Hernandez, 55% to 32%.

Hochul is being propped up by massive margins among women, Black voters and New York City residents.

She leads Blakeman by 19 points among women, 56% to 37%, while male voters are essentially split. Among Black voters, Blakeman trails by a staggering 60 points.

And in deep-blue New York City, Hochul crushes Blakeman 64% to 19%.

But outside the five boroughs, the picture changes dramatically.

Blakeman leads Hochul by eight points in the suburbs, 49% to 41%, while the two candidates are deadlocked upstate.

The numbers offer a jolt of optimism for Republicans hoping Blakeman can replicate — and potentially surpass — Zeldin’s surprisingly strong 2022 showing and pull off what would be a political earthquake: putting a Republican back in the governor’s mansion in deep-blue New York.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for Western seizures of its commercial vessels, describing them as “piracy.”

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship that was taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin described the Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia as a breach of international maritime law.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

He added that the Russian response wouldn’t necessarily come in the waters where the Russian ships were seized, noting that Moscow could retaliate “in any area where we see it as necessary and appropriate,” including in the Pacific.

The Pacific Fleet chief, Adm. Viktor Liina, reported to Putin that the navy was ready to start inspections of the commercial ships serving the “unfriendly nations.” He noted that many of the ships operated by British, French and other European carriers fly the flags of other nations, effectively making them a “shadow fleet.”

“We have enough assets for inspection and detention of vessels of the unfriendly nations and their shadow fleet,” Liina told Putin. “We are ready to start performing the task.”

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being of Russia’s “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president in 2008-2012 to let Putin observe term limits and is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, noted that many ships belonging to European carriers fly the so-called “flags of convenience” just like Russian carriers do.

“It means that by applying a symmetrical approach, which is only fair, Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel belonging to hostile nations, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, provided there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is carrying cargo in the enemy’s interest, and that applies to any cargo,” Medvedev said. “There are a great many such vessels, and our military is capable of dramatically expanding operations well beyond the Black Sea basin.”

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rebbetzin Esther Paler a”h, wife of Rav Binyomin Paler zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Mekor Chaim.

Rebbetzin Paler was a daughter of Rav Shmuel Ehrenfeld zt”l, the Mattersdorfer Rov, and was raised in a home steeped in Torah, mesorah and devotion to avodas Hashem. Those values would define her own life as she became the devoted eishes chaver of a legendary marbitz Torah, the aim hayeshiva of Mekor Chaim, and the matriarch of a distinguished family of marbitzei Torah.

For decades, Rebbetzin Paler stood faithfully at the side of her husband, enabling him to devote himself to Torah and the transmission of the Brisker mesorah to generations of talmidim. While Rav Binyomin’s extraordinary accomplishments in harbotzas haTorah became known throughout the Torah world, behind them stood a devoted rebbetzin who assumed the responsibilities of their home and family and provided the support that allowed him to give himself fully to his talmidim and his yeshiva.

Rav Binyomin was one of the closest talmidim of Rav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rov. During World War II, he joined the Mirrer Yeshiva and escaped the horrors engulfing European Jewry together with the yeshiva, ultimately finding refuge in Shanghai.

Following the war, Rav Binyomin joined his chaver from the Mir, Rav Leib Malin, in establishing Yeshivas Bais Hatalmud in Brooklyn. The following year, he was appointed a maggid shiur at Yeshivas Chasan Sofer, headed by his father-in-law, the Mattersdorfer Rov. Rav Binyomin eventually became the rosh yeshiva there.

In 1965, Rav Binyomin established Yeshiva Mekor Chaim. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l gave the yeshiva its name to signify that Rav Binyomin was perpetuating the mesorah of Rav Chaim Brisker. A mesivta was subsequently opened in 1976.

Throughout those years, Rebbetzin Paler was an inseparable part of the story of Mekor Chaim. She was the aim hayeshiva not merely by virtue of being the rosh yeshiva’s wife, but through the role she played in making his life of unrelenting Torah learning and teaching possible. Her home was built around Torah, and the yeshiva and its talmidim occupied a central place in that home.

Rebbetzin Paler possessed the quiet strength and dignity characteristic of the great Torah homes of the previous generation. She was kind and generous, carrying herself with simplicity and refinement, without seeking attention or recognition. Her concern for others, devotion to her family, and deep respect for Torah and its lomdim reflected the chinuch she had received in the home of the Mattersdorfer Rov and Rebbetzin.

She witnessed the rebuilding of the Torah world after the devastation of Europe and devoted her own life to that rebuilding. Through her husband’s harbotzas haTorah, through the yeshiva they built together, and through the generations of their own family, she helped ensure the continuation of the mesorah that had been entrusted to them.

Following Rav Binyomin’s petirah, he was succeeded at Mekor Chaim by his three sons, Rav Yitzchok Paler zt”l and, ybl”c, Rav Zechariah Paler and Rav Simcha Bunim Paler, who continued the yeshiva and the derech established by their father.

In 2012, after nearly 50 years in Brooklyn, Yeshiva Mekor Chaim relocated to Lakewood, establishing its home on Locust Street and continuing there the distinctive mesorah upon which Rav Binyomin had founded the yeshiva.

Rebbetzin Paler endured a profound personal loss in 2020 with the tragic petirah of her son, the rosh yeshiva, Rav Yitzchok zt”l.

She leaves behind a remarkable Torah family and generations of descendants who continue the legacy that she and her husband built over a lifetime.

Rebbetzin Paler is survived by her children, Rav Simcha Bunim Paler and Rav Zechariah Paler, roshei yeshiva of Yeshiva Mekor Chaim; Rebbetzin Olshin, wife of Rav Shmuel Abba Olshin, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah of Hillside; and Rebbetzin Horowitz, wife of Rav Shmuel Simcha Horowitz; as well as many grandchildren.

The levayah will take place today at Yeshiva Mekor Chaim, located at 160 Locust Street in Lakewood, NJ.

Yehi zichrah baruch.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The burial site of an Israeli soldier killed at a British detention camp in Cyprus in 1948 has been identified nearly 78 years after his death, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.

The soldier, Shlomo Haimson, was killed by British guards while attempting to escape the Karaolos detention camp on Sept. 29-30, 1948. His remains were initially buried at a Jewish cemetery in the Cypriot town of Margo.

Haimson was born in Romania in 1930. After World War II, in which he lost his father, he decided to immigrate to what was then British-controlled Palestine with his mother, Ita, and his girlfriend, Perla, aboard the illegal immigrant ship Pan York-Kibbutz Galuyot. The British intercepted the ship and deported its passengers to Cyprus.

While in the detention camp, Haimson joined the “Defenders’ Ranks,” a Haganah-affiliated group that trained detainees for military service in Israel.

In September 1948, Haimson learned that his daughter, Miriam, had been born. He decided to escape the camp and make his way to Israel.

He joined eight other detainees in an attempt to break through the camp’s fences. British guards discovered the group and opened fire. Haimson was killed, while the others were captured and returned to the camp.

He was buried the following day in the Jewish cemetery in Margo. His grave carried no identifying inscription because those responsible for the burial did not have sufficient information about him.

In November 1970, Israel conducted what became known as “Operation Margo,” bringing 163 sets of remains from the cemetery in Cyprus to Israel. About 120 of those buried were unidentified. They were reburied in a special section of the Kfar Samir cemetery in Haifa, most as unknown dead.

The effort to identify the graves began in 2010 after Amir Rogel, one of the founders of the Cyprus Detainees Association, launched a project to identify those buried there and restore their names to their graves.

A special investigative team was established by the IDF’s missing-persons branch in 2023. Investigators examined archival documents from around the world, collected testimony, analyzed historical photographs and conducted archaeological surveys.

The investigation, carried out with the Military Rabbinate, concluded that Haimson was among those transferred from Margo to Israel in 1970 and was buried in grave No. 11, row 2, in the Cyprus detainees section of the Haifa cemetery.

The IDF said the head of its Manpower Directorate approved the findings and authorized a gravestone bearing Haimson’s name.

Haimson’s daughter, Miriam, along with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The family was informed of the identification Tuesday evening at their home in the presence of Israel’s military attaché to Brazil, Col. Uri Ron, and senior IDF and Defense Ministry officials.

A state-military ceremony will be held in Israel in the coming period, when Haimson’s descendants are expected to attend and his name will be added to his grave.

“Seventy-eight years have passed since Shlomo Haimson fell in the deportation camp,” said Brig. Gen. Edna Ilya, head of the IDF Personnel and Casualty Directorate. She said the identification demonstrated Israel’s continuing commitment to its fallen soldiers and their families.

Haimson’s family expressed gratitude to the investigators and said that knowing his story, including his determination to reach Israel after learning of his daughter’s birth, now has a permanent place of remembrance.

President Donald Trump is publicly defending FIFA President Gianni Infantino after a plan to raise roughly $4.2 billion from private investors by selling part of FIFA’s World Cup commercial business collapsed under pressure from major soccer federations.

Trump said removing Infantino would be a “terrible mistake,” praising him for overseeing what the president described as an extraordinarily successful and profitable World Cup.

The dispute is fundamentally about who should profit from one of the world’s most valuable sporting properties.

Infantino had proposed creating a new commercial entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would control commercial and event operations tied to the World Cup and other FIFA competitions.

Outside investors would have been allowed to purchase a non-controlling stake of as much as 20%.

FIFA valued the new business at about $20 billion, meaning a 20% sale could have raised approximately $4.2 billion.

Private investment firm Thrive Eternal, connected to Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital, was expected to be among the leading investors.

The plan immediately triggered resistance from powerful soccer organizations, including UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation.

Their objection was larger than the price.

For generations, FIFA’s biggest tournaments have been controlled by soccer’s governing institutions. Selling part of the commercial operation to private investors would have introduced shareholders whose financial returns could become intertwined with decisions involving television rights, sponsorships, ticketing and future tournaments.

Critics argued that FIFA was effectively putting a piece of the World Cup’s future revenue stream up for sale without adequately consulting the national and regional federations that make up the organization.

The backlash became intense enough that FIFA withdrew the proposal.

FIFA leadership subsequently acknowledged that the process should have been handled differently and promised a review, but the retreat did not end the controversy surrounding Infantino.

Several major federations have questioned his judgment, while some officials have openly called for new leadership.

Trump is now stepping directly into that fight.

The president’s support matters because Infantino has developed an unusually close relationship with the Trump administration, particularly during preparations for the 2026 World Cup hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The tournament also demonstrated why private investors were interested in FIFA’s commercial rights in the first place.

The World Cup has become a massive global business built around broadcasting, corporate sponsorships, hospitality, ticketing and licensing. Expanding the tournament to 48 teams and 104 matches increased the amount of inventory FIFA could sell to broadcasters and sponsors.

That creates a valuable stream of future revenue.

Private-equity investors routinely seek businesses with predictable cash flows that can be packaged, expanded and eventually sold or refinanced. FIFA’s commercial operation has many of those characteristics — except that it sits inside a nonprofit global governing body whose members do not necessarily view maximizing investor returns as its primary purpose.

That tension ultimately helped kill the transaction.

The failed $4.2 billion raise therefore leaves FIFA with a much larger question than whether Infantino survives the political backlash.

It must decide whether the World Cup should remain entirely controlled by soccer’s governing institutions or whether private capital should eventually receive a seat at the table in exchange for billions of dollars.

For now, the investors are out.

Infantino remains in.

And the president of the United States has made clear which side he is on.

JBizNews Desk | Washington & Zurich

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

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A casual encounter at a supermarket in France escalated into an alleged antisemitic confrontation after an Irish tourist reportedly told a Jewish couple that he was sorry Hitler had not “finished the job” and later threatened to shoot them.

Karen Ivers, who recorded the incident, shared the video on X, where it quickly went viral, amassing nearly one million views within hours.

According to Ivers, the encounter began when the man approached the couple after noticing her husband wearing a French national football team shirt and hearing them speak English.

“The man from Ireland approached us because my husband was wearing a French football team shirt, and he also heard us speaking English,” Ivers wrote. “He joked, asking, ‘Why is an Englishman wearing a French shirt?’ My husband replied that he was Australian but liked the shirt, and since we were traveling around France, he was happy to wear it.”

Ivers said the conversation was initially cordial. The man introduced himself as “Paddy from Ireland,” and the group exchanged names and shook hands before discussing Irish football.

The conversation later turned to politics. Ivers said she told the man that her objection was not to Ireland’s football team but to what she described as Ireland’s anti-Israel political climate and support among some groups for Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to her account, the man’s demeanor changed, and he allegedly remarked that he was sorry Hitler had not “finished the job.”

🚨🇮🇪 🚨 🇫🇷

Make this Irish Nazi psychopath famous:

‘The Irishman approached us because my husband was wearing a French football top, and he obviously heard us chatting in English, and bantered ‘Why is an Englishman wearing a French shirt?’ My husband answered in a friendly… pic.twitter.com/cTSodSqTXP

— Karen Ievers 🇮🇪🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@karenievers) August 11, 2026

WARNING: Expletives and violent language

The video begins after the alleged comment, with Ivers repeatedly asking him to repeat what he had said.

“Are you glad Hitler didn’t finish the job? Go on, say it again, Paddy,” she is heard saying. She then turns to the camera and says, “The Irishman just told us he’s sorry that Hitler didn’t finish the job.”

The man replies, “You’re in Europe here.”

As Ivers continues urging him to repeat the alleged remark, the confrontation escalates. The man then threatens her, saying, “Get away from me before I put a bullet in your head.”

While the alleged Hitler comment is not captured on the recording itself, Ivers describes it immediately after it was allegedly made. The death threat, however, is clearly audible in the video.

Afterward, Ivers posted the footage on X with the caption: “Make this Irish Nazi psychopath famous.”

The video has since been widely shared across social media, drawing attention to both the alleged antisemitic remark and the explicit death threat that followed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation slowed last month and a measure of underlying price pressures also cooled, suggesting higher oil and gas prices from the Iran war are only having a limited impact on broader costs in the economy.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But inflation is still higher than before the Iran war began in February, when it was 2.4%. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Donald Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Fed — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose also slipped to 2.5% in July from a year ago, down from 2.6% in June. Core prices rose 0.2% from June to July. Monthly increases at about 0.2% would be low enough over time to bring inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% goal.

Wednesday’s figures could bolster officials at the Federal Reserve who believe the central bank can leave its key rate on hold at about 3.6% while inflation steadily declines on its own as those temporary factors fade.

This story about the July 2026 CPI inflation report will be updated with further details.

Inflation cooled slightly in July even as the pace of consumer price growth from a year ago remains elevated, as the Federal Reserve considers a potential interest rate hike next month.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – increased 0.1% on a monthly basis and is up 3.4% from a year ago.

Those figures were in line with the estimates of economists polled by LSEG. The monthly data follows a reading of negative 0.4% in June, while the annual figure is slightly cooler than last month’s 3.5% reading.

So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and groceries to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.2% from a month ago and are 2.5% higher year over year. The monthly figure represents a slight uptick after price growth was flat in June, while the annual figure is slightly cooler than last month’s 2.6% reading.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday blamed what he described as a “miscommunication” after the NYPD publicly contradicted City Hall’s claim that his wife, Rama Duwaji, would be accompanied by a taxpayer-funded police security detail during her upcoming trip to Syria and Lebanon.

The dispute unfolded after City Hall reversed course on the planned security arrangements. Mamdani ultimately stated that Duwaji will travel next month without NYPD protection, despite a senior spokesperson for his administration saying just one day earlier that officers would accompany her.

Addressing the controversy, Mamdani acknowledged that the earlier announcement had been incorrect.

“There was a miscommunication. She has not yet taken that trip and when she takes that trip it will be without any NYPD detail,” Mamdani told PIX11 when asked about the New York Post’s report.

The controversy began after a source familiar with the matter said Duwaji—whom Mamdani has repeatedly described as a “private person”—had requested an NYPD security detail for the trip. City Hall had initially confirmed that request.

“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the first lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” mayoral spokeswoman Dora Pekec said.

That statement was quickly contradicted by the NYPD, which made clear that the department does not assign officers to accompany personal overseas travel to countries under the highest US travel warning.

“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” a department spokesperson insisted.

“This is not an investigative trip, and therefore, NYPD personnel will not be traveling there for it.”

The department’s response directly contradicted City Hall’s earlier announcement and amounted to a rare public disagreement between the mayor’s office and the NYPD.

One source familiar with the episode said the confusion resulted from a breakdown in communication.

“They never checked with the commissioner.”

When questioned about the conflicting statements, Pekec referred reporters to Mamdani’s explanation that the issue stemmed from a “miscommunication” and declined further comment.

City Hall also declined to provide additional information about Duwaji’s Sept. 20 trip or clarify whether the purpose of the visit is limited to seeing family.

A source familiar with the plans said the trip has no official government purpose.

“It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city.”

Both Syria and Lebanon are currently listed by the US State Department under its highest-level “Do Not Travel” advisory because of ongoing security concerns.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said deploying city police officers to those countries for a personal trip would have been a poor decision.

He described such an assignment as “ill-advised,” adding that it would be costly and require extensive coordination with federal authorities.

“There would be lots of hoops you’d have to go through for that kind of assignment,” he said.

Bratton also said the public contradiction between City Hall and the Police Department should never have occurred.

“You’re going to have to clear up the confusion,” he said.

David Catalfamo, who served as communications director for former New York Gov. George Pataki, said the mayor’s office should defer to law enforcement on security matters and improve communication with the NYPD.

“I suspect communication between the mayor’s office and the police department will be better in the future,” Catalfamo said. “The political folks want to run ahead of the story. It doesn’t work that way when it comes to security.

“The NYPD wants to be there to protect the mayor and his family — but there are limits. Going to Syria and Lebanon is not like buying a ticket on Amtrak.”

Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist, traveled abroad last month without police protection. During that trip, she co-hosted a pro-Palestinian women’s spiritual retreat in Corsica and later served as the “artist-in-residence” at a sold-out “Plants Of The Quran” workshop in Mallorca, Spain. Both events were organized by Women Sanctuary, a travel organization focused on Muslim women.

The episode also highlighted continuing tensions between Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who has not concealed her policy disagreements with the mayor, particularly regarding Israel and public safety.

Tisch entered the administration while openly acknowledging her differences with Mamdani. Within days of his taking office, she reportedly confronted City Hall over what she viewed as the mayor’s slow response to two police shootings.

The two have also publicly diverged on other issues, including Mamdani’s characterization of an incident in which a crowd pelted police officers with snowballs, describing it as simply a “snowball fight that got out of hand.”

Despite those disagreements, Mamdani and Tisch have continued working together, with the mayor frequently highlighting reductions in crime and appearing alongside the police commissioner at public events.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s aviation ministry said Wednesday it was awaiting drug test results for the captain of an Air India flight that dropped about 300 feet (90 meters) suddenly midair last week, injuring 24 passengers and crew members.

The incident on the Airbus A320 took place shortly after it took off on Aug. 4 from Phuket, Thailand to New Delhi while carrying 137 passengers, including three infants and eight crew members. The aircraft later stabilized and landed safely in New Delhi, officials said.

The incident has come under intense scrutiny after local media reported that the captain may have tested positive for marijuana in a follow-up drug screening.

Following the incident, both pilots underwent routine screening for psychoactive substances after the flight landed, India’s aviation ministry said in a statement. Psychoactive substances include alcohol, drugs or other substances that can affect judgment and alertness.

The ministry said the captain’s initial test result required further laboratory confirmation and that both pilots were removed from flying duties pending the inquiry.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to media, said details of the drug screening would be included in the investigation report once it is completed.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, or AAIB, is reviewing flight data, aircraft systems, maintenance and operational records, medical information, and conducting interviews as part of an independent investigation.

The aviation ministry said under international aviation rules, France’s air accident investigation agency, BEA, and aircraft manufacturer Airbus are assisting Indian investigators. They are providing technical expertise, aircraft design information and other documents to help determine what caused the incident, it added.

The incident is the latest setback for Air India as the airline works to overhaul its operations and rebuild its reputation. In 2025 a London-bound flight crashed shortly after take off from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground.

The carrier has also faced mounting challenges in recent years, including disruption caused by conflict in the Middle East and ongoing operational pressures.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Michael Mann, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, has served in his post since September 2025 and has found himself navigating a complex security reality. Speaking on “The Ambassador’s Room” podcast, hosted by Miki Dvori of the Center for Jewish Impact, Mann shared personal experiences from his first months in Israel, condemned the surge in antisemitism across Europe, and reiterated the EU’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The British-born ambassador revealed that his daughter was born in Israel in mid-February, and just nine days later, fighting escalated during Operation Rising Lion. As a result, he and his family spent nearly a month sleeping in their home’s bomb shelter each night.

Despite the security challenges, Mann expressed deep admiration for the resilience and composure of Israelis under fire, highlighting how quickly daily life resumes after rocket alerts.

“People are sitting at a wine bar in Tel Aviv, the siren sounds, everyone goes into the shelter, comes back out, and continues drinking their wine,” he said. “It’s amazing.”

On a lighter note, Mann joked that the biggest “culture shock” he encountered was Israeli driving. He also praised Israeli cuisine, admitting that he has gained weight since arriving. Among his favorite foods, he listed local tomatoes, traditional Shabbat fish, and falafel, adding that his favorite Hebrew word is “Yofi” (“great” or “beautiful”).

Turning to the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents across Europe since the October 7 Hamas attack, Mann described the trend as “shameful, embarrassing and unacceptable.”

He stressed that while people are entitled to criticize Israeli government policies, there is a clear distinction between legitimate political criticism and hatred or discrimination directed at Jews.

“These are ignorant and foolish people who are racist and discriminatory,” he said.

In a separate interview with Ynet, Mann noted that the European Union has adopted a ten-year strategy to combat antisemitism, strengthen security for Jewish institutions, and promote Jewish life across Europe.

Addressing the diplomatic arena, Mann reaffirmed the European Union’s longstanding support for a two-state solution, with a viable Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace and security.

He also reiterated the EU’s position that Hamas, which the European Union designates as a terrorist organization, should have no future role in either governing or providing security in the Gaza Strip. Mann said Hamas must be fully disarmed and that, following a process of conditional reforms, the Palestinian Authority should ultimately assume governance over all Palestinian territories.

Sergey Brin has now put more than $100 million into defeating a California ballot measure that could cost him $13 billion — a ratio that explains why the fight is worth it to him, and why it is being waged with money rather than argument.

A filing Friday shows Brin donated another $20 million to Building a Better California, a political advocacy organization opposing the state’s billionaire tax, bringing his total contributions to $102 million. Brin, the world’s fourth-richest person with a net worth around $267 billion, faces an estimated $13.3 billion payment if the measure passes.

Under Proposition 40, billionaires who were California residents on Jan. 1, 2026 would owe a one-time tax equal to 5% of their net worth, due in 2027, with the option to spread payment over five years at additional cost. It would hit roughly 200 people, with 90% of the revenue directed to the state’s healthcare program and 10% to education, food assistance and administration. Backers, led by the labor group SEIU-UHW, project it could raise as much as $100 billion.

The fiscal hole behind the measure is real. California’s Medicaid program alone could lose up to $30 billion in federal funding once the Trump administration’s budget cuts take effect next year.

The opposition strategy is not simply to defeat Prop 40 at the ballot. Build a Better California is separately backing two competing measures, Propositions 41 and 42, described by supporters as attempts to keep Prop 40 from ever taking effect by restricting the state’s ability to introduce new taxes at all. One of the qualifying measures would require audits of programs funded by new state special taxes. All three go before voters in November.

The other defense is already underway, and it is the one that matters most for California’s tax base. Brin now lists Nevada as his residence in state records and reportedly bought a $51 million home near Miami Beach in March. Larry Page has converted several assets out of California, incorporating his family office Koop in Delaware in December 2025, with the nonprofit Oceankind similarly reincorporated around the same time. Travis Kalanick, Peter Thiel and Page have all left the state, and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly bought a $170 million mansion near Miami this year.

That mobility is the structural problem with a state-level wealth tax, and it is why the measure has split the Democratic side rather than uniting it. Governor Gavin Newsom opposes Prop 40, citing the economic impact of billionaires and their businesses leaving California, and has called instead for a national billionaires’ tax. Writing that an office worker can shoulder a higher tax rate than an heiress, Newsom argued for ending what he called the tax-free lifestyle loan — borrowing against stock portfolios while reporting no taxable income. A federal version removes the exit option that a state version cannot.

There is not yet clear evidence establishing how much of the relocation activity is attributable to Prop 40 specifically. Residency changes among the very wealthy have been running for years, driven by state income tax rates as much as by any single ballot measure.

Spending above $100 million from a single donor on a state tax measure is unusual, and the sum is dwarfed by the $13.3 billion at stake — which suggests the campaign is aimed at more than one election. The approach mirrors tactics used in other states where wealthy donors have funded ballot initiatives to constrain future tax policy.

California has become the center of the debate over the K-shaped economy and the diverging fortunes it produces. November decides whether the state tests the theory that wealth can be taxed where it is held rather than where it is earned.

JBizNews Desk | San Francisco

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

President Donald Trump on Tuesday renewed his criticism of Iran’s leadership, saying he has no trust in the regime while asserting that the United States currently holds a commanding strategic position over Tehran.

Speaking with reporters after returning from an official trip to Ohio, Trump said he believes the situation involving Iran is unfolding in America’s favor.

“Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine,” Trump remarked to reporters on the tarmac following an official trip to Ohio.

Trump stressed that he remains deeply skeptical of Iran’s intentions and argued that the United States has complete control over one of the world’s most critical waterways.

“I’m the last person to trust Iran. They’ve lied to me constantly. We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now. They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it. And at some point, maybe they’ll do something, and then they get blown away.”

#WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, "I don't trust Iran. I'm the last person who trusts Iran. They've lied to me constantly. We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz right now. They don't have control. We have total control. We own it. And at some point, maybe they'll… pic.twitter.com/gzXOYP9dVj

— ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2026

He added that Iran has lost the dominant regional influence it once exercised.

“But we right now, we’re in a very good position. We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years. It’s been saying 47 for four years. And they’re no longer the bully of the Middle East.”

Reporters also asked Trump about a Washington Post report published Monday describing a covert security operation during his departure from Turkey last month. According to the report, Trump secretly switched to a different military aircraft while the White House publicly maintained that he was flying aboard Air Force One because of a reported Iranian threat.

Trump said the decision was made entirely by his security team and that he simply followed their guidance.

“Well, it’s only up to Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, a different plane … but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say,” Trump explained.

He added that while he was aware there had been a threat, he did not seek extensive details.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats. I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about,” he added.

Trump’s latest remarks came one day after he was questioned about his earlier warning that the current negotiations with Iran represented its last opportunity before “decapitation.” Asked what would happen if diplomacy failed, the president declined to elaborate.

“You’ll find out.”

When reporters asked whether a significant military escalation remains an option, Trump again emphasized that the United States has that capability.

“Well, we certainly have that ability if we want to do that. You’ll find out.”

Trump also repeated his rejection of Iranian demands for reparations, arguing that if compensation is owed, it is Tehran—not Washington—that should be paying.

“They ask for reparations, you might say, or they ask for money for the damage that we’ve done. And I said, that’s a good idea. Well, we’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period, whether you go USS Cole or whether you go [to] all of the people that were so badly hurt, so badly wounded or killed – many thousands of people. And maybe damages for the 52,000 protesters over the last four months that were killed in Iran. It was at least 52,000 a month and a half ago. So now what is it? If there are damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages.”

{Matzav.com}

Americans borrowed more to buy cars in the second quarter than in any quarter on record, even as overall household debt edged lower for the first time since the pandemic.

The New York Fed reported Tuesday that consumers took out $211 billion in new auto loans between April and June, while also adding to credit card and home equity balances. The figure is a record in dollar terms only, not adjusted for inflation — the 2021 buying surge produced quarterly auto borrowing around $200 billion, but drove up prices along with it.

That distinction matters, because the number reflects sticker prices as much as buying appetite. The average amount financed reached $43,925 for a new vehicle and $27,070 for a used one, with the average new-car payment hitting an all-time high of $770 a month earlier this year and used-car payments averaging $531. New-vehicle prices rose 0.2% year over year in June while used car and truck prices fell 2.0%. A record borrowing quarter can mean people are buying more cars, or the same number of more expensive ones.

Auto debt is now the second-largest category of American consumer borrowing after mortgages. Auto balances rose $28 billion, or 1.7%, in the second quarter, with credit card balances up $21 billion and student loan balances slipping slightly. Outstanding auto loan debt stood at $1.685 trillion at the start of the year, about 9% of total consumer debt and roughly 57% above where it was a decade earlier.

The headline decline in total household debt is largely a technical artifact. Overall consumer debt slipped to $18.8 trillion, but the Fed tied the drop to a change in how mortgage data is reported, and expects the mortgage decline to be offset by a comparable jump in the next report. It was still the first quarterly decline in aggregate household debt since the second quarter of 2020, with balances up $4.6 trillion since the end of 2019.

One of the quarter’s clearer signals came from home equity. Home equity loan balances rose $19 billion, part of a four-year pattern Fed researchers attribute to older homeowners pulling cash out through second liens rather than refinancing a low-rate first mortgage at today’s rates. Homeowners sitting on mortgages issued years ago are, in effect, borrowing around their own loans.

On delinquency, the report pushed back against a widely cited alarm. The overall delinquency rate fell slightly to 4.7% of outstanding balances from 4.8%. Fed staff economists wrote that credit card delinquency, though elevated versus pre-pandemic levels, appears to have stabilized: the share of card debt more than 90 days past due climbed from 7.6% in late 2022 to 12.8% at the start of this year, but the pace at which households actually fall behind has been essentially unchanged for about two years, with roughly 7% of balances flowing into delinquency each quarter. The researchers attributed the rise in the stock of delinquent debt to lenders keeping charged-off accounts on their books longer rather than to worsening household finances.

The card delinquency rate itself fell to 12.92% from 13.12%, while student loan delinquency rose to 10.6% from 10.34%.

The broader picture is a consumer who keeps spending despite thinner real income. Personal consumption jumped 3.2% in the second quarter, a sharp rebound from a weak first quarter that kept overall growth from slowing further than it did — to a 1.5% annual pace from 2.1%. A Bank of America Institute analysis of July data found credit card spending excluding gas up 4.3%, even as the temporary lift from events like the World Cup faded, along with signs that spending rates across income groups are converging and the economy’s K-shaped split is easing. The institute concluded that consumer financial health looks solid, noting the share of households paying off card bills in full each month has risen with little sign of accelerated savings drawdown.

For lenders and dealers, the takeaway is that credit is still flowing at high volume with delinquency holding steady — but at loan sizes and monthly payments that leave less room if the labor market softens. The report lands in the middle of a running debate among Fed policymakers over when prices rising faster than incomes will finally show up as either weaker consumption or a jump in defaults. Two quarters in a row, it hasn’t.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

President Donald Trump said he would welcome the opportunity to seek another term in the White House in 2028, while recognizing that the U.S. Constitution presents a significant legal obstacle to any attempt at a third presidency.

Speaking to reporters, Trump was asked whether he was serious about pursuing another campaign after repeatedly referencing the 2028 election in recent months.

“Everybody asks me that question, and you know that the law is very strong on that,” Trump said, according to IANS.

“I’d love to run, but the law is very strong,” he added.

The question came after Trump was asked about a “Trump 2028” advertisement displayed during a recent dinner event, as well as repeated chants from supporters encouraging him to seek another term.

Trump said the issue is raised with him frequently.

“I get asked by everyone… Even tonight, they’re screaming at the event, ‘2028.’”

Despite his remarks, Trump stopped short of saying he intends to challenge the constitutional prohibition on serving more than two elected terms as president.

The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951 following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four presidential victories, bars any individual from being elected president more than twice.

Trump has already been elected president on two occasions, first in 2016 and again in 2024, making him ineligible for another elected term under the current Constitution.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has recently been holding regular consultations with two small, select groups — one focused on security matters and the other on political strategy ahead of the elections, Kan News reported Monday evening.

The security group, known as the “Officers’ Forum,” includes senior reserve officers Effi Eitam, Chezi Nehama, Erez Wiener and Yiftach Ron-Tal. According to the report, the group meets every week or two, with Netanyahu seeking the members’ assessments on security matters.

The political advisory group, which focuses on campaign strategy ahead of the upcoming elections, was established more recently. Its members hold telephone discussions as well as in-person meetings approximately once every week and a half.

The group includes Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Energy Minister Eli Cohen.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A major rescue operation unfolded Sunday in the Austrian Alps after 36 members of three Chareidi families, including small children and babies, became stranded in dangerous terrain near Sölden at an altitude of approximately 2,300 meters.

The group included citizens of Belgium, Austria, the United States and Britain. According to reports, the families had set out without mountain shoes or basic safety equipment and were traveling with strollers and babies.

They had planned to descend along a wide forest path, but strayed from the intended route and eventually reached steep, exposed terrain where there was a danger of falling. Conditions became especially difficult for those traveling with strollers, and at one point, one of the small children reportedly had to cling to rocks to keep from falling.

Two members of the group called rescue services at approximately 5:15 p.m., prompting the deployment of two helicopters and ground rescue teams.

Fourteen people, including the youngest children, were evacuated by helicopter using ropes, while the remaining 22 hikers were escorted down to the valley on foot by rescuers.

Despite the dangerous circumstances, no one was injured.

The families are expected to bear the full financial cost of the rescue operation, which is expected to amount to thousands of euros.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iran is going to become a member of the BRICS Bank, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said, according to reports from Iranian media on Tuesday evening.

BRICS is an organization made up of eleven countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. It is an economic and geopolitical bloc that focuses on trade and development.

The New Development Bank (BRICS Bank) is a “multilateral development bank established by BRICS with the purpose of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging markets and developing countries,” its website explains.

Hemmati announced that Iran was set to join the BRICS Bank in the near future, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

Iran expects the BRICS Bank to provide economic benefits

“Productive cooperation has commenced between our country and India in the areas of monetary affairs, banking, and the digital economy,” Hemmati said.

The next BRICS Summit will take place in September. The Governor said “The BRICS summit offers a prime opportunity to meet with officials from member nations with whom our country maintains its most extensive monetary and banking exchanges and interactions,” Tasnim reported.

“We believe that BRICS member nations can conduct trade using their national currencies, and we are pursuing bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with these members.”

Iran’s economy in crisis after war with US

Iran’s wartime economic crisis has triggered mass layoffs across multiple industries, with Iranian officials estimating that some two million people have lost work “directly or indirectly” due to the conflict and a prolonged nationwide internet blackout, according to a report by The New York Times.

Businesses across Iran have begun laying off workers as the country’s economy struggles under the combined pressure of war-related disruptions, sanctions, infrastructure damage, and the government-imposed internet blackout.

Iranian Deputy Labor Minister Gholamhossein Mohammadi said the conflict had already resulted in the loss of more than one million jobs and left another two million people “directly or indirectly unemployed,” according to statements given to Tasnim.

Asher Smith contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here.

Israeli police are facing mounting outrage in the Chareidi community following the transfer of yeshiva bochur Moshe Steiner to the Military Police after he arrived for questioning in an unrelated criminal investigation, with the Peleg Yerushalmi preparing major protests and roadblocks in central Israel on Wednesday afternoon.

According to B’Chadrei Chareidim, police issued a clarification Wednesday amid growing criticism over Steiner’s arrest, stressing that contrary to earlier reports, he had not been summoned merely as a witness.

Police said Steiner was questioned under caution by the Lahav 433 investigative unit as a suspect in serious criminal offenses. During the investigation, authorities discovered that he was also wanted by the Military Police for failing to report for IDF service.

“Following incorrect and misleading reports, and in order to prevent the continued misleading of the public, we will set the record straight,” police said. “The suspect was summoned for questioning under caution by Lahav 433 for serious criminal offenses. Upon learning that the suspect was wanted by the Military Police, a report was transferred as is customary and required. Any other publication is incorrect and intended to reinforce a biased and false narrative.”

But the clarification appears to have done little to calm the anger within the Chareidi community, where the case has fueled concerns that Chareidim wanted by the IDF could risk arrest and transfer to military authorities when dealing with civilian police — even in unrelated matters.

Chareidi figures involved in the issue told B’Chadrei that the police response failed to address what they described as a rapidly deteriorating relationship between law enforcement and the Chareidi community.

“The embarrassing police statement, in an attempt to minimize the damage, does not provide any answer whatsoever to the severe crisis of trust that is developing between the police and the Chareidi public surrounding the arrests of draft evaders,” they said.

“If this bochur was such a dangerous criminal, they would have knocked on his door at two in the morning with handcuffs. In any event, what relevance does the fact that he is suspected of an offense have to handing him over to the military?”

Another source sharply criticized Police Commissioner Daniel Levi over what he described as an inconsistent policy.

“The Police Commissioner is creating absolute chaos here,” the source said. “Now it is unclear when they hand someone over and when they don’t. What is the guiding principle?”

The controversy comes after Shas MK Moshe Abutbul contacted National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over the incident on Tuesday and demanded answers. Chareidi officials have warned that such incidents could make members of the community reluctant to contact police even when they are victims of crimes, out of fear that their military status could lead to their detention.

According to the report, Steiner had been summoned by Lahav 433 on suspicion of involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses. Investigators suspect he acted as an intermediary between people seeking licenses despite not being qualified and individuals who allegedly took driving tests in their place.

Police say it was during that investigation that officers discovered Steiner was wanted by the Military Police, resulting in his transfer to military custody.

Meanwhile, the Peleg Yerushalmi is preparing demonstrations in central Israel in response to Steiner’s transfer. Organizers have not publicly announced the precise locations, but B’Chadrei reported that major traffic disruptions are expected in the Bnei Brak area beginning at approximately 4:00 p.m.

Based on previous Peleg demonstrations, possible protest locations include Route 4 and Jabotinsky Street.

Steiner’s detention comes after approximately three weeks without reported arrests of Chareidi draft evaders across Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Ukrainian strikes have reportedly crippled the air defense and electronic warfare systems protecting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lavish Black Sea estate, leaving the sprawling compound vulnerable to additional attacks, according to a new report.

The estate, widely known as “Putin’s Palace,” was recently targeted in separate attacks that damaged both its electronic jamming equipment and nearby anti-aircraft missile systems, The Times of Moscow reported.

Military analyst Yan Matveyev said satellite imagery indicates that key defensive assets have been destroyed.

“Satellite imagery shows the destruction of at least one launcher … Now Putin’s ‘palace’ is left unprotected,” military analyst Yan Matveyev told the outlet.

According to the report, the first significant strike occurred on Aug. 7, when Ukrainian weapons hit a Volna Kupol Garant electronic warfare system positioned near the Black Sea compound.

The system, which reportedly protects an area of more than seven square miles, is designed to disrupt Starlink satellite communications, which Ukrainian forces rely on to coordinate military operations.

After the jamming system was disabled, Ukrainian drones were able to strike nearby S-400 air defense batteries, according to Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

The Times of Moscow reported that the attack on the S-400 system took place on Aug. 9. The missile launcher reportedly burned for roughly three hours before being destroyed.

Matveyev said the damage has significantly weakened the defenses surrounding the estate and could leave it exposed to future Ukrainian strikes.

The expansive residence, reportedly spanning approximately 190,000 square feet, sits on Cape Idokopas near the Black Sea resort city of Gelendzhik, not far from the Crimean Peninsula.

Public attention was first drawn to the property in 2021 through an investigative documentary released by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Siberian penal colony in 2024.

According to Navalny’s investigation, the estate includes a casino, theater, hockey rink, vineyard, and a hookah lounge.

Navalny also claimed the compound was protected by extraordinary security measures, including heavily fortified fencing, a private port, its own security force, a no-fly zone, and an independent border checkpoint, effectively making it “a state within a state.”

Putin has consistently denied owning the property. Reports indicate he has rarely visited the estate in recent years as Ukraine has expanded attacks targeting Russian-held Crimea and military assets along the Black Sea coast.

{Matzav.com}

A proposal floated by a senior member of former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party to exempt a significant percentage of Chareidi yeshiva bochurim from military service triggered sharp attacks Wednesday from other opposition leaders, exposing major divisions over how a future government would handle the draft issue.

Yoram Cohen, the former head of the Shin Bet and a member of Eisenkot’s party, discussed Yashar’s proposed framework during an interview with Kan Reshet Bet, saying it would permit exemptions for a portion of the Chareidi population.

“Gadi already said in our plan, up to 3% of the overall draft, which can sometimes reach up to 30% of the entire Chareidi population — who would be called exceptional scholars and the like,” Cohen said.

Cohen indicated that the exemptions might not be limited exclusively to outstanding yeshiva students, adding: “And perhaps other relevant groups besides exceptional scholars would also receive [an exemption].”

The comments quickly drew a furious response from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Beyachad party, who declared that he would accept no such compromise in a future government.

“For us, there will be no compromises whatsoever on the draft — not 30% exemptions and not ‘frameworks,’” Bennett said. “There will be one simple rule: Not Zionist — not on my dime. Everyone is obligated to enlist, and whoever does not serve the country will not receive a single shekel from the state for the rest of his life.”

Bennett went further, describing the issue as a non-negotiable condition for joining the next government.

“The tens of billions that the draft dodgers received will be transferred to those who serve. That’s it. This is the only way to save the country, and therefore it is an ironclad condition for the next government. A government that does not draft Chareidim and fix Israel has no right to exist.”

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party similarly rejected Cohen’s proposal, insisting that it would oppose exemptions even on a far smaller scale.

“In the next government, everyone will serve in the IDF. There will be no exemption — not for 30% and not for 3%,” the party said.

The public clash highlights a significant divide among parties seeking to form an alternative government, with Eisenkot’s party signaling support for at least some exemptions for Chareidi yeshiva students while Bennett and Liberman are publicly demanding a far more sweeping draft policy.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Air Canada sold a quarter of its frequent flyer program on Tuesday, and it did not give up control of anything. An investor group led by Blackstone and La Caisse is paying C$2.5 billion — roughly US$1.8 billion — for a 25 percent non-controlling stake in Aeroplan Inc., a price that values the loyalty program at C$10 billion. Air Canada keeps 75 percent and continues to run Aeroplan’s strategy, operations and day-to-day management.

The reason a points program commands that kind of money has little to do with flying. Airlines sell miles in bulk to banks, hotel chains and retailers, which then hand them out to cardholders and customers. The airline collects cash the moment the points are sold and only delivers a seat later, if the member ever redeems. It is steady, high-margin revenue that does not move with jet fuel or booking cycles — which is exactly what makes it attractive to a buyer like Blackstone and exactly what makes it useful collateral for an airline that needs money.

Aeroplan has more than 10 million active members and lets them earn or redeem across more than 50 airline partners. Alongside Blackstone and La Caisse, the Québec pension manager formerly known as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the group includes PSP Investments and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Settlement is scheduled for August 17.

The cash has a job waiting for it. Air Canada will use the proceeds to repay a US$1.2 billion bond coming due — about C$1.7 billion — cutting gross debt without drawing down its cash balance, with most of the remainder going toward accelerated share buybacks. The airline said it intends to launch a substantial issuer bid for up to C$800 million of its shares, priced through a modified Dutch auction after the Aeroplan settlement and targeted for completion in September.

The structure matters as much as the price. Air Canada holds the right to buy the stake back between the fifth and eighth anniversaries of settlement, at a price set by a formula that delivers the investors a 6.5 percent internal rate of return net of all distributions. Air Canada will keep consolidating Aeroplan in its financial statements, with the outside stake carried as a non-controlling interest in shareholders’ equity. In plain terms, this looks less like selling a business and more like borrowing against one: the airline takes cash today, the investors take a defined return and a slice of distributions, and Air Canada has a marked path to buying the whole program back.

Chief Financial Officer John Di Bert said the deal unlocks value from Aeroplan while the airline retains operational control, and tied it to Air Canada’s pursuit of an investment grade credit rating. Mark Rutledge, a senior managing director at Blackstone, pointed to the firm’s long-running commitment to investing in Canada. Blackstone, the largest alternative asset manager in the world, oversees more than US$1.3 trillion in assets.

Investors had already moved on the news before it was official. Air Canada shares climbed to their highest level since July 2021 after Bloomberg reported Monday that Blackstone was closing in on a minority interest, and Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Konark Gupta upgraded the stock to sector outperform, arguing the price implied a far richer value for the loyalty business than the market had been assigning it.

Air Canada has been down this road before, in the other direction. Aeroplan was separated from the airline after its 2003 bankruptcy protection filing, went public in 2005, and later became Aimia. The relationship soured, and in 2017 Air Canada announced it would not renew its agreement and would build a competing program — sending Aimia’s stock down 63 percent in a single day. Air Canada then led a consortium with TD, CIBC and Visa to buy the program back for $450 million in cash plus the assumption of roughly $1.9 billion in Aeroplan Miles liability. Seven years later, a quarter of that same program is worth C$2.5 billion.

The timing is not accidental. Air Canada reports earnings Wednesday, and Bloomberg Intelligence has projected an 85 percent year-over-year drop in adjusted net profit, with the carrier squeezed by jet fuel prices driven higher by the war in Iran. An airline heading into a weak quarter with a large bond maturity in front of it has every reason to convert its most durable asset into cash without surrendering it — a playbook U.S. carriers wrote during the pandemic, when Delta, United and American all borrowed billions against their own mileage programs rather than sell equity at the bottom.

BofA Securities, Stikeman Elliott and Deloitte advised Air Canada and Aeroplan; Scotiabank, Kirkland & Ellis and Blake, Cassels & Graydon advised Blackstone. The money lands August 17, the buyback follows in September, and the earnings report arrives Wednesday.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A devastating road accident on Road 383 near Tel Azekah claimed the lives of two men overnight, authorities announced Tuesday, leaving two families and their communities in mourning.

One of the victims was Rabbi Meir Turgeman, 42, a respected resident of Beit Shemesh’s Nahal Revivim neighborhood. The tragedy was made even more heartbreaking by the fact that just one day earlier he had celebrated the bar mitzvah of his son, Yehonatan. Less than 24 hours after the family’s joyous celebration, Rabbi Turgeman was killed in the fatal collision. He is survived by his wife, Yael, and their nine children.

Rav Meir Turgeman z’l

The second victim was Noam Dadon, 27, of the community of Sdot Micha, located on road 383. Dadon had been preparing for his wedding, which was scheduled to take place in approximately two months. His sudden death has shocked his family and friends.

The crash involved two private vehicles. Emergency responders who arrived at the scene pronounced both men dead. A woman in one of the cars was moderately injured.

Volunteers from ZAKA’s Jerusalem District and Beit Shemesh unit worked for nearly four hours at the complex crash site, where both vehicles had overturned and come to rest on opposite sides of the highway. Firefighters carried out a lengthy and difficult extrication operation to remove one of the victims from the wreckage.

Following the recovery operation, ZAKA volunteers completed the collection of human remains and personal effects in accordance with Jewish law, working alongside Israel Police traffic investigators, who have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal collision.

ZAKA Beit Shemesh commander Avrahami Kapp and deputy commander Yosef Chaim Hauzi are accompanying the bereaved families and assisting them with the necessary arrangements during this difficult time.

Americans bought fewer existing homes in July for the second month running, and the reason is the same one that has been holding the market down for three years: the people who would normally be selling are sitting on mortgages they cannot replace.

Existing-home sales fell 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million, according to National Association of Realtors data released Tuesday. Economists had expected a smaller 1% drop. Sales were still 0.7% above July 2025, and transactions for the year to date run 2.4% ahead of the same stretch last year.

The lock-in works like this. A homeowner carrying a mortgage from 2020 or 2021 who sells and buys again swaps a low fixed rate for today’s. On the same loan balance, that can add hundreds of dollars a month for the identical house. So the owner stays put, the listing never appears, and the buyer who would have purchased it has nothing to bid on.

Rates moved the wrong way again in July. The average 30-year fixed climbed to 6.54% from 6.49% in June, per Freddie Mac, and reached 6.69% by early August — its highest since July 2025 — after six straight weeks of increases tied in part to geopolitical pressures that have kept inflation elevated since February. Rates moved from 6.43% to 6.66% over the course of the month.

Supply tightened rather than loosened. Unsold inventory fell 1.9% from June to 1.54 million units, leaving 4.6 months of supply — unchanged from both the prior month and a year ago. That squeeze keeps pushing prices up: the median existing-home price hit $434,100, a 2.0% annual gain and the 37th consecutive month of year-over-year appreciation.

Regionally, the picture split cleanly. The Northeast rose 2.0% for the month with a median price of $563,800, up 5.2% from a year earlier. The South fell 3.1%, the Midwest dropped 2.0%, and the West was flat. Median prices ran $622,200 in the West, $371,700 in the South and $342,900 in the Midwest.

The most concerning number in the report is who is missing. First-time buyers made up just 29% of July transactions, down from 33% in June and well below the 40% share NAR considers healthy. Cash buyers held at 26% and investors at 14%, both slightly above June. When more than a quarter of purchases are all cash, the financed buyer is competing against people rates cannot touch.

Affordability has technically improved. NAR’s Housing Affordability Index rose to 103.3 in July from 98.3 a year earlier, with gains in all four regions and the West leading at 7.3% — a reading above 100 means a household earning the median income can qualify for a mortgage on the median-priced home. But pending home sales posted their steepest monthly drop of 2026, and those affordability gains have not converted into transactions.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun called sales remarkably stable given where rates have gone, and said the market would be thriving if rates returned near 6%. He noted that in smaller Midwest cities, a $60,000 household income is enough to qualify for a median-priced home — a threshold that does not exist on the coasts. Freddie Mac’s Sam Khater said improving inventory and slightly lower listing prices suggest the market is beginning to adjust.

Homes took 29 days to sell on average, up from 28 in June. Single-family sales ran at 3.69 million with a median of $440,300, while condos and co-ops held flat at 370,000 with a median of $371,800.

For brokers, lenders and homebuilders, the read-through is that volume recovery is now hostage to a single variable. Nothing in the July data suggests demand has collapsed — it suggests transactions are being rationed by the rate spread between existing mortgages and new ones. Sales are still marginally ahead of last year on the strength of the Midwest and West. That gap closes only when rates fall enough to make moving rational again, or when enough time passes that the cheap mortgages age out of the market.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will move forward with a new federal rule ending the use of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds for gender-transition medical treatments provided to children and adolescents.

President Donald Trump revealed the policy in a Truth Social post, saying he instructed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to halt federal funding for gender-transition hormones and surgeries for minors.

“Today, at my direction, Dr. Mehmet Oz announced that Medicaid will NO LONGER fund gender transition surgeries and hormones for minors,” Trump wrote.

“We are not going to pay for our innocent children to undergo these barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies,” he added.

Trump also said his administration’s efforts over the past year and a half have already prompted numerous hospitals to discontinue what he described as “so-called ‘gender-affirming care'” for minors, adding that he believes additional hospitals will do the same.

“Just think about all of the young, innocent, and perhaps confused children who will be spared!” Trump wrote.

According to CNBC, the regulation is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 13. Under the new rule, federal Medicaid and CHIP dollars could no longer be used to pay for puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender-transition surgeries for minors.

Individual states, however, would still have the option of funding such treatments with state money if they choose.

Gender-transition surgeries involving minors remain relatively uncommon.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the new policy follows a review conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services examining both American and international research on medical gender-transition treatments for children.

According to CMS, that review found “significant evidence gaps, documented serious safety concerns, and concluded that the evidence supporting these interventions for children remains insufficient to justify federal taxpayer funding.”

The administration did not release additional details Tuesday regarding the specific studies or evidence underlying those findings.

Gender-transition care may include mental health counseling as well as medical treatments intended to align a person’s physical characteristics with his or her gender identity.

Some of the medications involved in such treatment, including puberty blockers and hormones, are also prescribed to children for unrelated medical conditions.

The new rule does not change federal coverage for mental health services provided to children.

Several major American medical organizations continue to support access to gender-transition treatment when provided in accordance with established clinical guidelines.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has said existing research suggests that access to such care can improve mental health outcomes, including for young people, while denying treatment may worsen mental health symptoms and increase the risk of suicide.

The announcement comes as Republican-led states continue advancing restrictions on gender-transition treatments for minors. According to health policy research organization KFF, 27 states have enacted laws limiting such care for children.

Trump also framed the policy as a key issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, drawing a sharp contrast between Republicans and Democrats.

“While the Dumocrat Party wants your kids to be able to chop off their reproductive organs before they are old enough to vote, President Donald J. Trump (ME!) and the Republican Party say that is ABSURD, and we will protect America’s children,” Trump wrote.

“Please remember this when you are casting your vote in the Midterm Elections in November,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

The traditional path to homeownership — from portal search to real estate agent to loan officer — is being rapidly rewired by artificial intelligence (AI), and the industry’s biggest players want to be first through the new front door.

That was the central theme of a packed session Tuesday at HousingWire‘s AI Summit in Dallas, where Diego Sanchez, president of HW Media, sat down with Dan Snyder, CEO of Lower, and Chris Rediger, CEO of HouseCanary. The trio explored how AI is reshaping discovery, lead generation and the mortgage process itself.

Snyder’s company has been aggressively acquiring assets to build an end-to-end platform. He opened by describing the logic behind Lower’s recent purchases of Movoto, the fifth-largest real estate portal, and NeatLabs, a venture-backed point-of-sale loan operating system.

“What we’re trying to do is form one path — search to close,” Snyder said. “Essentially, our consumer goes in the front door; Movoto, whether it’s to Movoto.com or through AI, we’ll see what happens there. Then, how do you embed the financing? How do you ultimately get the loan closed and make the human talent shine?”

Snyder acknowledged that the industry is at an inflection point, with AI accelerating development cycles and product refinement in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

“It’s the most exciting time I can remember,” he said. “Just the speed of the engineers going faster. It’s the speed of where product managers themselves can iterate and ship code, which is super exciting.”

He also emphasized the strategic advantage of owning underlying technology rather than relying on third parties.  

“I’m fairly impatient,” Snyder said. “And so now we have [the question], what can we do to reinvent the way a consumer searches? What can you do to make it easier so you can just get your loan with a maybe a screenshot? These things would have taken years and years. Now with AI, I think it’s going to come a lot faster than we think.”

Google’s play for top of the funnel

Rediger, whose company has been quietly working with Google for three years, detailed a partnership that places home listings directly inside Google search results.

“It started with a real simple problem, which was, how do we actually show listings in Google?” he said. “And then they engaged us to help navigate those waters. So there’s a lot of regulatory and compliance items around displaying home listings, and HouseCanary is a 50-state broker. So we worked with Google to just show it, and it’s been pretty well adopted. It’s on mobile only right now, and it’s still in pilot, but it’s growing very quickly.

“[It’s] getting a lot of participation from MLSs and data providers, and we’re getting a lot of feedback from brokers and consumers that they really like it. It’s a different approach than the typical portal search, and it’s very top of funnel.”

The feature, currently in pilot, is rolling out gradually, and Rediger was careful to explain certain limitations.

“Google requires us to work with the MLSs to be the data provider,” he said. “So in areas where an MLS is not participating, we might have limited data. Therefore, it wouldn’t show. We are live nationally, so every market’s eligible. There might not be appropriate data in that market, and also there might not be data that’s relevant to your search query.”

When asked whether this partnership positions Google as direct competition to portals like Movoto, Zillow and Realtor.com, Rediger pushed back.

“Is what was designed by Google meant to replace a portal? The answer is no,” he said. “It is top of funnel. It’s a pretty quick and unique and elegant experience that’s not a research-driving process. You do a quick search — homes near me, homes in an area. Then you see some homes in the area. You see some agents that are local to that area that actually do business in that area, and you’re done, right?

“Google still links to portals. Portals are having drip campaigns and a lot of cool, whiz-bangy things that really attract the customer over time. This is very much a single-shot hit, like very Google. You type in what you want. You get instant gratification and then you move on.”

Snyder, whose company owns a portal that competes directly for that traffic, was more blunt.

“Sounds like competition to me,” he said. “Now, they’ve talked about it a long time. You know, it keeps popping up. But we’ll see.”

He suggested that Google’s ambitions could extend far beyond a simple carousel of listings.

“[If] they really wanted to build a full real estate, mortgage and valuation killer, they probably could, right?” he said. “So what we do is just try not to worry about the competition as much as possible. Like, how can you lean in?”

LLMs as the next frontier

Both executives agreed that the real disruption lies beyond traditional search engines.

Rediger predicted that large language models (LLMs) will become the dominant method of discovery within five years.

“There’s still a lot that has to happen between here and now,” he said. “Right now, we have prohibited use in the data, so they cannot use it in LLMs. They cannot train LLMs with it. It cannot be fed into that LLM at all. It’s truly for that search experience.”

Snyder echoed that sentiment, describing a future where consumers delegate the entire search process to AI agents.

“I think people are going to ask their AI agent, and everyone will have an AI agent and then the AI agent will find the best way,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s by Google or otherwise. I think the patience is going to wane and the attention is going to wane. People still want to go see and go tour the homes. So, that means you’ll still need great buyer agents and you’ll need great listing agents to sell your house.”

Despite the rapid automation of discovery and loan processing, both CEOs emphasized that human talent — particularly top-performing agents and loan officers — will become more valuable, not less.

“It’s not going to necessarily disrupt the originator,” Snyder said. “I get that asked all the time. It’ll disrupt the originator that can’t get any loans. If you’ve got a value proposition, if you’re a great Realtor, I think the AI will amplify talent more than ever, from engineering to origination.”

When Sanchez asked directly whether agents and loan officers would be replaced, Snyder was characteristically direct.

“I think the winners will win and the mediocre will go find a different industry because it’ll be a lot easier to make money somewhere else than in mortgage or real estate,” Snyder said.

Rediger agreed.

“I think AI is a tool that’ll elevate the high performers to a different echelon, and I think it’s going to reduce the number of total originators and total real estate agents,” he said.

Ground game still matters

While the discovery layer is being upended, the relationship between agents and loan officers remains critical.

“We’ve fully integrated hundreds of these real estate teams across the country,” Snyder said. “One of our [main questions] is, can we win the ground game? We’re seeing a three-times conversion [increase] when distributing a lead to the local originator, believe it or not. And then with the capture, it’s working with that real estate team locally, and it’s working really well.”

Rediger, meanwhile, is focused on a different operational challenge by attempting to understand the economics of AI itself.

“What we’re building is really observability — understanding how we’re actually using AI and how our engineers are using AI and how we’re going to continue to not spend too much on those tokens,” he said. “I think [it’s about] understanding how you’re actually implementing it — and then you can start translating on a per-token basis to the products you’re actually pushing to market.

“There are not really any products out there that have that. I know this is an operation answer, but it’s pretty cool to see this many tokens translated to this revenue increase with this product.”

This post was originally published on here.

Bank of America (BofA) is launching a $250 billion initiative to finance a broad buildout of U.S. infrastructure, including data centers, semiconductor facilities, power generation and transportation projects.

The banking giant announced Wednesday that its Critical Infrastructure Finance Initiative will mobilize and deploy $250 billion through lending, investments, capital markets and advisory transactions over an 18-month period ending July 4, 2027.

The effort comes as growing demand for computing power, electricity, manufacturing capacity and diversified supply chains drives infrastructure investment across the U.S. BofA said the initiative will focus on projects that strengthen energy security, technological leadership and long-term economic growth.

“We are proud of our long history supporting the American economy. As America marks its 250th year, this initiative reflects our confidence in the country’s future and the investments that will shape it,” said BofA Co-President Jim DeMare. “The infrastructure that powers our economy, strengthens our energy security and secures our technological leadership will drive growth, create jobs and define America’s next chapter.”

The initiative will target three broad areas: digital infrastructure, energy and power infrastructure, and core infrastructure.

Digital projects can include data centers, computing hardware, chips, telecommunications and semiconductors. Energy investments can include conventional and renewable power generation, energy storage and distribution systems, while core infrastructure can include transportation, electric and energy transmission, grid optimization, water systems, critical minerals and mining.

Bank of America said investments supported by the initiative could help create tens of thousands of jobs across construction, manufacturing, technology and infrastructure operations.

The bank also pointed to its workforce-development efforts. In 2025, Bank of America invested nearly $40 million in more than 730 workforce-development partners across 97 U.S. markets. Those organizations estimate the funding helped connect more than 90,000 people with employment opportunities and provided more than 290,000 people with access to training, education and career-readiness programs.

Bank of America’s Global Capital Solutions and Global Infrastructure & Sustainable Finance teams will lead the initiative, with support from all eight of the company’s lines of business.

The $250 billion target will be measured based on eligible primary-market lending, investing, capital markets and advisory transactions between Jan. 1, 2026, and July 4, 2027. The bank said it will use a methodology consistent with its $1.5 trillion, 10-year sustainable finance goal.

A 50% U.S. tariff lands on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods on Aug. 19 — wine, hockey sticks, cement and dozens of other products — unless negotiators in Washington can get a package in front of President Trump first. Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are aiming to do exactly that as early as Monday, Aug. 17, two days before the deadline. Nothing is agreed yet; what they are assembling is something concrete enough for the president to accept or reject.

The work continued in Washington on Tuesday. LeBlanc met Greer for the third time in as many weeks, with Canada’s chief trade negotiator Janice Charette also at the table. The meeting ran about an hour, and neither Canadian official took reporters’ questions leaving Greer’s office. LeBlanc said afterward that his side remains at the negotiating table and is working to defend Canadian interests.

The deadline comes from an executive order Trump signed last month. It applies the 50% rate to several categories of Canadian goods over what the administration calls discriminatory Canadian trade policies, covering roughly 5% of Canadian exports to the United States.

The bargain on the table is a straight exchange. Washington wants Canada to drop its counter-tariffs on autos and wants provincial bans on American alcohol lifted, and the two sides are trading proposals on how Canada manages its dairy quotas. Those are the same grievances the administration named when it announced the Aug. 19 tariffs: provinces pulling U.S. alcohol off store shelves, and alleged discrimination against American vehicles and dairy.

In return, Ottawa wants relief from the sectoral tariffs already in force, which cost far more than the goods on next week’s list. Canadian government briefing material puts current U.S. duties at 50% on Canadian steel, aluminum and copper, 25% on autos and trucks, and 10% on lumber. Steel, aluminum, lumber and autos are the four sectors LeBlanc and Charette are pressing on. Those are the Section 232 national-security tariffs, and getting them cut is the reason Canada is at the table at all.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has ruled out a narrow version of that trade. Speaking at an aluminum plant in Saguenay, Quebec, last week, he said he was not interested in a targeted deal disconnected from other sectors, and that any agreement must cover autos, steel, aluminum and forest products. He has framed the goal as getting “all 232s to be addressed.” He has also warned Canada will get tougher if nothing is reached before the new tariffs take effect. Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre set the bar higher still, calling for zero tariffs on softwood lumber, an end to the steel and aluminum duties, a tariff-free auto pact and a full exemption from Buy America rules on infrastructure projects.

Whether Trump takes a package that broad is the open question, and it is why the Aug. 17 meeting matters more than any working-level session. David MacNaughton, Canada’s former ambassador to Washington, told CTV News Channel on Tuesday that the president is the only person who will make the final deal, and that he is not sure Trump is ready right now for the comprehensive agreement the Canadian side wants. Canada arrives with what MacNaughton called a “fairly substantial package.”

For American buyers the exposure is concrete. The United States imported about $382 billion of goods from Canada in 2025, and the new tariffs would apply to close to $20 billion of that, by the U.S. Trade Representative’s count. Beverage distributors, ready-mix and construction suppliers and sporting goods retailers sit on the immediate list; steel and aluminum buyers, auto plants and homebuilders are already carrying the sectoral duties. The international heads of the United Steelworkers and the machinists’ union have written to Greer asking the administration to hold off on the 50% levies.

A larger piece is riding on the same talks. Canada is hoping the negotiations also produce an extension of the North American trade agreement, after the Trump administration declined to renew it in July. Reporting last week indicated Ottawa would prefer to book any tariff relief in side letters rather than reopen the pact itself, and that it expects to accept some level of U.S. metals tariffs — a structure that trades concessions on the irritants for a lower rate without touching the underlying agreement.

Nothing changes at the border before Aug. 19. The rates in effect today are the ones that have been in place for months. What the Aug. 17 meeting decides is whether a 50% wall goes up around a list of Canadian goods that American buyers cannot replace on short notice.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Elbit Systems has more orders on its books than at any point in its history, and the money is increasingly coming from outside Israel.

The Israeli defense contractor reported an order backlog of $32 billion at the end of the second quarter, up from $28 billion at the close of 2025. Second-quarter revenue rose 16% to $2.29 billion, and non-GAAP net profit climbed 32% to $199 million, producing adjusted earnings of $4.14 a share against a consensus estimate of $3.68. GAAP net income was $173.6 million, or $3.61 a share, on a 7.6% margin, with GAAP operating income of $218.8 million.

A backlog is contracted work not yet delivered, which makes it the closest thing a defense company has to a forward revenue statement. Elbit says 73% of the $32 billion originates outside Israel, with international orders — mainly European — driving the quarterly increase, and about 42% is scheduled for performance during the remainder of 2026 and 2027, with the rest set for 2028 and beyond.

The geographic split shows how far the customer base has shifted. Israel accounted for 37% of quarterly sales following inventory replenishment after the conflict with Iran ended at the start of April, Europe supplied 25%, North America 20% and Asia-Pacific 14%.

Segment results were uneven. C4I and cyber revenue rose 11% year over year, ISTAR and electronic warfare 22%, land systems 32%, and Elbit Systems of America 17%. Aerospace fell 8%, which the company attributed to an unfavorable project mix and weaker training and simulation sales in Europe.

Cash generation improved sharply. Operating cash flow reached $237 million for the quarter, up from $120 million a year earlier, with free cash flow of $150 million versus $71 million and cash conversion of 86%. First-half operating cash flow totaled $517.8 million against $304.0 million a year ago.

The company is spending to convert that pipeline. Management is raising capital expenditure to roughly $300 million from $220 million to add production capacity. Elbit said its increased investment in production infrastructure reflects a disciplined approach to scaling and to delivering at volume. Backlog only becomes revenue when factories can build the hardware, and $32 billion of commitments is a manufacturing problem before it is a financial one.

Recent orders keep arriving. The company cited a tank-upgrade contract worth about $350 million and more than $370 million from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and declared a dividend of $1.00 a share payable Oct. 26. Elbit also unveiled an airborne high-power laser system under development for helicopters and fighter aircraft, part of a push into directed-energy weapons. Demand from Israel’s Ministry of Defense remains materially higher and could generate additional orders.

Two items cut the other way. The effective tax rate jumped to 16.4% from 5.6%, driven by OECD Pillar II rules, and the company reported operational disruptions tied to Middle East conflicts, supply chain issues and attacks on facilities.

Investors were not impressed. Shares traded lower in U.S. premarket despite the earnings and revenue beat. In Tel Aviv trading the stock fell 5.2%, leaving Elbit with a market value of NIS 121 billion — still up 41% year to date and 240% over three years, though down 16% from its March peak.

That reaction is the recurring pattern in defense stocks this cycle: expectations have already priced in the order flow, so beating estimates is no longer the event. CFO Yaacov Kagan told analysts the quarter delivered double-digit growth across revenue, backlog, operating profit and earnings per share, and said the company expects backlog to keep growing while it focuses on converting it into revenue, profit and cash flow. Execution, not order intake, is now the number the market is watching.

JBizNews Desk | Haifa

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LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Tefila4Life-Shiur-1121-The-World-Vayevarech-Dovid.mp3

A federal appeals court refused to dismiss thousands of lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat, allowing complaints alleging the platforms were designed to be addictive to young users to move forward.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Meta and TikTok attempting to overturn a lower court ruling requiring the firms to face more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court, ruling the companies appealed too early.

The social media companies claimed that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 — which generally shields online platforms from being liable for content posted by their users — also prohibits lawsuits on allegations they failed to warn the public about the addictive design of their platforms.

Section 230 has largely protected several companies from lawsuits regarding content posted on their platforms.

Most appeals come after a case has reached a ruling or a verdict, but the companies claimed that they should not have to wait until the litigation wraps up to challenge the lower court’s rejection of their immunity defense.

However, the court ruled the companies cannot use Section 230 to dismiss lawsuits, saying it can only be used as a liability defense against claims, meaning the appeal was premature.

The statute “merely provides a defense to liability — not immunity from suit,” Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote.

The court’s decision clears the way for lawsuits alleging social media companies designed platforms to encourage addictive behavior, failed to verify users’ ages and did not adequately block harmful content.

The panel also denied Meta’s attempt to postpone a trial set to begin on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by 29 state attorneys general accusing the company of illegally collecting and using children’s data, designing its social media platforms to addict young users and misleading consumers about child safety on the platforms.

The company had claimed that the trial could not move forward while the appeal was pending.

Fox Business reached out to Meta and TikTok for comment.

Attorneys representing thousands of school districts and people suing Meta and other tech firms in federal court, said in a statement the ruling would allow the states’ trial to move forward, as well as a trial over claims brought by school districts set for February.

“A trial is how the public finds out what Meta knew about its products’ impact on children, when it knew it, and what it chose to do with that knowledge,” the attorneys said. “Meta has fought to keep that evidence from the public.”

This comes after a New Mexico judge last week found Meta had created a public nuisance in the state, ordering it to pay $567 million into a teenage mental health fund and adopt youth-safety measures.

In March, a jury in California ruled against Meta and Google’s YouTube, while a jury in New Mexico ruled against Meta on child safety risks.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The tzibur is asked to be mispallel for the Spinka Rebbe (Beis Shmiel Tzvi), HaRav Yosef Meir Horowitz, who is in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital and is in dire need of Rachmei Shomayim.

The Rebbe is the son of HaRav Berish Horowitz zt”l, the eldest son of HaRav Hershele Spinker zt”l.

Please daven for HaRav Yosef Meir ben Blima Sorah for a complete Refuah Sheleimah.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A young father and Husband in Toronto, who got married within the past year, suddenly became completely and unconscious on Friday night while in Toronto for a family wedding.

He remains in critical, unstable condition.

A name has been added for Tehilim: The community is asked to daven urgently for the speedy recovery of – Refoel Moshe Nechemia ben Yocheved

Further updates will follow as they become available.

He remains in critical, unstable condition.

The community is asked to daven urgently for his recovery. Name for Tehilim: Refoel Moshe Nechemia ben Yocheved

Further updates will follow as they become available.

The Senate passed the Common Cents Act on Friday night, and once the House signs off on a small change the senators made, the arithmetic at the register becomes federal law for anyone paying cash. A total ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents gets rounded down to the nearest nickel; a total ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents gets rounded up, and the rounding applies only to cash, and only after taxes and fees are added. Pay by card, check or phone and nothing changes — you are charged the exact amount, down to the cent.

Rounding is an option, not an order. Businesses may round when they cannot make exact change, but they are not required to, and merchants that adopt the practice get legal safe-harbor protection for doing it. That protection is the reason retailers pushed for the bill in the first place.

The problem it solves is one that has been building at cash registers since the Mint stopped striking pennies. Retailers large and small have been warning customers that exact change is unlikely on cash purchases, and they have handled the shortfall inconsistently — some handing out gift cards or free items, others simply rounding the total. Several states and localities bar businesses from rounding cash transactions in either direction, which left a chain operating across state lines with no safe way to do the same thing everywhere.

Evan Armstrong, senior vice president of government affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said more than a dozen states have moved ahead with their own versions of rounding legislation, and the federal bill “gives a singular, uniform approach around rounding” that replaces the patchwork. The National Retail Federation called the measure an overdue step toward letting retailers keep serving cash customers as penny supply and usage dwindle. Sean Kennedy, chief advocacy officer at the National Restaurant Association, said Senate passage delivers “the certainty, consistency, and protection restaurant operators need” at the point of sale.

The vote itself moved fast. Senators cleared the bill Friday evening through a hotline process, polling each member for sign-off so the legislation could advance without floor time. The Banking Committee was discharged by unanimous consent, and the measure passed with an amendment, also by unanimous consent. The change came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and requires the Treasury Department to notify Congress before discontinuing any currency in the future and to submit a transition plan. Because the Senate altered the text, the House has to vote on it a second time, and retail trade groups are aiming to get the bill to President Trump in September.

The legislation also settles the penny’s status permanently. Treasury would have to end all penny production within a year of enactment, while pennies already in circulation stay legal tender indefinitely. The Federal Reserve would be tasked with limiting disruptions in penny supply during the wind-down. Roughly 114 billion pennies remain in existence, by Treasury’s estimate.

The second half of the bill is about the coin shoppers will be handed instead. The nickel loses money on every strike. It cost 13.31 cents to produce a nickel in fiscal 2025, down slightly from 13.78 cents the year before, and fiscal 2025 marked the twentieth straight year that production costs ran above the coin’s face value. The culprit is copper: a nickel contains very little of the metal it is named for and is roughly 75% copper.

The fix on offer is a cheaper recipe. The bill permits a five-cent coin built with an inner layer of zinc and an outer layer of nickel, with the Treasury secretary allowed to set the exact proportions only after testing shows the new composition cuts cost and, as the text puts it, has “minimal adverse impact on machines designed to accept coins.” That last clause was written in for vending machine operators, convenience store chains and laundromats, whose coin acceptors read a coin’s weight and electromagnetic signature. A copper-nickel five-cent piece must weigh five grams, but the zinc version could weigh anywhere from four to six, giving Treasury room to tune the coin so existing equipment still recognizes it. Zinc ran nearly $7,000 per metric ton cheaper than copper last year, according to the Mint.

Nothing changes in anyone’s pocket yet. The bill permits the new nickel rather than ordering it, and Treasury would still need to test and validate the composition before a zinc-core nickel reaches circulation, putting 2027 at the earliest realistic window. The nickel itself is not going away; a separate bill to eliminate it remains stuck in House committee. The immediate business consequence is narrower and more useful: a single national rule for making change, ending the state-by-state legal exposure that has been hanging over every cash sale since the last penny was struck.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Toyota issued a recall for about 655,000 of its Camry vehicles globally over a display error that may deactivate safety indicators such as turn signals and hazard lights, the automaker announced on Tuesday.

The global recall involves vehicles produced between December 2023 and July 2026 across manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Japan and Thailand.

Among those vehicles, a total of 508,354 model year 2025-2026 Camry Hybrids in the U.S. are affected by the recall, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The affected vehicles are equipped with a 7-inch display combination meter that may be blank at startup. Only the LE, SE and Nightshade trims have the smaller 7-inch display. The XLE and XSE trims use a larger 12.3-inch driver display, so these models are not affected.

Turn signals, hazard lights and other warning buzzers, such as reminders to fasten the seat belt and remove the key from the ignition, may also be deactivated due to the defect in affected vehicles.

“The 7-inch combination meter may become blank at startup,” the automaker said in a statement. “This can also deactivate the turn signal and hazard lamps and certain warning buzzer sounds (such as the smart key reminder and the driver/passenger seat belt reminder). This can cause the vehicle not to meet certain federal safety standards.”

“If certain required information is not displayed in the combination meter, if the turn signal/hazard lamps do not function, or if certain warning buzzers do not activate, there can be an increased risk of injury or a crash depending on the specific situation,” the statement added.

The NHTSA warns that these display issues increase the risk of a crash for both drivers who may be unable to see telltale indicators and other road users would not know the driver’s intent to turn or indicate a vehicle hazard.

Toyota Motor North America said it will notify owners of the affected Camrys, so they can bring their vehicles to a dealer for a software update free of charge.

U.S. owner notification letters are scheduled to be mailed starting on Sept. 21, with all expected to be sent out by early October.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews)-Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on Monday called for the immediate resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, accusing him of failing in his core duty to protect American citizens and interests while acting as an apologist for the Israeli government.

In a video statement released Monday, Van Hollen said: “It’s time for our American ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, to resign. The job of an American ambassador is to defend and protect the interests of the United States of America. Ambassador Huckabee has failed to do that. He’s become an apologist for the extremist government in Israel.”

Van Hollen criticized Huckabee for what he described as insufficient condemnation of violence against American citizens in the West Bank, including incidents involving settlers and Israeli forces. He referenced cases of Americans allegedly beaten or killed and faulted the ambassador for prioritizing support for Israeli policy over U.S. interests. Van Hollen also pointed to Huckabee’s past comments on “Greater Israel” and his public identification as a Christian living comfortably in the Holy Land, arguing the ambassador has neglected the concerns of local Christian communities.

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and longtime evangelical supporter of Israel, was nominated by President Trump and confirmed as ambassador. He has consistently defended Israel’s security policies and the U.S.-Israel alliance.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) praised Van Hollen’s remarks, saying the ambassador’s “personal ideological and theological allegiance” had compromised his ability to represent all American citizens equally.

Critics of the senator’s position, including pro-Israel voices, argued that strong support for Israel — America’s closest ally in the Middle East — is being treated as a disqualifying stance. Some noted Van Hollen has not issued similar calls regarding other U.S. diplomats in the region, including Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who has faced separate criticism over his approach to Turkish and regional policy.

Huckabee posted on X: “I’m doing something right! Sen Chris Van Hollen (Wasting Away in Margaritaville) & Pro-Hamas CAIR want me to resign.”

“Senator, I will if YOU will. I’ll go see my grandkids & you can take MS-13 gangbangers out for Margaritas like you did before.”

A young IDF soldier was injured in a frightening incident in Tiveriah after becoming trapped inside the luggage compartment of an Egged bus when the driver unknowingly drove away with her partially inside the compartment. She was rescued only after bystanders noticed what had happened and stopped the bus before she suffered even more serious injuries.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with HaOlam HaBoker, the soldier described the terrifying moments she endured and said she feared she would lose her leg if the bus continued moving.

The incident occurred after the soldier arrived in Tiveriah on a bus from Hatzor. She asked the driver to open the luggage compartment so she could retrieve her bag, but while she was leaning inside to remove it, the compartment door suddenly closed on her leg, trapping her as the bus pulled away.

“On Thursday I left my base and boarded the bus from Hatzor to Tiveriah. When I got off at the stop, I asked the driver if he could open the luggage compartment, and I saw that my bag was inside. I leaned halfway into the compartment to take out my bag, and he lowered the luggage compartment door.”

She said she immediately realized something had gone terribly wrong.

“When I realized he was closing the luggage compartment, I tried to push it away with my leg, but my leg got stuck. I was sure he had noticed and would stop, but suddenly I realized he was continuing to drive while half of my body was inside and my leg was trapped outside. I realized that if he kept driving, I would lose my leg.”

As the bus continued moving, the soldier called police in an effort to have officers locate and stop the vehicle. At the same time, she repeatedly pounded on the luggage compartment, hoping passengers would hear her and alert the driver.

“I was completely helpless. I watched as my leg started rubbing against the road while the bus was moving,” she recalled.

The bus finally came to a stop after passersby spotted the trapped soldier and alerted the driver. Another soldier at the scene forced open the luggage compartment and freed her.

“I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t breathe. If he had driven another two or three minutes until the central bus station, I truly don’t even want to imagine what would have happened to me.”

The soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment of the injuries she sustained.

In a statement, Egged said: “Egged regrets the incident. An internal review indicates that the driver did not notice the soldier entering the luggage compartment and believed she had already exited the bus and walked away. As soon as he realized what had happened, the driver stopped the bus, rescued her, and asked whether she required medical treatment. Egged wishes her a speedy recovery.”

TRENTON, N.J. (VINnews) — Rebecca Bennett, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s competitive 7th Congressional District, will not endorse or campaign with fellow Democratic nominee Adam Hamawy this fall, her campaign said Tuesday.

A Bennett campaign spokesperson told Jewish Insider that Bennett “is not going to campaign with or endorse Adam Hamawy this fall, as she is laser focused on flipping New Jersey’s seventh district, lowering costs, and getting corruption out of Washington.”

Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and Air National Guard officer who won her primary earlier this summer, is running as a relative moderate with a pro-Israel platform against Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in one of the nation’s key swing districts.f0512d

Jewishinsider

Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and Army combat veteran, won the Democratic primary in the neighboring 12th District. He has faced national scrutiny over past associations, including serving as a defense witness in the 1995 terrorism trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, and volunteering in the mid-1990s with Benevolence International Foundation, a charity later designated by the U.S. government as an al-Qaida front group.f67ece

Jewishinsider

Republicans have sought to link Bennett to Hamawy because both are Democratic nominees and military veterans.

Hamawy’s campaign has defended his record, stating that his “entire career and life have been defined by his patriotism and deep love of this country.” It described his testimony in the Blind Sheikh case as a “civic and legal duty” performed while he was in the Army and dismissed criticism of his charity work as “desperate,” “absurd” and “gross and bigoted.”

Bennett defeated several primary opponents in June and has emphasized affordability, healthcare access and national security in her campaign. The general election is scheduled for November.

If it feels like your phone has been ringing nonstop with unfamiliar numbers, you’re far from alone. Americans were bombarded with an estimated 4.4 billion robocalls in July, marking the highest monthly total in a year, according to data compiled by call-blocking service YouMail.

YouMail’s tracking shows that robocall activity had fallen to its lowest level in October 2025 but has steadily climbed in recent months. The company reported that telemarketing pitches and scam calls accounted for the largest share of unwanted calls during July.

Not every automated call is fraudulent. Many are legitimate reminders about appointments, bills, or other services. Still, the sheer number of unknown callers has made it increasingly difficult for consumers to distinguish genuine calls from scams.

According to YouMail, the most common robocall in July involved offers for pre-approved personal loans, often telling recipients they qualified for large loans with affordable monthly payments.

“As with similar campaigns, this appears to be at a minimum, illegal telemarketing at scale. Based on consumer reports and the behavior of the calls, it’s likely to be a scam,” YouMail said in its July report.

Although robocall activity increased across the country, several regions experienced particularly sharp jumps. Data provided to Nexstar showed that phone numbers with area codes in Texas, Georgia, and Indiana saw the largest increases in spam calls.

The area codes recording the biggest month-over-month increases in July were:

• 346 (Houston, Texas): 16.2 million calls, up 19%
• 470 (Atlanta, Georgia): 20.2 million calls, up 13%
• 229 (Albany, Georgia): 32.1 million calls, up 13%
• 765 (Indianapolis, Indiana): 17.3 million calls, up 12%
• 901 (Memphis, Tennessee): 47.4 million calls, up 11%
• 812 (Evansville, Indiana): 25 million calls, up 11%
• 720 (Denver, Colorado): 17.7 million calls, up 11%
• 870 (Jonesboro, Arkansas): 32.2 million calls, up 9%
• 317 (Indianapolis, Indiana): 24.9 million calls, up 9%
• 931 (Clarksville, Tennessee): 22 million calls, up 9%
• 254 (Killeen, Texas): 19.3 million calls, up 9%

YouMail CEO Alex Quilici said that despite new regulations adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in recent years, scammers continue finding ways to place massive numbers of illegal calls.

“We suspect the fraudsters are getting on the telephone networks at scale through a set of carriers that are benefiting from this illegal call traffic,” Quilici told Nexstar. “There are more barriers to that now, but it doesn’t take a lot of bad actors to generate meaningful volumes.”

Lawmakers are also attempting to curb the problem. A bill approved by the Senate would further target robocalls by cracking down on those originating outside the United States.

Promoting the legislation, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said “folks in red and blue states alike are sick and tired of picking up the phone and wondering if they’re being scammed.”

While enrolling your phone number in the National Do Not Call Registry can reduce telemarketing calls, experts caution that it cannot stop every unwanted caller.

Consumer protection specialists recommend ignoring suspicious calls from unfamiliar numbers and allowing them to go to voicemail. If you need to contact your bank, utility provider, health insurer, or another company, they advise calling the official number printed on your card, bill, or account statement rather than returning an unknown call.