MatzavIsrael’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, arrested an undocumented Palestinian resident in Bnei Brak Thursday morning on suspicion that he was planning to carry out a terror attack. The suspect was taken into custody and transferred for questioning by security forces. Three additional undocumented residents were also arrested.
At the same time, police detained five other undocumented individuals in a nearby area.
The primary suspect was handed over to the Shin Bet for interrogation, as investigators work to determine the nature and scope of the attack he allegedly intended to carry out. As of now, no further details have been released regarding the suspected target.
In a separate development, police updated the public on additional enforcement activity carried out this week in Yerushalayim. Officers from the Lev Habira police station were operating in the Ramot neighborhood after noticing several individuals who aroused suspicion. When officers approached, the suspects fled into a building under construction.
Police entered the structure and located five undocumented individuals who are suspected of having infiltrated Israel from the village of Ubeidiya. All of the suspects were arrested and taken in for questioning.
The investigation revealed that this was the second time security forces had discovered undocumented individuals at the same construction site. As a result of the findings, the employer was detained for questioning.
Following the investigation, Yerushalayim District Commander Superintendent Avshalom Peled signed an administrative order closing the construction site for 20 days. Police noted that the undocumented individuals were deported from Israeli territory upon completion of the legal proceedings in their case.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsFormer Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak sought to defend his past relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and push back against accusations of racist remarks in a wide-ranging television interview with Israel’s Channel 12.
“I am responsible for all of my own actions, and there is definitely room to ask if I should have exercised more thorough judgment,” he said. “I can certainly say that I regret the moment I met him in 2003,” Barak added.
At the same time, the former prime minister said he never witnessed behavior that would have alerted him to Epstein’s crimes.
“I never, in all the 15 years that I knew [Epstein], never saw any unreasonable occurrence, or any unreasonable behavior,” he said. “I did not know that manner of his crimes until 2019, and you probably didn’t know it either.”
The interview addressed photographs showing Barak entering Epstein’s Manhattan residence in 2016 with his face partially covered by a neck warmer, an image that has fueled speculation online. Barak said the covering was due to cold weather and denied any attempt to conceal his identity. He noted that he was photographed leaving the same building later that day without his face covered, saying this showed he “was not trying to hide anything.”
Barak also defended his and his wife’s repeated stays at an apartment owned by Epstein between 2015 and 2019, describing the arrangement as practical during visits to New York.
“It was useful,” he said, adding that he could leave personal belongings there.
He stressed that there was “nothing illegal” about staying at the apartment and invoked “the right of every citizen” to use property belonging to someone they know. Barak emphasized that he was no longer serving as prime minister during that period.
Beyond his ties to Epstein, Barak was also pressed about remarks captured in a recently unclassified 2014 recording in which he referred to girls coming from Russia to Israel.
He described the comments as an error in phrasing.
“They were an unsuccessful choice of words, with associations to unreasonable stereotypes,” Barak said.
The interview then turned to broader remarks in the same recording concerning immigration and demographics. In the conversation, Barak suggested that encouraging Russian immigration could help Israel “control the quality” of its population more effectively.
Barak said his words had been misrepresented.
“The media created a distorted depiction,” he said, arguing that the discussion centered on Israel’s long-term demographic challenges.
When the interviewer responded, “It’s a recording of you,” Barak defended his position.
“I raised the thought or idea, that by combining the easing of conversion processes on one hand, and the creation of the possibility of voluntary immigration to Israel, we can solve this challenge,” he said. “There is no racism there. I am describing a fact.”
As the interviewer argued that the comments were offensive to Mizrachi Jewish migrants, Barak denied the charge and said Israel’s founders were obligated to “rescue” all Jews regardless of background.
He added that in Israel’s current status as a developed country, any effort to encourage voluntary immigration would require selectivity.
“If you want voluntary migration,” Barak said, it would be necessary to bring in “better quality” people, “regardless of where they are from.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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The Lakewood Scoop
MatzavNew Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed an executive order Wednesday prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement from initiating enforcement operations on property owned by the state, intensifying the standoff between Trenton and the Trump administration over immigration policy.
In announcing the move, Sherrill framed the order as part of her broader duty to protect residents and uphold constitutional principles. “I take seriously my responsibility to keep New Jersey residents safe, and as a Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor, my commitment to upholding the Constitution will never waver,” Sherrill said in a statement. “This executive order will prohibit ICE from using state property to launch operations.
“To strengthen public safety, we will also give New Jersey residents the tools to report ICE activity to the Attorney General’s office and ensure residents know their constitutional rights.”
She went further, accusing federal officials of overstepping legal bounds. “Today, we are making clear that the Trump administration’s lawless actions will not go unchecked in New Jersey,” added Sherrill.
“Given ICE’s willingness to flout the Constitution and violently endanger communities — detaining children, arresting citizens, and even killing several innocent civilians — I will stand up for New Jerseyans’ right to be safe.”
Alongside the executive order, Sherrill unveiled an online reporting system allowing residents to notify the state about encounters with federal immigration agents.
According to Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News, nearly 400,000 immigrants were taken into custody by ICE during President Donald Trump’s first year after returning to office.
Immigration enforcement activity has continued across New Jersey in recent weeks, triggering pushback from local officials and community leaders. Officers assigned to ICE’s Newark Field Office, based at 970 Broad Street, have conducted several arrests throughout the state, including operations at transportation centers and neighborhood gathering spots. In cities such as Hoboken, local officials reported subdued activity and near-empty streets in the aftermath of enforcement actions.
State lawmakers have also responded by introducing bills designed to impose new transparency requirements and curb certain ICE practices, as stepped-up immigration enforcement has heightened anxiety among residents and public officials alike.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsKol Chai radio host Kobi Segal on Thursday slammed the IDF’s recruitment policy, saying that there is a major discrepancy between the army’s public statements about a manpower shortage and what is actually happening on the ground.
As the IDF steps up its arrest of Lomdei Torah, the IDF is ignoring hundreds of Charedim who are actively seeking to enlist. He explained that about 500 Chareidim have registered for a dedicated IDF framework intended for those seeking either regular service or reserve duty, yet remain without any meaningful response.
“There is an IDF project called ‘Keilim Sheluvim’ for integrating Charedim into the IDF,” he said. “About 500 Chareidim tried to enlist through it. In practice, they are simply waiting.”
He added that the pilot phase of the program was successful, but since then the registrants have received no response.
According to Segal, the IDF spokesperson responded by saying, “They registered, but it was never stated that they had been accepted.” He expressed frustration that no reasonable explanation has been provided as to why Chareidim who are actively seeking to enlist are left at home.
Segal summed up his position bluntly: “There are 500 Chareidim who want to serve, and the IDF doesn’t want them. Apparently, it suits them to have a crisis.”
It should be noted that in the wake of the October 7 massacre, many Chareidim reported that they tried joining the IDF but received no response. In addition, Chareidi reserve soldiers reported that they were not called up by the IDF throughout the war—even as IDF officials claimed that the army was short on manpower.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Vos Iz NeiasRYE, N.Y. (AP) — Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has filed a $250,000 negligence lawsuit against her suburban hometown north of New York City and a power utility after claiming she tripped and fell while out walking.
Pirro said she tripped over a large wooden block protruding from a steel plate in a roadway on Aug. 28 in the Westchester County city of Rye, just weeks after she was confirmed as the Trump administration’s top prosecutor for the District of Columbia.
The plate was covering excavation related to gas-main work for Consolidated Edison, according to an amended complaint filed Wednesday in state court.
“As a result of defendants’ negligence, Ms. Pirro sustained serious personal injuries, including but not limited to bruises and contusions to the head, eye, face, and shoulder areas, together with pain, discomfort, and limitation of movement,” according to the complaint, initially filed last month.
The 74-year-old former Fox News host was confined to bed, required medical attention and “continues to experience pain and suffering,” according to the filing.
Representatives for Pirro, Con Ed and Rye declined to comment on the pending litigation Thursday.
In a motion to dismiss the claim, an attorney for Rye wrote that it “can hardly be said that the City was negligent in a duty to pedestrians at a location that was not a pedestrian walkway.” An attorney for Con Ed wrote in a separate court filing seeking dismissal that all the dangers and risks related to the incident “were open, obvious and apparent.”
Pirro has served as both a judge and the district attorney for Westchester County.
Vos Iz Neias(AP) – Climate change is often viewed as an issue that’s too big for individual action to matter. But calculations show that when personal choices add up, the impact can be significant.
The Associated Press looked at four everyday behaviors in the U.S. ranging from food and transportation to home energy and clothing. The question was then posed: What if just one in 10 Americans who currently eat beef, drive gasoline cars, heat their homes with natural gas or buy new clothes changed each of those habits?
To find out, the AP gathered data from federal agencies and other sources on each habit, then calculated how much emissions would be reduced if one out of every 10 users made a switch. The answer is tens, and in some cases hundreds, of billions of pounds of carbon pollution avoided each year.
Food: Swapping beef for chicken
Beef is one of the most carbon-intensive foods in the global food system because cattle emit methane and require vast amounts of land and feed, creating large amounts of climate pollution. Producing beef generates greenhouse gas emissions several times higher than chicken.
The recommended serving size of meat in the U.S. is 3 ounces (85 grams), according to the American Heart Association. Swapping one serving of beef that size for chicken once a week would cut about 10 pounds (4.54 kilograms) of carbon dioxide. Over 52 weeks in a year, that would equal a reduction of about 525 pounds (238 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per person per year.
About 74% of Americans eat beef at least once a week, according to a 2023 survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. If one out of every 10 of them — or about 25 million people — swapped just one beef meal a week for chicken, emissions would fall by about 13 billion pounds (roughly 6 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide each year. That change is roughly comparable to the annual emissions from nearly 1.3 million gasoline cars.
“Beef is a commonly consumed item that has one of the largest carbon footprints per pound,” said Dave Gustafson, project director at Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. “It is probably one of the largest individual choices that people make with regard to what they eat that has a direct impact on personal carbon footprint.”
Transportation: Gas cars to electric vehicles
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation is one of the largest sources of direct greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and personal vehicles account for a major share of that total. Transportation accounts for 28% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector.
The EPA says the average U.S. motorist drives 11,500 miles (18,507 kilometers) per year. The average gas powered car emits 400 grams (14 ounces) of carbon dioxide per mile, compared with about 110 grams (3.9 ounces) of carbon dioxide per mile for an electric vehicle. Driving an electric vehicle instead of a gas car cuts roughly 7,400 pounds (3,357 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per person annually, even after accounting for emissions from electricity generation.
If a number of Americans equal to 1 in 10 licensed drivers — or 23.77 million people — made that switch, the emissions savings would add up to roughly 175 billion pounds (roughly 79 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide every year, nearly 1.25% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
“If a large percentage of people changed a little bit of their travel, then all of a sudden the benefits are huge,” said Dillon Fitch-Polse, a professional researcher and co-director of Bicycling Plus Research Collaborative at the University of California, Davis.
Energy: Heating homes differently
At home, heating is often an invisible source of fossil fuel use. About 60 million U.S. households rely on utility natural gas furnaces, which burn fuel directly inside the home, according to the U.S Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Replacing a gas furnace with an electric heat pump, which moves heat instead of generating it through combustion, cuts about 1,830 pounds (830 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per household per year.
If one in 10 households that heat their homes with natural gas switched to electric heat pumps, the result would be about 11 billion pounds (roughly 5 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide avoided annually, comparable to taking 1 million cars off the road.
“People’s homes are kind of like little fossil fuel power plants that people operate, and they just don’t realize that’s what they’re doing,” said Leah Stokes, associate professor of environment politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “That’s really the collective action thing is for people to understand that there is fossil fuel infrastructure right under their noses in their own homes.”
Fashion: Buying secondhand
Clothing may seem minor next to cars or furnaces, but apparel has a significant carbon footprint.
A life cycle assessment by Levi Strauss & Co. estimates that producing a single pair of Levi’s 501 jeans can emit more than 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of carbon dioxide, including manufacturing, packaging, transportation and retail.
If 34.2 million people — or the equivalent of 1 in 10 Americans — bought a pair of secondhand jeans this year instead of new ones, it would avoid roughly 1.5 billion pounds (roughly 0.7 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the emissions of about 150,000 gasoline cars.
“What you can do is not throw in the trash,” said Constance Ulasewicz, consumer and family studies emeritus faculty and lecturer at San Francisco State University. “So it’s repairing your clothing so you can extend the life, and buying from a secondhand store.”
None of these actions alone can solve climate change, but together, the numbers show how quickly emissions add up or come down when millions of people move in the same direction.
The Lakewood ScoopA New Jersey Senate committee has advanced legislation today that would provide tax credits to employers that help cover childcare costs for their workers, an effort supporters say could ease financial pressure on families and help businesses retain employees.
The bill, sponsored by Troy Singleton, was approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee today and aims to encourage employers to invest in childcare options ranging from on-site centers to direct subsidies for employees.
Lawmakers and business groups say rising childcare costs have become a major barrier for working families in New Jersey and across the country. According to the Economic Policy Institute, New Jersey ranks as the 13th most expensive state for childcare, with infant care averaging $18,155 annually, or about $1,513 per month. Care for a four-year-old averages $17,534 per year.
“For many families, childcare has simply become unaffordable, outpacing even the annual cost of college tuition,” Singleton said in a statement, adding that high costs can push parents out of the workforce.
Under the proposal, employers could claim corporation business tax or gross income tax credits worth up to $100,000 per taxable period. The credits would cover 50% of qualified expenses, including building or renovating childcare facilities, operating on-site childcare centers, contracting with childcare providers, or subsidizing employees’ childcare expenses.
Supporters in the business community say the measure could strengthen workforce participation and productivity.
Christina Renna, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, called the bill “a practical, pro-growth policy that helps retain talent.” The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce also endorsed the proposal, describing childcare access as an economic development issue that affects employers across industries.
The legislation defines childcare services as licensed care, supervision, and education for children under age 13. Employers seeking the credit would need to apply through the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development and document eligible expenses.
Yeshiva World NewsAn Iranian state-run television channel has aired what appears to be a direct assassination threat against Israel’s top leadership, broadcasting a list of senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The broadcast, aired on the Islamic Republic’s Ofogh network, featured a “hit list” of seven Israeli figures at the center of the country’s security establishment. Alongside Netanyahu, the list included Mossad chief David Barnea, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Air Force commander Tomer Bar, Military Intelligence head Shlomi Binder, and Operations Directorate chief Itzik Cohen.
During the segment, the presenter delivered a threat in Hebrew.
“We will determine the time of your death, wait for the Ababil,” he said on air, referring to an Iranian-made drone system.
Security experts say the unusually explicit nature of the threat suggests a deliberate attempt at psychological warfare aimed at intimidating Israeli leaders while signaling Iran’s capabilities to both allies and adversaries.
The threat comes as Iran remains engaged in negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program, seeking to avert a broader military confrontation. American and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks last week in Oman, part of a renewed effort to stabilize relations and prevent escalation.
Against that backdrop, the broadcast appeared to underscore the sharp contrast between diplomatic engagement and hostile rhetoric emanating from Iranian state media.
Earlier on the day of the broadcast, Netanyahu returned to Israel following a visit to Washington, where he met with President Donald Trump. Speaking to reporters after landing, Netanyahu said Trump believed Iran could still be pressured into accepting “a good deal” on its nuclear program.
Netanyahu, however, voiced skepticism.
“I’m not convinced,” he said, signaling continued distrust of Tehran’s intentions.
Israeli officials have long accused Iran of pursuing covert and overt campaigns against Israeli interests worldwide, including cyber operations, proxy attacks, and targeted plots. While Tehran has often denied direct involvement in such actions, the latest broadcast marks one of the clearest public threats aired by an official media outlet.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Vos Iz NeiasDETROIT (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced an end Thursday to credits to automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles, a device intended to reduce emissions that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said “everyone hates.”
In remarks with President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House, Zeldin called start-stop technology the “Obama switch” and said it makes vehicles “die” at every red light and stop sign. He said the credits, which also applied to options like improved air conditioning systems, are now “over, done, finished.”
Zeldin repeated the generally-debunked claims that start-stop systems — which are mostly useful for city driving — are harmful to vehicles, asserting Thursday that “it kills the battery of your car without any significant benefit to the environment.”
This latest Trump administration move to cut automotive industry efforts to clean up their cars and reduce transportation-driven emissions came as Zeldin and Trump also announced a broader repeal of the scientific finding known as endangerment that has been the central basis for regulating U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Start-stop is a technology that automatically shuts down a vehicle’s engine when a driver comes to a complete stop, and then automatically restarts the engine when the driver takes their foot off the brake pedal. Developed in response to the 1970s oil crisis, the feature was intended to cut vehicle idling, fuel consumption and emissions.
About two-thirds of vehicles now have it, providing drivers with anywhere from 7% to 26% in fuel economy savings, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers. Start-stop also causes a split-second lag in acceleration, a point of irritation for some consumers and automotive enthusiasts.
Burning gasoline and diesel fuel for transportation is a major contributor to planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and more, according to the EPA. By implementing the systems, automakers could earn credits toward meeting federal emissions reduction rules.
“Countless Americans passionately despise the start/stop feature in cars,” Zeldin wrote in a post on X on Tuesday teasing the announcement. “So many have spoken out against this absurd start-stop-start-stop-start-stop concept.”
The announcement made good on Zeldin’s promises last year to “fix” the feature. Start-stop is “where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin said in a post on X last May. “EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it,” he wrote at the time.
Zeldin’s announcement aligns with the administration’s broader attacks on cleaner-vehicle efforts. Trump eliminated the Biden administration’s target for half of all new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030, and signed Congress’ tax and spending bill that ended federal tax credits for new and used electric vehicle purchases.
The administration is also weakening rules for how far new vehicles must travel on average on a gallon of gasoline as it undermines the climate regulation at the core of auto tailpipe emissions.
Jeep-maker Stellantis welcomes the deregulatory effort, a spokesperson’s statement said: “We remain supportive of a rational, achievable approach on fuel economy standards that preserves our customers’ freedom of choice.”
A Ford Motor Co. statement said: “We appreciate the work of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin to address the imbalance between current emissions standards and customer choice.”
General Motors deferred comment to the auto industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
“I’ve said it before: Automotive emissions regulations finalized in the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace demand for EVs,” said John Bozzella, president of the alliance. “The auto industry in America remains focused on preserving vehicle choice for consumers, keeping the industry competitive, and staying on a long-term path of emissions reductions and cleaner vehicles.”
MatzavPresident Donald Trump spoke with reporters Thursday night about Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, weighing in on Israeli domestic politics, Iran’s nuclear negotiations, and accountability for the October 7 attacks.
During the exchange, Trump sharply criticized Israeli President Isaac Herzog over his handling of a potential pardon for Netanyahu. “President Herzog should be ashamed for not granting Netanyahu a pardon. He has the power to pardon and didn’t use it. The people of Israel should shame him.”
Turning to Iran, Trump issued a stern warning to Tehran, saying its leaders face serious consequences if diplomacy fails. “must make a deal, or it will be traumatic for them. I don’t want that to happen. They should have made a deal, and they didn’t. If they don’t reach an agreement, it will be a different story.”
Discussing his conversation with Netanyahu, Trump characterized the meeting as productive but emphasized that any agreement with Iran would hinge on his own judgment. “I had a good meeting with the prime minister, and he understands, but it depends on me. If the deal is fair, it will be tough for them. It needs to be quick-within a month, I think.”
Asked whether Netanyahu had urged him to cease communications with Tehran, Trump dismissed the suggestion. “He didn’t ask me to stop. I’ll speak with them as much as I want. But if we don’t reach phase two, it will be tough for them. I don’t expect that to happen.”
When questioned about Netanyahu’s responsibility for the October 7 assault, Trump said blame extended broadly. “Everyone is responsible. It was a terrible attack. He didn’t see it coming, and no one else would have in his place. He was a great prime minister for a time of war.”
In response to Trump’s remarks about a possible pardon, the Israeli president’s office issued a statement clarifying the status of the request. “For clarity, as repeatedly emphasized, the prime minister’s request is under review according to Ministry of Justice procedures. Only after this process is complete will the president examine the request based on the law, the best interest of the state, and his conscience, without any influence from external or internal pressures.”
The statement continued by underscoring Israel’s legal framework and expressing appreciation for Trump’s support. “President Herzog appreciates President Trump’s significant contribution to Israel and its security. Israel is a sovereign state governed by law. Contrary to the impression created by President Trump’s remarks, President Herzog has not yet made any decision on this matter.”
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — A shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security appeared certain Thursday as lawmakers in the House and Senate were set to leave Washington for a 10-day break and negotiations with the White House over Democrats’ demands for new restrictions had stalled.
Democrats and the White House have traded offers in recent days as the Democrats have said they want curbs on President Donald Trump’s broad campaign of immigration enforcement. They have demanded better identification for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement officers, a new code of conduct for those agencies and more use of judicial warrants, among other requests.
The White House sent its latest proposal late Wednesday, but Trump told reporters on Thursday that some of the Democratic demands would be “very, very hard to approve.”
Democrats said the White House offer, which was not made public, did not include sufficient curbs on ICE after two protesters were fatally shot last month. The offer was “not serious,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Thursday, after the Senate rejected a bill to fund the department.
Americans want accountability and “an end to the chaos,” Schumer said. “The White House and congressional Republicans must listen and deliver.”
Lawmakers in both chambers were on notice to return to Washington if the two sides struck a deal to end the expected shutdown. Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters that Democrats would send the White House a counterproposal over the weekend.
Impact of a shutdown
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said after the vote that a shutdown appeared likely and “the people who are not going to be getting paychecks” will pay the price.
The impact of a DHS shutdown is likely to be minimal at first. It would not likely block any of the immigration enforcement operations, as Trump’s tax and spending cut bill passed last year gave ICE about $75 billion to expand detention capacity and bolster enforcement operations.
But the other agencies in the department — including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard — could take a bigger hit over time.
Gregg Phillips, an associate administrator at FEMA, said at a hearing this week that its disaster relief fund has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities during a shutdown, but would become seriously strained in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
Phillips said that while the agency continues to respond to threats like flooding and winter storms, long-term planning and coordination with state and local partners will be “irrevocably impacted.”
Trump defends officer masking
Trump, who has remained largely silent during the bipartisan talks, noted Thursday that a recent court ruling rejected a ban on masks for federal law enforcement officers.
“We have to protect our law enforcement,” Trump told reporters.
Democrats made the demands for new restrictions on ICE and other federal law enforcement after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. Renee Good was shot by ICE agents on Jan. 7.
Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law last week. That package extended Homeland Security funding at current levels only through Friday.
Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York have said they want immigration officers to remove their masks, to show identification and to better coordinate with local authorities. They have also demanded a stricter use-of-force policy for the federal officers, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.
Democrats also say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests and require that before a person can be detained, authorities have verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen.
Thune suggested there were potential areas of compromise, including on masks. There could be contingencies “that these folks aren’t being doxed,” Thune said. “I think they could find a landing place.”
But Republicans have been largely opposed to most of the items on the Democrats’ list, including a prohibition on masks.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said Republicans who have pushed for stronger immigration enforcement would benefit politically from the Democratic demands.
“So if they want to have that debate, we’ll have that debate all they want,” said Schmitt.
Judicial warrants a sticking point
Thune, who has urged Democrats and the White House to work together, indicated that another sticking point is judicial warrants.
“The issue of warrants is going to be very hard for the White House or for Republicans,” Thune said of the White House’s most recent offer. “But I think there are a lot of other areas where there has been give, and progress.”
Schumer and Jeffries have said DHS officers should not be able to enter private property without a judicial warrant and that warrant procedures and standards should be improved. They have said they want an end to “roving patrols” of agents who are targeting people in the streets and in their homes.
Most immigration arrests are carried out under administrative warrants. Those are internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of a specific person but do not permit officers to forcibly enter private homes or other nonpublic spaces without consent. Traditionally, only warrants signed by judges carry that authority.
But an internal ICE memo obtained by The Associated Press last month authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections.
Far from agreement
Thune, R-S.D., said were “concessions” in the White House offer. He would not say what those concessions were, though, and he acknowledged the sides were “a long ways toward a solution.”
Schumer said it was not enough that the administration had announced an end to the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to thousands of arrests and the fatal shootings of two protesters.
“We need legislation to rein in ICE and end the violence,” Schumer said, or the actions of the administration “could be reversed tomorrow on a whim.”
Simmering partisan tensions played out on the Senate floor immediately after the vote, as Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Homeland Security funding, tried to pass a two-week extension of Homeland Security funding and Democrats objected.
Britt said Democrats were “posturing” and that federal employees would suffer for it. “I’m over it!” she yelled.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Homeland spending subcommittee, responded that Democrats “want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only a department that is obeying the law.”
“This is an exceptional moment in this country’s history,” Murphy said.
Vos Iz NeiasLOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s top prosecutor announced a civil rights investigation Thursday into how delayed evacuations impacted a historically Black community ravaged by one of last year’s deadly wildfires near Los Angeles.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said the investigation was spurred by months of conversation with community members and fire survivors concerned about the disparate impact of the fire on the west side of Altadena, an unincorporated town in LA County. The Eaton Fire was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, 2025. It killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures.
The overarching question is whether “unlawful race, disability, or age-based discrimination in the emergency response result in a delayed evacuation notification that disproportionately impacted west Altadena,” Bonta said.
All but one of the deaths occurred in west Altadena, which received evacuation orders hours after the east side of town and well after homes were already burning, the Los Angeles Times first reported.
By midnight, roughly six hours after the fire sparked, none of the neighborhoods west of Altadena’s North Lake Avenue had been issued an evacuation warning, The Associated Press found. Orders expanded significantly after 3 a.m. One West Altadena resident told AP she didn’t receive alerts to leave until hours after she’d already packed up and fled.
Bonta said most of the investigation’s attention will be focused on the LA County Fire Department, looking at whether the existing systems contributed to the delayed evacuation notices and possible disparities in emergency response. He expects officials to voluntarily comply in sharing information with investigators.
“The families forever changed because of the Eaton Fire deserve nothing less than our full commitment,” he said.
The LA County Fire Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Altadena for Accountability, a group of fire survivors that campaigned for an investigation into the county’s fire response over the past year, called Bonta’s announcement a “trailblazing move” in a press release.
“Losing my home and seeing my parents lose theirs was devastating. I’m heartened today knowing that we have a real pathway to answers and accountability for what went wrong,” fire survivor Gina Clayton-Johnson said in a statement. “This is a big day for all fire survivors today and victims of climate change disasters in the future.”
A 2025 after-action report on evacuations by an independent group found that the county had “conflicting and outdated policies, protocols” and procedures over who has what authority in the evacuation decision-making process. It did not explain why evacuation orders in west Altadena came late.
A confusing patchwork of alert systems and delays in people getting critical information has been an issue after other major fires including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, the 2023 Lahaina Fire in Hawaii and the 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes outside of Denver. Experts have pointed out inherent flaws in such systems that rely on cellphones and other technology to alert people, particularly older residents and those with disabilities.
Chauncia Willis-Johnson, founder of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, said decision-making in emergency management comes with built-in biases, such as assuming everyone has access to vehicles or only needs a certain number of hours to evacuate, for example.
To overcome those biases, people have to be trained to operate with equity as their first priority, Willis-Johnson said.
“I don’t think any emergency response manager purposely hurts anyone,” she said. “But when you’re not prioritizing historically marginalized populations that don’t have the resources to get alerts or warnings any other way … you’re leaving them behind.”
MatzavLarge swaths of the Department of Homeland Security are set to shut down Saturday unless lawmakers strike a last-minute deal to fund the agency after Senate Democrats blocked a funding bill Thursday because it did not include new restrictions they are seeking on federal immigration agents.
Democrats demanded a long list of changes to DHS after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti last month in Minneapolis, including tighter rules on warrants and a ban on agents wearing face masks. President Donald Trump appears to be open to some of them, but Democrats rejected the White House’s latest proposal Thursday, raising the odds of a partial government shutdown.
“They have not addressed most of our major concerns at all,” Sen. Patty Murray (Washington), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters.
The White House sent Democrats the proposal Wednesday night, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations. But Senate Democrats swiftly dismissed it as insufficient. Asked whether Democrats could reach an agreement with the White House, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said “not today.”
Republicans have accused Democrats of being unreasonable. They have asked Democrats to support a short-term funding extension for DHS while negotiations continue – though Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) warned that Democrats would have to make concessions of their own.
“Democrats are never going to get their full wish list,” Thune said Thursday on the Senate floor. “That’s not the way this works.”
Democrats have said they will vote against any funding extension if they do not reach an agreement with the White House. All but one Democrat voted against advancing legislation Thursday to fund DHS through Sept. 30. The motion received 52 votes, far short of the 60 it needed to advance.
“Democrats have been very clear: We will not support an extension of the status quo,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said Thursday on the Senate floor before the vote.
The stalemate means much of DHS will shut down after the end of the day on Friday absent an unexpected breakthrough in negotiations. Many lawmakers are planning to leave Thursday to travel to the Munich Security Conference, putting further pressure on negotiations, although leadership could try to keep them in Washington if a deal appears within reach.
The House would also need to pass any last-minute deal to fund the department. Republicans have a perilously narrow majority in the chamber, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said Thursday that the White House proposal was not enough to win House Democrats’ votes.
“Funding for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security should not move forward in the absence of dramatic changes that are bold, meaningful and transformational,” Jeffries told reporters.
A funding lapse would trigger the third full or partial federal government shutdown in barely three months. The government shuttered for 43 days in the fall amid a standoff between the two parties over expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies; that was followed by a shutdown of much of the government for several days that ended last week.
This shutdown would affect only DHS – but it would not shutter Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection, because Republicans sent those agencies tens of billions of dollars in additional funding last year that would allow them to continue to operate.
Instead, the brunt of a shutdown would fall on the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and other agencies within DHS. It would affect about 13 percent of the federal civilian workforce, most of whom would be forced to work without pay, according to data from DHS and the Office of Personnel Management.
Republicans have emphasized the potential impact on agencies unrelated to the administration’s immigration efforts if DHS funding lapses.
“The pain will be felt by the men and women of TSA, who will once again work to keep our airways safe without a paycheck,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said Wednesday. “There will be uncertainty for our Coast Guard men and women – who have no choice but to show up for work. … It will reduce the amount of funding in the Disaster Relief Fund – just weeks after massive winter storms affected wide swaths of the country.”
Democrats said the administration’s announcement Thursday that it would end its surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota was not enough to earn Democrats’ support.
“The announcement that the surge is over in Minneapolis changes in no way the tactics that are used there and across the country,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) told reporters. “There needs to be a complete overhaul of this department.”
The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on taking up legislation to fund the agency through Sept. 30, but Democrats have said almost unanimously that they will oppose any bill to fund DHS without new restrictions on immigration agents.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), who broke with her party during last year’s shutdown and voted for a Republican funding bill, said Tuesday that she would not do so this time.
“We are asking our colleagues and the White House to work with us,” Cortez Masto told reporters. “It’s common sense. Work with us. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that.”
The restrictions demanded by Democrats include requiring federal immigration agents to wear identification and body cameras and barring them from operating near schools, medical facilities, churches, polling places, child care facilities and courts. They also want to ensure that states and local jurisdictions can investigate and prosecute potential crimes committed by agents and excessive use of force, among other demands.
Republicans have criticized many of the Democrats’ demands, arguing that they would needlessly hamstring agents. Thune has said he expects the White House to make its own demands, including new protections for federal immigration agents and measures cracking down on cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, sometimes known as “sanctuary cities.”
Still, Thune said he thought that negotiations between the White House and Democrats were making progress and that a deal was still possible with more time.
“There’s been clear movement there, which to me suggests that discussions ought to continue,” Thune told reporters Thursday. “And I hope the Democrats feel the same way.”
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
Vos Iz NeiasNEW YORK (AP) — Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services one year ago, he has defended his upending of federal health policy by saying the changes will restore trust in America’s public health agencies.
But as the longtime leader of the anti-vaccine movement scales back immunization guidance and dismisses scientists and advisers, he’s clashed with top medical groups who say he’s not following the science.
The confrontation is deepening confusion among the public that had already surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys show trust in the agencies Kennedy leads is falling, rather than rising, as the country’s health landscape undergoes dramatic change.
Kennedy says he’s aiming to boost transparency to empower Americans to make their own health choices. Doctors counter that the false and unverified information he’s promoting is causing major, perhaps irreversible, damage — and that if enough people forgo vaccination, it will cause a surge of illness and death.
There was a time when people trusted health agencies regardless of party and the government reported “the best of what science knows at this point,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Now, you cannot confidently go to federal websites and know that,” she said.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon argued that trust had suffered during the Biden administration. “Kennedy’s mandate is to restore transparency, scientific rigor, and accountability,” he said.
Trust slid during the COVID pandemic
Historically, federal scientific and public health agencies enjoyed strong ratings in public opinion polls. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for decades scored above many other government agencies in Gallup surveys that asked whether they were doing a “good” or “excellent” job.
Two decades ago, more than 60% of Americans gave the CDC high marks, according to Gallup. But that number fell dramatically at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid agency mistakes and guidance that some people didn’t like.
In 2020, the percentage of Americans who believed the CDC was doing at least a “good” job fell to 40% and then leveled off for the next few years.
Alix Ellis, a hairstylist and mom in Madison, Georgia, used to fully trust the CDC and other health agencies but lost that confidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said some of the guidance didn’t make sense. At her salon, for example, stylists could work directly on someone’s hair, but others in the room had to be several feet away.
“I’m not saying that we were lied to, but that is when I was like, OK, ‘Why are we doing this?’” the 35-year-old said.
Kennedy helped create the trust problem, doctor says
Part of Kennedy’s pitch as health secretary has been restoring Americans’ trust in public health.
“We’re going to tell them what we know, we’re going to tell them what we don’t know, and we’re going to tell them what we’re researching and how we’re doing it,” Kennedy told senators last September, while explaining how he intended to make the CDC’s information reliable. “It’s the only way to restore trust in the agency — by making it trustworthy.”
Before entering politics, Kennedy was one of the loudest voices spreading false information about immunizations. Now, he’s trying to fix a trust problem he helped create, said Dr. Rob Davidson, a Michigan emergency physician.
“You fed those people false information to create the distrust, and now you’re sweeping into power and you’re going to cure the distrust by promoting the same disinformation,” said Davidson, who runs a doctor group called the Committee to Protect Health Care. “It’s upside-down.”
Kennedy has wielded the power of his office to take multiple steps that diverge from medical consensus.
Last May, he announced COVID-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, a move doctors called concerning and confusing.
In November, he directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying new evidence. And earlier this year, the CDC under his leadership reduced the number of vaccines recommended for every child, a decision medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases.
Kennedy also has overhauled his department through canceled grants and mass layoffs. Last summer, Kennedy fired his new CDC chief after less than a month over disagreements about vaccine policy.
Confusion emerges as trust erodes
Some have applauded the moves. But surveys suggest many Americans have had the opposite reaction.
“I have much less trust,” said Mark Rasmussen, a 67-year-old retiree walking into a mall in Danbury, Connecticut, one recent morning.
Shocked by Kennedy’s dismantling of public health norms, professional medical groups have urged Americans not to follow new vaccine recommendations they say were adopted without public input or compelling evidence.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, along with more than 200 public health and advocacy groups, urged Congress to investigate how and why Kennedy changed the vaccine schedule. The American Medical Association, working with the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project, this week announced a new evidence-based process for reviewing the safety of respiratory virus vaccines — something they say is needed since the government stopped doing that kind of systematic review.
Many Democratic-led states also have rebuffed Kennedy’s policies, even creating their own alliances to counter his vaccine guidance.
“We see burgeoning confusion about which sources to trust and about which sources are real. That makes decision-making on an individual level much harder,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health.
She said she worried the confusion was contributing to the recent rise in diseases like whooping cough and measles, which were once largely eliminated in the U.S.
Surveys indicate growing public wavering over support for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Although a large majority of people support giving it to children, the proportion declined significantly in just over nine months, according to Annenberg research. An August 2025 survey finds that 82% would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to recommend that an eligible child in their household get MMR vaccine, compared with 90% in November 2024.
Surveys show trust is declining again
New findings from the health care research nonprofit KFF in January show that 47% of Americans trust the CDC “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to provide reliable vaccine information, down about 10 percentage points since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
Trust among Democrats dropped 9 percentage points since September, to 55%, the survey found. Trust among Republicans and independents hasn’t changed since September, but it has declined somewhat among both groups since the beginning of Trump’s term.
Even among MAHA supporters, the poll shows, fewer than half say they trust agencies like the CDC and FDA “a lot” or “some” to make recommendations about childhood vaccine schedules.
Gallup surveys also show a drop in Americans who believe the CDC is doing a “good job,” from 40% in 2024 to 31% last year.
Those results came alongside a decline of trust across the government — not just agencies under Kennedy’s oversight. Yet concerns about Kennedy’s trustworthiness also have emerged in the past year. Documents recently obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian, for example, undermine his statements that a 2019 trip to Samoa ahead of a measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.” The documents have prompted senators to assert that Kennedy lied to them over the visit.
HHS officials say they are promoting independent decision-making by families while working to reduce preventable diseases. They say reducing routine vaccine recommendations was meant to ensure parents vaccinate children against the riskiest diseases.
HHS did not make Kennedy available for an interview, despite repeated requests. But as he has pledged to restore trust, he’s also urged people to come to their own conclusions.
“This idea that you should trust the experts,” Kennedy said recently on The Katie Miller Podcast, “a good mother doesn’t do that.”
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MatzavA federal judge ordered the Defense Department to halt pending disciplinary proceedings against Sen. Mark Kelly, saying in a ruling Thursday that the retired Navy captain’s right to free speech was under attack by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon barred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from enforcing a censure against Kelly over comments that the Arizona Democrat made in a social media video reminding service members that they can refuse illegal orders. The judge also ordered a halt to disciplinary proceedings that Hegseth had ordered, which could have reduced Kelly’s rank and cut his military retirement benefits.
“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” Leon wrote in a 29-page opinion.
Hegseth said in a brief post on X that the ruling would be appealed immediately. “Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain,’” Hegseth said in a reference to Kelly, who serves on the Senate Armed Forces and Intelligence committees.
The injunction came two days after a federal grand jury in D.C. declined to indict Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers over the social media video last year that drew President Donald Trump’s ire.
Members of the military, the lawmakers said in the video, could refuse to follow illegal orders amid the administration’s controversial uses of the armed forces to patrol Democratic-run cities and conduct strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
Although active-duty members of the military can be punished for comments seen as insubordinate, those restrictions on speech have never been applied by the federal courts to retired service members such as Kelly, Leon said.
The judge, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, said the case had ramifications far beyond one senator – millions of retired service members’ free-speech rights could be chilled, he said.
“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired servicemembers, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired servicemembers have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years,” the judge wrote. “If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the first Amendment in the Bill of Rights!”
In a statement responding to the ruling, Kelly said the Trump administration was using increasingly strong-armed tactics to stifle peaceful dissent, not just in Congress but across the country.
“This administration was sending a message to millions of retired veterans that they too can be censured or demoted just for speaking out. That’s why I couldn’t let it stand,” Kelly said.
He added: “They don’t like when journalists report on the consequences of their policies. They don’t like when retired veterans question them. And they don’t like when millions of everyday Americans peacefully protest. That’s why they are cracking down on our rights and trying to make examples out of anyone they can.”
In a formal censure letter last month, Hegseth said Kelly had “undermined the chain of command,” “counseled disobedience” and displayed “conduct unbecoming an officer.”
Kelly’s attorneys said the lawmakers in the video were invoking a well-established principle of military law. The Uniform Code of Military Justice says all orders from superiors are presumed lawful except in the case of “a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime,” they said.
They cited remarks from a speech Hegseth gave in 2016: “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief. … There’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.”
Kelly retired from the military in 2011 after 24 years of service. His career included flying fighter jets over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War and becoming an astronaut. He left the Navy several months after his wife, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), was shot in the head during a constituent event and survived.
At a hearing this month, a Justice Department attorney argued that Congress had made clear that military retirees could be recalled to active duty and that they remain subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If the court granted Kelly’s injunction, it would “effectively veto” an ongoing military disciplinary process, and that “would be very troubling,” the Justice Department attorney, John Bailey, argued.
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
Yeshiva World NewsA growing political storm is gathering around Israel’s presidency as public pressure from Washington collides with sensitive legal and constitutional procedures in Jerusalem.
Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog’s office said Thursday that PM Netanyahu’s formal request for a pardon is still under review. The statement came in response to President Trump’s comments earlier in the day, in which he said Herzog should be “ashamed of himself” for not pardoning the embattled prime minister.
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“To clarify, the prime minister’s request is currently under review at the Israeli Justice Ministry for a legal opinion in accordance with the established procedures,” Herzog’s statement said, noting that the Israeli president was returning from an official visit to Australia.
“Only upon completion of that process, will President Herzog consider the request in accordance with the law, the best interests of the State of Israel, guided by his conscience, and without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind,” it added.
The carefully worded response appeared aimed at pushing back against Trump’s increasingly vocal campaign, while reaffirming Herzog’s commitment to legal norms and institutional independence.
At the same time, the statement struck a conciliatory tone toward Washington.
“President Herzog deeply appreciates President Trump for his significant contribution to the State of Israel and its security,” the office said.
But it also emphasized Israel’s sovereignty and legal framework.
“Israel is a sovereign state governed by the rule of law,” the statement continued. “Contrary to the impression created by President Trump’s remarks, President Herzog has not yet made any decision on this matter.”
Trump has waged a highly public and sustained effort to pressure Herzog into granting Netanyahu a pardon, turning what is traditionally a discreet legal process into an international political issue.
In October, Trump went so far as to raise the issue in an address to the Knesset, urging Herzog to act.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Yeshiva World NewsIsraeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch has formally invited Donald Trump to attend the Israel Prize Award Ceremony in Jerusalem on April 22, where the U.S. president is set to receive the country’s top civilian honor.
Kisch announced Tuesday on X that he had sent Trump an official invitation to participate in the ceremony, which is held annually on Israel’s Independence Day and overseen by the Ministry of Education. He also shared a copy of the letter publicly.
The invitation follows a December announcement by Benjamin Netanyahu that Trump would receive the Israel Prize for “Unique Contribution to the Jewish People.” It marks the first time a foreign leader has been selected for the honor.
In his letter, Kisch called the decision “historic” and said Trump’s presence in Jerusalem would symbolize the “deep and enduring friendship” between the two nations.
The ceremony will be part of celebrations marking Israel’s 78th Independence Day and is expected to be attended by President Isaac Herzog, senior government officials and international guests.
It remains unclear whether Trump will accept the invitation.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
MatzavA federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to allow a group of Venezuelans who were hastily flown out of the country last year under the president’s wartime powers to return for court proceedings challenging their deportations.
Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C. said the Trump administration had denied due-process rights under the Constitution to 137 Venezuelan men who were deported in March under the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act. The men were sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, then moved to Venezuela months later as part of a prisoner swap.
For now, because of political and logistical challenges, Boasberg’s ruling does not cover deportees who remain in Venezuela and applies only to those who have moved to another country. The judge said those men must be paroled into the United States for court proceedings if they want the opportunity to challenge their removals.
Lawyers involved in the case said only a few of the plaintiffs are currently able to benefit from the ruling, because many of the 137 deportees are unreachable in Venezuela.
The ruling, which the Justice Department has vowed to appeal, was the latest judicial setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations nationwide, in many cases without court hearings or advance notice.
The ruling covers deportees who show up at U.S. land ports of entry and those who take commercial flights into the country. Boasberg ordered the U.S. government to pay for the flights, granting a request from the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the Government simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them,” Boasberg wrote.
Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney working with the Venezuelan migrants, said a handful of them had “managed to get out of Venezuela and want to pursue their rights.” Efforts to reach the others continue, he added.
“Recognizing that the nightmare these men suffered was the fault of the government’s failure to abide by the Constitution, the Court has taken the first critical step to providing them with the due process that even the government now concedes they were denied,” Gelernt said.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin defended the deportations.
“Nothing has changed; in addition to being in our country illegally, these aliens are foreign terrorists designated as alien enemies by the President,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “They were removed under the proper legal authorities.”
Justice Department lawyers had argued that federal judges were not legally empowered to second-guess the executive branch’s decisions on deportations and that there was no feasible way to locate or provide court hearings for the Venezuelan migrants, especially after U.S. forces deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro this year and began delicate negotiations with the country’s new leadership.
Boasberg, a former prosecutor appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has drawn President Donald Trump’s ire over his rulings in the Venezuelan migrants’ case. The president and some of his Republican allies have called for Boasberg’s impeachment, and the Justice Department filed a judicial misconduct complaint against him. It was later dismissed by a federal appeals court judge.
The Trump administration, in turn, has drawn rebukes from the judge for using the Alien Enemies Act to hastily deport the Venezuelan men, who were all designated members of the Tren de Aragua gang by the government and denied the opportunity to offer evidence to the contrary before being flown out of the country.
Boasberg began a contempt-of-court inquiry last year after top administration officials ignored orders he gave to return and stop the flights transporting the Venezuelans to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. The federal appeals court in D.C. has temporarily paused the contempt inquiry.
In Thursday’s ruling, Boasberg said the deported Venezuelans could challenge Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove them or their individual designations as Tren de Aragua members. The judge said any migrants who return for their court proceedings should be prepared to be detained and possibly re-deported at their conclusion.
The deportees also may start submitting court filings from Venezuela, and hearings for them could be held later, Boasberg ruled.
Akshaya Kumar, the crisis advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, which studied and produced a report about the detentions, said the judge’s order is an acknowledgment of the harm the group says came about from the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out the deportations.
“A lot remains to be seen on how the appeals play out but what this decision represents is a recognition that these people shouldn’t have been removed without process in the first place,” Kumar said.
If the case ends up before the Supreme Court, Kumar said, she urged the justices to “make clear that the president shouldn’t be able to assert that there’s a war when there isn’t a war or that people are enemies when they are simply immigrants.”
Although migrants who remain in Venezuela were not covered by Thursday’s ruling, the judge said the Trump administration should continue exploring the “the feasibility of returning Plaintiffs still in Venezuela who wish to return for their proceedings” and ordered the government to submit a report on those efforts next month.
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
The Lakewood ScoopThe Jackson Township Council is set to host a Community Infrastructure Roundtable which will be focused on addressing ongoing and upcoming infrastructure projects in Jackson. This meeting is part of the Township’s continued efforts to engage with residents directly, gather community input, and evaluate infrastructure needs and solutions to guide planning and priorities.
The Roundtable will take place at:
Town Hall, 95 West Veterans Highway,
Tuesday Feb 17th, 2026
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Roundtable’s agenda is to focus on addressing infrastructure and growth-related issues that residents experience firsthand. Roadway conditions, stormwater management, pedestrian connectivity, preservation of green space, and responsible development each shape how the community functions and grows. Open discussion around these topics is essential to understanding their real-world impact and to developing solutions that are balanced, informed, and responsive to resident concerns.
Topics to be discussed will include roadway conditions and potential improvements, stormwater management challenges and solutions, and sidewalk installation and connectivity. Mayor Jennifer Kuhn along with Township Engineer Charles Cunliffe will be in attendance to provide professional insight and answer questions related to planning and engineering considerations. Individual council members will also participate on a rotating basis to comply with New Jersey state quorum requirements.
Council President Burnstein believes in having open conversations about concerns residents would like addressed. He maintains that is the purpose of being in the title he holds.
“Residents input is vital in these areas since growth and infrastructure do have a bearing on them directly every day,” said Council President Burnstein. These Roundtable discussions give residents a voice in identifying challenges and developing solutions infrastructure needs and how to navigate planning and determining priority projects. It will assist with the Council’s assessment of local needs and provide guidance for future projects, ensuring that planning, prioritization, and implementation reflect both resident feedback and on-the-ground realities.”
Jackson Township residents are encouraged to attend and participate in this open forum as the Council continues it on the path of transparency, and responsive governing body.
Vos Iz Neias(AP) – A little known security feature on iPhones is in the spotlight after it stymied efforts by U.S. federal authorities to search devices seized from a reporter.
Apple’s Lockdown Mode recently prevented FBI agents from getting into Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson ‘s iPhone.
Agents seized the phone, as well as two MacBooks and other electronic devices, when they searched Natanson’s home last month as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally handling classified information. But the FBI reported that its Computer Analysis Response Team “could not extract” data from the iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, according to a court filing.
So what is Lockdown Mode? Here’s a rundown of how it works and how to use it:
Highest security
Apple says Lockdown Mode is an “optional, extreme” protection tool designed to guard against “extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyberattacks.” It’s not for everyone, but instead for “very few individuals” who could be targeted by digital threats because of who they are or what they do.
“Most people will never be targeted by attacks of this nature,” Apple’s support page says.
It’s available in Apple’s newer operating systems, including iOS 16 and macOS Ventura. It works by putting strict security limits on some apps and features, or even making some unavailable, to reduce the areas that advanced spyware can attack. It also restricts the kinds of browser technologies that websites can use and limits photo sharing.
Can Apple turn it off?
Apple has previously rejected U.S. government requests to build so-called backdoor access for its devices.
In 2016, Apple refused a request by authorities to help bypass lockscreen security for an encrypted iPhone belonging to a shooter who carried out a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. The company also declined to add an ability to input passcodes electronically, which would make it possible to carry out “brute force” attempts to guess the combination using computers.
“It would be wrong to intentionally weaken our products with a government-ordered backdoor,” Apple said in explaining its decision.
How to turn on Lockdown Mode
Make sure your iPhone, iPad or MacBook has been updated. You’ll have to turn the feature on separately for each of your Apple devices.
On your iPhone, go to Settings, then to the Privacy and Security section, scroll down to the bottom and tap on Lockdown Mode. Enter your passcode — not a facial or fingerprint scan — to activate it. The device will restart and then you’ll again have to use your passcode to unlock it. On MacBooks, follow a similar procedure from the System Settings menu.
Apple recommends that you switch it on for all of the company’s devices that you own.
Better than biometrics
You might assume that requiring facial or fingerprint recognition to unlock your phone is good enough to protect it from snooping. But experts say passcodes are better than biometrics at protecting your devices from law enforcement, because they could compel you to unlock your device by holding your phone up to your face or forcing you to put your finger on the scanner.
FBI agents told Natanson that they “could not compel her to provide her passcodes,” but the warrant they used to execute the search did give them the authority “to use Natanson’s biometrics, such as facial recognition or fingerprints, to open her devices.” According to a court filing, Natanson said she didn’t use biometrics to lock her devices but agents were ultimately able to unlock her MacBook with her finger.
This is how it affects your phone
Apple says some apps and features will work differently when Lockdown Mode is on.
Some websites might load slowly or not work properly, and some images and web fonts could be missing because they block “certain complex web technologies.”
In Messages, most types of attachments are blocked, and links and link previews won’t be available. Incoming FaceTime calls are blocked unless it’s from a number you’ve called in the past month.
In Photos, location information is stripped from shared photos and shared albums are removed from the app. Focus mode won’t work normally.
There are also tighter restrictions on connecting your phone or computer to unsecure Wi-Fi networks or to other computers and accessories.
When I tried it out on my own iPhone, some apps warned me that certain functions might not work. I noticed that one of my news apps started using a different font and photos on some websites didn’t appear, replaced by a question mark.
The biggest disruption happened when I went to the gym, which involved using a web-based check-in system to scan a QR code. But my phone camera wouldn’t work so I had to turn off Lockdown Mode in order to get in. To be sure, my iPhone’s standalone Code Scanner app still worked, so the problem seemed to center on using a website to activate the camera.
Turn it off
Follow the same procedure outlined above that you used to turn on Lockdown Mode. You’ll need to enter your passcode and the phone will perform a restart.
MatzavGallup announced Wednesday that it will discontinue its long-running presidential approval ratings, bringing to a close an 88-year practice that has long been viewed as a benchmark of public opinion on White House performance.
The polling organization confirmed to The Hill that it plans to stop releasing approval and favorability scores for specific political leaders beginning this year. In a statement, the firm explained that the move “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”
“Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” a Gallup spokesperson told the outlet. “That work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll, and our portfolio of U.S. and global research.”
For decades, the Gallup Presidential Approval Rating has been widely cited by news organizations as a key indicator of how Americans view a president’s job performance.
When asked by The Hill whether the company had received any reaction or communication from the White House or individuals within the Trump administration prior to making the decision, a spokesperson responded, “This is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.”
“This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science.”
Gallup will continue surveying Americans on a broad array of topics beyond partisan politics, including religion, the labor market, artificial intelligence, and confidence in major public institutions.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsA student group at City University of New York School of Law is facing mounting criticism after promoting an event that frames Hamas terror infrastructure as a form of “resistance.”
The campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine announced a March 5 discussion featuring Hadeel Assali, an anthropologist affiliated with Columbia University Center for Science and Society. The event is billed as an “anthropologic investigation” into Gaza’s tunnel network, described as “social organization in resistance to colonization.”
In past writings, Assali has called the tunnels “an essential form of resistance,” portraying Hamas’s underground network as part of a relationship between Palestinians and the land — completely ignoring their use in kidnappings, torture and attacks on civilians.
The invitation drew backlash from Columbia Faculty and Staff Supporting Israel, which noted that Assali was named in a lawsuit against Columbia University and Barnard College over failures to protect Jewish students.
The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association warned that the event reflects a broader trend of politicized scholarship spreading across campuses.
“This is how it happens,” the group said.
Brandy Shufutinsky of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called the program “a dangerous reframing of terror,” stressing that “no number of teach-ins can erase the atrocities.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
MatzavPresident Donald Trump is set to present a sweeping, multi-billion-dollar rebuilding initiative for Gaza and outline the formation of a U.N.-authorized international stabilization force at the first official gathering of his Board of Peace next week, according to two senior U.S. officials who spoke on Thursday.
The session, scheduled for Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C., is expected to draw representatives from at least 20 nations, including numerous heads of state. Trump will preside over the meeting, the officials told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the plans.
Specific details regarding the agenda for this inaugural Board of Peace meeting focused on Gaza have not previously been disclosed.
Trump formally established the Board of Peace on Jan. 23 while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, signing the foundational documents there. The initiative was later backed by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which incorporated the board into the broader framework of Trump’s Gaza proposal.
Several regional players — among them Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar — along with prominent emerging countries such as Indonesia, have aligned themselves with the board. In contrast, major global powers and long-standing Western allies of the United States have responded more cautiously to the initiative.
During his visit to Washington on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel has joined the board. Trump’s effort has raised concerns in some quarters that the Board of Peace could extend its reach beyond Gaza and seek to address additional global conflicts, potentially overlapping with the role of the United Nations.
The U.S. officials emphasized that next week’s discussions will be devoted exclusively to Gaza. A central feature of the meeting will be Trump’s unveiling of a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction fund for the territory, financed through contributions from member states of the board. One official described the pledges as “generous” and noted that Washington had not formally solicited contributions.
“People have come to us offering,” the official said. “The president will make announcements vis a vis the money raised.”
A cornerstone of the upcoming phase of Trump’s Gaza strategy is the deployment of an International Stabilization Force. The broader plan was first introduced in September. Its initial phase led to a delicate ceasefire taking effect on Oct. 10 in the two-year conflict, during which Hamas released hostages and Israel freed Palestinian detainees.
At the meeting, Trump is expected to disclose that multiple countries are prepared to contribute several thousand personnel to the stabilization force, which is anticipated to enter Gaza in the coming months, according to the officials.
One of the most pressing challenges remains the disarmament of Hamas fighters, many of whom have resisted surrendering their weapons. Under Trump’s framework, Hamas members who agree to lay down their arms and commit to peaceful coexistence would receive amnesty. Those opting to depart Gaza would be granted safe passage to countries willing to accept them.
The Board of Peace summit will also feature comprehensive briefings on the activities of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, an entity created to assume civilian governance responsibilities in the Strip from Hamas. The committee publicly named its members and convened its inaugural meeting in January.
Additional updates are expected regarding humanitarian assistance efforts in Gaza and developments involving the territory’s police forces, the officials added.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — Colorectal cancer is a threat not just to older adults but increasingly to young men and women, too. It’s now the top cancer killer of Americans younger than 50.
The deaths of “Dawson’s Creek” actor James Van Der Beek at 48 this week, and a few years ago “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman at 43, highlight the risk for younger adults.
“We’re now starting to see more and more people in the 20-, 30- and 40-year-old range developing colon cancer. At the beginning of my career, nobody that age had colorectal cancer,” said Dr. John Marshall of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, who has been a cancer doctor for more than three decades.
That trend “is shaking us all, to be blunt,” said Marshall, who is also medical consultant to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
Here’s what to know about colorectal cancer — at any age — and how to protect yourself.
How common is colorectal cancer?
More than 158,000 cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Among all ages, it’s the nation’s second leading cancer killer, behind lung cancer — expected to claim more than 55,000 lives this year.
For the population overall, cases and deaths have inched down in recent years. That’s thanks in part to screening tests that can spot tumors early, when they’re easier to treat — or even prevent them if precancerous growths are found and removed.
Who’s most at risk?
The vast majority of colorectal cancer cases and deaths still are in people 50 and older. That older age group has seen the most progress, with deaths dropping by about 1.5% a year over the past decade, according to cancer society statistics.
But while it’s still relatively rare in the under-50 crowd, their colorectal cancer diagnoses have been rising since the early 2000s.
And last month, cancer society researchers reported that colorectal cancer mortality in Americans under 50 had increased by 1.1% a year since 2005, becoming the deadliest cancer in that age group. This year, the society estimates 3,890 people under age 50 will die of it.
Risk factors at any age include obesity, lack of physical activity, a diet high in red or processed meat and low in fruits and vegetables, smoking, heavy alcohol use, having inflammatory bowel disease or a family history of colorectal cancer.
Marshall advises everyone to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. “Meat’s not evil” but eat less of it, he said.
And a recent study found that a three-year exercise program improved survival in colon cancer patients and reduced cancer recurrence.
What are the symptoms of colorectal cancer?
Symptoms include blood in stool or rectal bleeding; changes in bowel habits such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of stool that lasts more than a few days; unintended weight loss; and cramps or abdominal pain.
“Don’t ignore symptoms. Get it checked,” Marshall stressed. Survival is far more likely when colorectal cancer is diagnosed early, before it spreads.
When to get screened for colorectal cancer
Medical guidelines say the average person should start getting screened at age 45 — too late for some young adults.
People known to be at higher risk are supposed to talk with their doctors about whether to start screening even earlier.
How often people need to get checked depends on the type of screening they choose. There are a variety of options, including yearly stool-based tests or colonoscopies that may be done every 10 years as long as no problems were found. There’s also a newer blood test for adults 45 or older.
What’s causing the colorectal cancer rise in younger adults?
No one knows what’s causing the rise in cases in younger adults. But Georgetown’s Marshall said many young patients lack common risk factors. He wonders if changes in young people’s gut bacteria — the microbiome — might play a role.
Also, where cancer occurs along the question mark-shaped colon — it starts on one side of the abdomen and swoops to the other before ending with the rectum — influences how aggressive it is and how it’s treated. Marshall said there’s a marked difference in where younger and older people’s tumors tend to strike, another clue being explored.
MatzavIsraeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu completed a rapid trip to the United States on Thursday, capping the visit with an extended three-hour session at the White House with President Donald Trump that centered largely on Iran and the direction of ongoing negotiations.
Speaking briefly before boarding Israel’s official aircraft, Wing of Zion, Netanyahu described the discussion in positive terms and said President Trump is convinced that Tehran understands the consequences of walking away from a potential agreement.
A primary concern raised during the talks, Netanyahu indicated, was the possibility of a narrowly structured nuclear agreement — one that would address uranium enrichment alone while leaving aside Iran’s ballistic missile program and its backing of regional proxy groups.
“We have a strong, true, and open relationship,” Netanyahu said of Trump, explaining that their meeting “dealt with several issues, but focused mainly on the negotiations with Iran.”
Netanyahu said Trump believes Iranian leaders now recognize the stakes involved. “The President believes that the Iranians have already learned who they are dealing with. I think that the conditions he is setting, together with their understanding that they made a mistake last time when they didn’t reach a deal, may lead them to agree to conditions that will enable a good deal.”
At the same time, the prime minister acknowledged his own reservations about the prospects for a final agreement. “I want to say clearly,” Netanyahu continued, “I do not hide my general doubtfulness about the possibility of reaching any deal with Iran. That being said, I made it clear that if a deal is reached, it must include the components that are important to us, the State of Israel, and in my opinion, the entire international community: not only the nuclear issue, but also the ballistic missiles, and the Iranian proxies in the region.”
Netanyahu concluded by reiterating the tone of the meeting and broadening the scope of the conversation beyond Iran. “It was an excellent conversation. Of course, we spoke about Gaza, the entire region, and other general topics. In any case, it was another conversation with a great friend of the State of Israel, I president like there never was.”
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsThe Trump administration is ending the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday of the two-month operation that led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.
The operation, which the Department of Homeland Security called its “ largest immigration enforcement operation ever, ” has been a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, flaring up after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal officers in Minneapolis.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, Homan said, touting it as a success.
“The surge is leaving Minnesota safer,” he said. “I’ll say it again, it’s less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”
The announcement marks a significant retreat from an operation that has become a major distraction for the Trump administration and more volatile than prior crackdowns in Chicago and Los Angeles. It comes as a new AP-NORC poll found that most U.S. adults say Trump’s immigration policies have gone too far.
Trump initially said the surge was an effort to root out fraud in publicly funded programs, for which he blamed the state’s large Somali community, most of whom are U.S. citizens. But the drive soon shifted gears toward other ethnic groups such as Latinos. While the administration has portrayed those caught up in the Minnesota sweeps as “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many of them are people with no criminal records, children including 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, and U.S. citizens.
State and local officials, who have frequently clashed with federal authorities since Operation Metro Surge started in December, insist the swarm of immigration officials has inflicted long-term damage on the state’s economy and its immigrant community.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz urged residents Thursday to remain vigilant in the coming days as immigration officers prepare to leave, saying he’s not going to express gratitude for the Trump administration officials who caused “this unnecessary, unwarranted and in many cases unconstitutional assault on our state.”
“It’s going to be a long road,” Walz said at a news conference where he proposed a $10 million aid package for businesses that have lost revenue because of the immigration enforcement operation. “Minnesotans are decent, caring, loving neighbors and they’re also some of the toughest people you’ll find. And we’re in this as long as it takes.”
The governor called on Washington to help fund the recovery.
“The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here. … You don’t get to break things and then just leave without doing something about it,” he said.
Homan was vague about a timeline for the drawdown. But Walz said Homan had assured him Thursday morning that federal officers would start leaving immediately.
“So as soon as they can pack their stuff, book a plane, move on. I would volunteer — we will help you get to the airport. We will clear the road to get to the airport. I will pack your damn bags if that’s what it takes,” the governor said.
Homan’s announcement came as Democratic lawmakers demand restraints on immigration officers before agreeing to fund DHS. The Trump administration is trying to secure votes in Congress to prevent federal funding from expiring at the end of the week.
Walz, a former congressman, said Homan’s announcement doesn’t make him any readier to support restoring DHS funding.
The governor said he has been in contact with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, urging them to “hold the line until you get the at least minimum reforms necessary in this rogue agency.”
In Washington, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Homeland Security committee, told reporters he’ll continue to insist on “fundamental and far reaching reforms” at ICE as a condition of funding for DHS.
“If Republicans are unwilling to accept reforms and DHS shuts down as a result, they have to explain to the American people why they are imposing this burden simply as a result of demands by the American people for reforms in the way this out-of-control agency needs to be reined in,” Blumenthal said.
Homan said immigration enforcement won’t end in the state when the Minnesota operation is over and that the local ICE office will stay in the fight.
“President Trump made a promise of mass deportation and that’s what this country is going to get,” Homan said.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said during a hearing in Washington on Thursday that ICE officers are still looking for about 16,840 people in Minnesota with final orders of removal.
Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents and amid growing political backlash about how the operation was being run. He said Thursday that he intends to stay in Minnesota to oversee the drawdown that will continue into next week.
“We’ve seen a big change here in the last couple of weeks,” he said, crediting cooperation from local leaders.
During the height of the surge, heavily armed officers were met by resistance from residents upset with their aggressive tactics. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Minnesotans offered a model of resistance and she renewed calls to rein in Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
“Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “Our state has shown the world how to protect our democracy and take care of our neighbors. ICE withdrawing from Minnesota is just the beginning. We need accountability for the lives lost and the extraordinary abuses of power at the hands of ICE agents, and we must see a complete overhaul of the agency.”
Some activists expressed relief at Homan’s announcement, but warned that the fight isn’t over. Lisa Erbes, a leader of the progressive protest group Indivisible Twin Cities, said officials, must be held accountable for the chaos of the crackdown.
“People have died. Families have been torn apart,” Erbes said. “We can’t just say this is over and forget the pain and suffering that has been put on the people of Minnesota.”
In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would meet Thursday afternoon with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to discuss ways to protect immigrants from the Trump administration.
“They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation,” Frey said on social media. “These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it’s not just about resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American.”
(AP)
MatzavHoman Announces End of Minnesota Immigration Surge After Thousands of Arrests
The Trump administration is winding down its large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota after two months, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday, though he noted that a limited federal presence will remain in the state for the time being.
Speaking in Minneapolis, Homan said the administration is scaling back Operation Metro Surge following what he described as strong results and improved collaboration with local authorities. At the same time, he cautioned that ongoing unrest by far-left activists could complicate a full withdrawal of federal agents.
“With the success that has been made in arresting public safety threats and other priorities since this surge operation began, as well as the unprecedented levels of coordination we have obtained from state officials and local law enforcement, I have proposed — and President Trump has concurred — that this surge operation conclude,” Homan told reporters in Minneapolis.
He said federal personnel have already begun pulling back.
“A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue into the next week,” he added, without specifying how many federal personnel would be leaving the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Homan credited the operation with thousands of arrests and the recovery of thousands of migrant children.
The border czar credited Operation Metro Surge with more than 4,000 arrests and the recovery of 3,364 unaccompanied migrant children, whom he claimed “the last administration lost and weren’t even looking for.”
He also highlighted recent arrests of individuals with serious criminal records.
“Just this week,” Homan continued, ICE nabbed an illegal immigrant who had been convicted of raping a child under the age of 14.
“ICE also arrested two criminal aliens with criminal sexual misconduct convictions, among other violent criminals,” he added.
Addressing criticism of the operation, Homan rejected claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as schools, churches, or hospitals. He said he had found no evidence to support those allegations, aside from the arrest of demonstrators — including former CNN anchor Don Lemon — who disrupted a church service in St. Paul on Jan. 18.
At the peak of the enforcement effort, more than 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol officers were deployed in Minneapolis, a move that sparked protests and unrest in parts of the city.
Last week, Homan confirmed that approximately 700 personnel had already been withdrawn, reducing the number of federal officers on the ground to around 2,000.
Before the surge began, about 150 federal immigration agents were stationed in Minneapolis, Homan said in remarks last week.
“Operation Metro Surge is ending,” Homan confirmed. “Next week, we’re going to deploy the officers here on detail back to their home stations and other areas of the country. But we’re going to continue to enforce immigration law.”
He stressed, however, that continued reductions in personnel would depend on the security situation.
“since I have been here, I’ve repeatedly emphasized that the unlawful and violent agitator activity is unacceptable and must wind down as a condition for further drawdown of law enforcement personnel.
“I cannot remove law enforcement personnel while violence poses a serious risk to our officers; I will not leave my officers in that position.”
The administration initially launched the Minnesota surge late last year following a large welfare fraud scandal that drew nationwide scrutiny, much of it centered on the Somali community in the Twin Cities.
On Jan. 26, Trump sent Homan to Minnesota after nationwide outrage erupted over the fatal shootings of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Reports have indicated that Homan and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem differed on enforcement priorities, with Homan favoring a focus on illegal immigrants with criminal records rather than a broader approach targeting all undocumented individuals.
Trump has publicly supported Noem despite sharp criticism from Democrats, who have called for her resignation or dismissal.
Throughout the operation, Homan repeatedly urged local officials to allow federal authorities access to detention facilities holding migrants arrested by local law enforcement.
“As far as the jails, we got more cooperation with more jails than we had before we got here. That’s a good thing. We’re having conversations with the state,” he added. “We’re moving further on other agreements for the state.
“The cooperation we have here, it’s going to keep this city safer. It’s going to keep our agents safer.”
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasTEL AVIV, Israel (VINnews) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he regrets not exercising “better judgment” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein but denied any knowledge of the disgraced financier’s sexual crimes before 2019.
In an interview aired Thursday on Israel’s Channel 12, Barak addressed newly released recordings and documents detailing his ties to Epstein, with whom he maintained social and business contacts for years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
“I am responsible for all my actions and decisions,” Barak said. “There is certainly room to ask whether I should have exercised more careful judgment. I regret the moment I met him in 2003.”
Barak said that until Epstein’s arrest in 2019 and the renewed investigation into his activities, he believed Epstein had served his sentence and been accepted back into elite U.S. social circles.
“Only in 2019 did the truly abhorrent nature of his crimes become clear,” he said. “At that point, I cut off contact.”
Barak confirmed that he and his wife stayed on multiple occasions at a New York apartment owned by Epstein, describing it as a matter of convenience while traveling. He denied any financial impropriety and said he never witnessed or participated in inappropriate conduct.
“I never saw any improper behavior, and I certainly never participated in anything of that sort,” he said.
Barak also addressed recently published recordings in which he discussed immigration policy and referred to bringing “high-quality” immigrants to Israel. Critics described the remarks as racist and disparaging toward earlier waves of immigrants from North Africa and Arab countries.
Barak rejected that characterization, saying his comments were taken out of context and referred to differences between emergency refugee absorption in Israel’s early years and modern voluntary immigration systems.
“There was no racism,” he said. “I did not grade communities.”
He acknowledged that additional materials related to his association with Epstein could emerge but insisted they would not reveal any criminal conduct.
“I regret that I did not exercise more discretion,” Barak said. “But there is nothing illegal and nothing improper.”
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (VINnews) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog should be “ashamed of himself” for not granting a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump was asked whether Netanyahu bore responsibility for the security failures that allowed Hamas’s October 7 attack to take place.
“I guess everybody’s responsible,” Trump said, calling the assault a “sneak attack” that “nobody else would have seen coming.” He went on to describe Netanyahu as “a very good wartime prime minister” and pointed to what he called their joint successes in countering Iran.
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Trump then criticized Herzog, arguing that the Israeli president has the authority to issue pardons but has declined to do so in Netanyahu’s case.
“You have a president that refused to give him a pardon… He should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said. He suggested Herzog was reluctant to act despite previously granting other pardons, though he did not provide details.
Trump also said that while hosting Netanyahu in December, he had been told a pardon was forthcoming. Herzog publicly denied that claim at the time, saying the two leaders had not recently spoken and that no decision had been made regarding a pardon.
Herzog’s office said it had previously spoken with a representative of Trump who inquired about a letter sent in November urging clemency for Netanyahu. The office said any decision would be made in accordance with established legal procedures.
Netanyahu’s trial, which began in 2020, centers on allegations that he accepted gifts from wealthy associates and sought favorable media coverage in exchange for regulatory benefits. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.
The Lakewood ScoopA bill cutting the bureaucratic red tape preventing a school that serves children with special needs from expanding was approved by an Assembly committee today.
Assemblyman Sean Kean, the bill sponsor, calls it the first step toward increasing much-needed student capacity at the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence in Lakewood.
The bill was reintroduced this session after being pocket vetoed by Gov. Phil Murphy. It authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to lift a conservation easement on a piece of property when it is needed to expand an existing school for children with special needs, as long as the DEP imposes a new conservation restriction on another parcel of land that is at least twice the size of the original and located within 20 miles.
“By recognizing that some students with complex medical needs struggle to thrive in typical school settings, New Jersey has to make room at specialized institutions while also considering the environmental impacts of any kind of development,” Kean (R-Monmouth) said. “This bill thoughtfully balances the increased demand for space at the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence and land conservation. More land will be protected, and more children will be helped. It is a win-win.”
The School for Children with Hidden Intelligence is a private school approved by the New Jersey Department of Education to serve students with disabilities in pre-K through 12th grade.
Yeshiva World NewsThe Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressive move by the Republican president to roll back climate regulations.
The rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency rescinds a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
The endangerment finding by the Obama administration is the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
President Donald Trump called the move “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach.”
Trump called the endangerment finding “one of the greatest scams in history,” adding that it “had no basis in fact” or law. “On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” Trump said at a White House ceremony.
Legal challenges are certain for an action that repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, and could unleash a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say. Overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other actions by the Trump administration to roll back dozens of environmental rules, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in U.S. history against federal authority to address climate change. Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.
The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks. And the agency will end tax credits for automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to reduce emissions, but Zeldin said “everyone hates” it.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic administrations, saying that in the name of tackling climate change, they were “willing to bankrupt the country.”
The endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry,” Zeldin said. “The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”
The endangerment finding and the regulations based on it “didn’t just regulate emissions, it regulated and targeted the American dream. And now the endangerment finding is hereby eliminated,” Zeldin said.
The Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
Since the high court’s decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v. EPA, courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The endangerment finding is widely considered the legal foundation that underpins a series of regulations intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change. That includes deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world.
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as White House climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless. “This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.
EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, McCarthy said, adding that the health and environmental hazards of climate change have “become impossible to ignore.”
Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, said Trump’s action “prioritizes the profits of big oil and gas companies and polluters over clean air and water” and children’s health.
“As a result of this repeal, I’m going to see more sick kids come into the Emergency Department having asthma attacks and more babies born prematurely,” she said in a statement. “My colleagues will see more heart attacks and cancer in their patients.”
David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trump and Zeldin are trying to use repeal of the finding as a “kill shot’’ that would allow the administration to make nearly all climate regulations invalid. The repeal could erase current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources and could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to address global warming.
The EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Withdrawing the endangerment finding “is the most important step taken by the Trump administration so far to return to energy and economic sanity,” said Myron Ebell, a conservative activist who has questioned the science behind climate change.
Zeldin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have moved to drastically scale back limits on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks. Rules imposed under Democratic President Joe Biden were intended to encourage U.S. automakers to build and sell more electric vehicles. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
The Trump administration announced a proposal in December to weaken vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry, loosening regulatory pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks. The EPA said its two-year delay to a Biden-era rule on greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks will give the agency time to develop a plan that better reflects the reality of slower EV sales, while promoting consumer choice and lowering prices.
The mileage plan would significantly reduce requirements that set rules on how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. Trump said the rule change will lower the price of new cars and increase Americans’ access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can afford.
Environmental groups said the plan would keep polluting, gas-burning cars and trucks on U.S. roads for years to come, threatening the health of millions of Americans, particularly children and the elderly.
(AP)
Vos Iz NeiasTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (VINnews) — The Florida House on Thursday approved a bill that would require public schools, charter schools and state agencies to replace the term “West Bank” with “Judea and Samaria” in official materials and communications.
The measure (HB 31) passed by a 92-14 vote with bipartisan support. It is sponsored by Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich of Lake Worth and Republican Rep. Chase Tramont of Port Orange.
Under the proposal, state entities would discontinue references to the West Bank — the term widely used by the U.S. government and much of the international community — and instead use “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the territory and the terminology used by the Israeli government.
Approximately 3 million Palestinians and about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, which Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war. The international community generally does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area.
Supporters said the legislation restores historical terminology and counters what they described as political rebranding that diminishes Jewish ties to the land.
Opponents said the bill inserts the state into a sensitive international issue and departs from language used in diplomacy and international law.
A House bill analysis said any fiscal impact would depend on how extensively future instructional and administrative materials include the term being replaced.
Similar legislation has been introduced in other Republican-leaning states, including Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
A companion measure in the Florida Senate, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ralph Massullo of Lecanto, has advanced through committee and awaits further consideration.
MatzavThe Trump administration covertly moved thousands of Starlink satellite internet terminals into Iran following last month’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests, according to a report published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper said the effort was designed to help regime critics maintain internet access after Iranian authorities responded to widespread demonstrations by killing thousands and sharply limiting online connectivity across the country.
U.S. officials told the Journal that this marks the first known instance in which Washington directly supplied Starlink devices inside Iran — a significant risk given that possession of the terminals is illegal there and can carry lengthy prison sentences.
The operation reflects President Donald Trump’s broader approach toward adversarial governments, combining sanctions and military deterrence with measures intended to strengthen civilians living under authoritarian systems.
According to the Journal, the State Department acquired nearly 7,000 Starlink units in recent months, most of them purchased in January, and succeeded in covertly delivering roughly 6,000 of those devices into Iran.
The funding for the purchase reportedly came after senior officials in the Trump administration reallocated money from other internet-freedom initiatives to secure the satellite equipment.
The White House declined to comment, the Journal reported.
Iranian leaders have frequently accused the United States, without presenting proof, of instigating unrest within the country.
Although American officials denied organizing last month’s protests, the Journal noted that the Starlink shipments indicate the administration has provided more tangible assistance to anti-regime elements than had previously been disclosed.
The report also pointed to an ongoing debate within the U.S. government and among digital-rights advocates over the most effective methods for bypassing state censorship.
For years, virtual private networks funded by the United States have enabled millions of Iranians to circumvent government-imposed firewalls and access outside information.
However, officials cited in the Journal said VPNs lose effectiveness during sweeping internet blackouts, making satellite-based systems like Starlink — despite the dangers involved — one of the few viable options for maintaining connectivity.
Some technology experts cautioned that Starlink use, without added safeguards, could expose users to detection, and argued that resources should not be shifted away from VPN providers.
The Journal reported that after the State Department redirected funding to support the Starlink effort, financial backing lapsed for two of the five VPN services operating in Iran.
The covert initiative comes as Trump remains engaged in sensitive negotiations with Tehran aimed at dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Iran has maintained its position that uranium enrichment will continue, while the Trump administration has insisted on eliminating any route toward a nuclear weapon.
The Journal reported that if diplomacy collapses, Trump could approve military action, with U.S. forces already deployed in the Middle East.
Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Iranian threat.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump expressed hope for a negotiated outcome but cautioned, “If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be.”
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsPresident Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran must reach a deal with the U.S. — and suggested an agreement could come within weeks — while also escalating his public defense of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attacking Israel’s president over his refusal to grant a pardon.
“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He added that he believes an agreement could be reached within the next month.
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Trump also focused on Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, urging President Isaac Herzog to intervene.
“I think the people of Israel should really shame him. He’s disgraceful for not giving it,” Trump said, referring to a pardon. “You have a president that refused to give him a pardon… He should be ashamed of himself.”
Trump claimed Herzog was withholding a pardon to preserve his own authority. “The primary power he’s got is to give pardons, and he’s not,” Trump said, without offering evidence.
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Asked whether Netanyahu bore responsibility for security failures ahead of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Trump responded, “I guess everybody’s responsible,” before describing the assault by Hamas as a “sneak attack” that “nobody else would have seen coming.”
He then praised Netanyahu as “a very good wartime prime minister,” pointing to their past cooperation against Iran.
Trump’s comments revive a dispute that surfaced in December, when he claimed Herzog had promised a pardon was “on its way.” Herzog publicly denied the claim, saying no such discussion had taken place and no decision had been made.
Herzog’s office later confirmed that his staff had spoken with a Trump representative about a formal pardon request, but said any decision would follow established legal procedures.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Lakewood ScoopWatch as a driver gets out of his car in Lakewood and – apparently unprovoked – punches the window of another driver before getting back into his vehicle.
Yeshiva World NewsHamas may be confronting a new and unexpected threat — not from Israeli airstrikes or diplomatic isolation, but from mounting financial collapse within its own ranks.
According to a series of local accounts, including social media posts and reporting by Israeli outlet Ynet, some Hamas members facing acute financial hardship have allegedly begun selling weapons or military equipment in order to provide for their families. If confirmed, the development would represent a striking sign of strain inside the organization, which has long projected an image of discipline, cohesion and ideological steadfastness.
The reports come against the backdrop of a reportedly unprecedented financial crisis for the terrorist group. Funding streams have reportedly shrunk dramatically amid tighter international oversight, disrupted money-transfer routes and the broader economic devastation caused by the prolonged war in Gaza. Sustained Israeli military pressure and mounting U.S. diplomatic efforts to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities have compounded the squeeze.
“The situation in Gaza is very difficult. Hamas members are not receiving salaries regularly and sometimes not at all. This creates real hardship,” a source in Gaza told Ynet.
In a territory marked by widespread unemployment, food shortages and the collapse of civilian services, the failure to pay salaries has reportedly left some operatives scrambling for alternatives. In extreme cases, weapons or other military assets have allegedly been sold to fund basic household needs.
Still, the source cautioned that the phenomenon does not appear to be widespread or centrally organized. “There may be isolated personal initiatives by individuals, but this is not a common phenomenon. Overall, financial resources are very limited and the economic situation in Gaza is extremely difficult,” the source said.
At the same time, Gaza-based influencer Rami Aman wrote that groups affiliated with Hamas have recently begun confiscating weapons found in the hands of civilians. Aman also described instances in which private gun owners sold or surrendered their arms, with some weapons reportedly transferred through intermediaries and presented as belonging to Hamas. According to Aman, these moves may be linked to a broader U.S.-backed international initiative aimed at disarming the group and bringing the fighting in Gaza to an end.
Analysts familiar with developments in Gaza say the current crisis exposes a deeper structural vulnerability. For years, they argue, Hamas relied on what amounts to an “emergency economy” — external funding, donations and irregular cash infusions — rather than building sustainable civilian infrastructure. The group’s emphasis on military buildup and conflict management came at the expense of economic resilience.
Now, that model appears under severe stress.
Beyond personal hardship for individual operatives, the economic strain could carry operational consequences. Reduced funding may affect recruitment, training, maintenance of equipment and command-and-control functions. Financial desperation, analysts warn, could also increase susceptibility to intelligence penetration if monetary incentives become more attractive.
Perhaps most consequentially, the group’s image inside Gaza may be at risk. Hamas has long cultivated a narrative of endurance and defiance in the face of pressure. If economic distress continues to deepen — and if reports of weapons being sold for survival gain traction — that narrative could begin to fray, exposing vulnerabilities not just on the battlefield but within the movement’s own social base.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
MatzavPresident Donald Trump, joined Thursday by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, announced that his administration is rescinding a 2009 determination that classified greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels as a threat to public health, a designation that has underpinned federal climate regulations for more than a decade.
Trump described the move as a historic rollback of federal rules and predicted sweeping financial relief for Americans.
Trump called the repeal “the single largest deregulatory action in American history” and said it would “save American consumers trillions of dollars.”
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room at the White House, the president sharply criticized the original policy, which was adopted during the Obama administration, arguing that it harmed the domestic auto sector and increased costs for drivers.
“We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said in the White House Roosevelt Room.
He added that the repeal takes effect immediately and extends beyond the original finding itself to other related emissions standards enacted over the past decade.
“Effective immediately, we are repealing the ridiculous endangerment finding and terminating all additional green emission standards imposed unnecessarily on vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond.”
According to Trump, undoing the policy could reduce the price of new vehicles by thousands of dollars. He also took aim at certain automotive features that he said were mandated as a result of emissions rules.
“Under the endangerment finding, they forced the hated start-stop feature onto American consumers, which unnecessarily shuts off a car’s engine. When you stop at a red light, in other words the engine goes off. That’s great,” Trump said.
Zeldin echoed the president’s remarks, characterizing the action as a major pushback against expansive federal authority.
Zeldin said that the Republicans were scrapping the “holy grail of federal regulatory overreach.”
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressive move by the president to roll back climate regulations.
The rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency rescinds a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
The endangerment finding by the Obama administration is the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
President Donald Trump called the move “the single largest deregulatory action in American history,” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the endangerment finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach.”
Legal challenges are certain for an action that repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, and could unleash a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say. Overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other actions by the Trump administration to roll back environmental rules, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in U.S. history against federal authority to address climate change.
The EPA also said it will propose a two-year delay to a Biden-era rule restricting greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks.
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticized his predecessors in Democratic administrations, saying that in the name of tackling climate change, they were “willing to bankrupt the country.”
Withdrawing the endangerment finding “is the most important step taken by the Trump administration so far to return to energy and economic sanity,” said Myron Ebell, a conservative activist who has questioned the science behind climate change.
Supreme Court has upheld endangerment finding
The Supreme Court ruled in a 2007 case that planet-warming greenhouse gases, caused by burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
Since the high court’s decision, in a case known as Massachusetts v. EPA, courts have uniformly rejected legal challenges to the endangerment finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The endangerment finding is widely considered the legal foundation that underpins a series of regulations intended to protect against threats made increasingly severe by climate change. That includes deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States and around the world.
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as White House climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless. “This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.
EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, McCarthy said, adding that evidence backing up the endangerment finding “has only grown stronger” as the health and environmental hazards of climate change have “become impossible to ignore.”
David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trump and Zeldin are trying to use repeal of the finding as a “kill shot’’ that would allow the administration to make nearly all climate regulations invalid. The repeal could erase current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources and could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to address global warming.
The EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Tailpipe emission limits targeted
Zeldin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have moved to drastically scale back limits on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks. Rules imposed under Democratic President Joe Biden were intended to encourage U.S. automakers to build and sell more electric vehicles. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
The Trump administration announced a proposal in December to weaken vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry, loosening regulatory pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks. The EPA said its two-year delay to a Biden-era rule on greenhouse gas emissions by cars and light trucks will give the agency time to develop a plan that better reflects the reality of slower EV sales, while promoting consumer choice and lowering prices.
The mileage plan would significantly reduce requirements that set rules on how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. Trump said the rule change will lower the price of new cars and increase Americans’ access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can afford.
Environmental groups said the plan would keep polluting, gas-burning cars and trucks on U.S. roads for years to come, threatening the health of millions of Americans, particularly children and the elderly.
Biden-era standards for clean cars and trucks are among the most important and effective protections to address climate pollution, advocates say.
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Thursday to block the Pentagon from punishing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, for participating in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Pentagon officials violated Kelly’s First Amendment free speech rights and “threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.”
“To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!” wrote Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush.
Kelly, who represents Arizona, sued in federal court to block his Jan. 5 censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Leon’s order prohibits the Pentagon from implementing or enforcing Kelly’s punishment while his lawsuit is pending. The judge instructed the parties to provide him with an update in 30 days.
In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared on a video in which they urged troops to uphold the Constitution and not to follow unlawful military directives from the Trump administration. Republican President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days later.
The court case is just one front in a broader dispute that has spiraled between the group of Democratic lawmakers and the Trump administration since they posted the video. Earlier this week, a Washington grand jury declined to indict the lawmakers over the video.
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin has said she has been told the Justice Department could seek a new indictment as soon as Friday. Kelly and Slotkin said at a news conference Wednesday that they are keeping all legal options on the table regarding potentially suing the administration.
Leon said that Kelly “is likely to succeed on the merits” of his free speech claim. “He has also shown irreparable harm, and the balance of the equities fall decidedly in his favor.”
Hegseth said Kelly’s censure was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from the senator’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.
The judge concluded that Kelly’s speech is entitled to full First Amendment protection. Leon wrote, “Horsefeathers!” in response to the government’s argument that Kelly is trying to exempt himself from the rules of military justice.
“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired servicemembers, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired servicemembers have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years,” Leon wrote.
“If so,” he added, “they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights!”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the judge’s ruling.
Kelly said in a video statement posted after the ruling that the case was about more than just him and that the administration “was sending a message to millions of retired veterans that they too can be censured or demoted just for speaking out.”
He added that the ruling was unlikely the end: “This might not be over yet, because this president and this administration do not know how to admit when they’re wrong.”
The 90-second video was first posted on a social media account belonging to Slotkin. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania also appeared in the video. All of the participants are veterans of the armed services or intelligence agencies.
The Pentagon began investigating Kelly in late November, citing a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court-martial or other punishment. Hegseth has said Kelly was the only one of the six lawmakers to be investigated because he is the only one who formally retired from the military and still falls under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction.
Kelly’s lawyers said the Pentagon’s censure of Kelly — and its efforts to reduce his retirement grade and pay — are an unprecedented attack on the rights of veterans to publicly debate national security issues.
“Defendants assert an absolute and unreviewable authority to impose military punishment on a retired veteran and sitting United States Senator for engaging in speech a civilian political appointee dislikes. That position is as alarming as it is unprecedented,” they wrote.
Government lawyers said the case “is not about legislative independence or freedom of speech in civilian society.”
“Instead, this case involves a retired military officer who seeks to use his military status as a sword and his legislative position as a shield against the consequences of his actions in military personnel matters,” they wrote.
Hegseth, the Defense Department, Navy Secretary John Phelan and the Navy are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Boropark24By BoroPark24 Staff
The Mamdani administration announced today that Alternate Side Parking (ASP) regulations will be suspended through Saturday, February 14, 2026, to facilitate ongoing snow operations.
In addition, ASP will also be suspended from Monday, February 16, 2026, through Wednesday, February 18, 2026, in observance of Presidents’ Day, the Lunar New Year, Losar, and Ash Wednesday.
Despite the suspension of street cleaning regulations, the city confirmed that payment at parking meters will remain in effect throughout all five boroughs.
With the latest announcement, Alternate Side Parking will have been suspended for two consecutive weeks - and for most of the past three weeks overall - leaving many residents wondering when regular enforcement will resume.
For drivers, the suspension has provided temporary relief during weeks marked by repeated snowfalls and frigid temperatures. However, some residents say the continued pause reflects ongoing challenges in clearing snow from residential streets.
Large piles of snow remain along curbs and at corners, making it difficult, and in some cases impossible, for sanitation crews to conduct effective street cleaning.
The Lakewood ScoopAt least one person is in custody as LPD’s SRT unit executed a search warrant for the Street Crimes Unit today, police told TLS.
The raid took place on MLK Drive, and at least one person ran from the police but later apprehended.
Information surrounding the investigation was not immediately available.
MatzavAs President Donald Trump moves to remove large numbers of migrants — including hundreds of thousands with criminal records — national crime figures are falling rapidly, yet several major media outlets say there is no clear connection between the two trends.
On Wednesday morning, Axios posted on social media, “Crime plunges in major cities despite Trump’s crackdown rhetoric,” alongside a report questioning the cause of the decline.
“The bottom line: Experts aren’t sure why violent crime continues to fall,” the article stated.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back forcefully, accusing the outlet of ignoring what she described as an obvious explanation.
“This ridiculous framing is why Americans don’t trust the media,” she said, adding:
President Trump securing the border, mobilizing federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals, and deporting the worst of the worst illegal aliens is EXACTLY what’s driving the massive drop in crime.
Political commentator Scott Jennings also mocked the Axios framing, writing, “Funny way of saying: ‘Crime went down under Trump.’”
Axios later deleted its original social media post and replaced it with a revised version that read, “Violent crime dropped sharply across America’s biggest cities in 2025, according to new data reviewed by Axios.”
Trump administration officials have been outspoken in tying stricter immigration enforcement to improved public safety. Border chief Kristi Noem, speaking on The Bongino Show, credited the president’s policies for historic declines in violent crime.
Under the leadership of @POTUS Trump, the murder rate has plunged to a 125-year low — with especially steep drops in cities where the @dhsgov law enforcement undertook targeted immigration enforcement and crime prevention operations. Our nation has also experienced a steep decline in fentanyl deaths, which have dropped over 30 percent … We are not going back to how things used to be!
Earlier this year, on January 14, the White House released a statement titled “Mass Deportations Are Improving Americans’ Quality of Life.” The document argued that removing illegal migrants has contributed not only to lower crime rates but also to reduced housing costs and stronger wages and employment figures.
Despite those claims, several mainstream outlets have continued to question whether immigration enforcement is responsible for the drop in violent crime. At the same time, Republican candidates have highlighted enforcement data compiled under Noem to showcase arrests and deportations within their own districts.
The scope of the administration’s efforts was detailed in an internal Department of Homeland Security document leaked to CBS earlier this week. The document indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made roughly 400,000 arrests of migrants — both criminal and non-criminal — during Trump’s first year back in office.
… 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump’s first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document obtained by CBS News
…
The document lists 2,100 arrests of those with homicide charges or convictions; 2,700 arrests of those with robbery offenses; and 5,400 arrests involving individuals charged with or convicted of sexual assault. Another 43,000 arrestees are listed as having assault charges or convictions. About 1,100 had kidnapping charges or convictions and 350 had arson offenses listed.
Meanwhile, the Axios report accompanying the earlier tweet appeared to minimize any clear link between deportations and declining crime figures.
“The bottom line: Experts aren’t sure why violent crime continues to fall,” wrote the Axios reporter, who has publicly advocated for expanded migration.
The article itself cited new national data:
The big picture: The report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) shows declines across every major violent-crime category in 2025 compared to 2024. It features data from 67 of the nation’s biggest police departments, and confirms other studies on last year’s declines.
• Cities report that homicides overall fell 19%.
• Robberies dropped about 20%.
• Aggravated assaults were down nearly 10%.
In a December 2024 article, the same reporter, Russell Contreras, had written: “Immigrants arrested for homicides accounted for less than 1% of ‘at-large’ arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the last six years, an Axios review found.”
Administration officials have also argued that deportations provide economic benefits beyond public safety. They contend that stricter immigration enforcement reduces certain consumer costs, including automobile expenses. During Joe Biden’s presidency, officials say, increased migration contributed to higher used-car prices and insurance premiums, driven in part by auto accidents, thefts, and parts-related crimes.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsThe Yonatan Battalion, part of the IDF’s all-Chareidi Chashmonaim Brigade, has officially become operational after completing its first full battalion-level exercise.
The IDF said the drill, held in the Golan Heights, included training in open-field combat, urban warfare and raid operations. Military officials said the exercise finalized the unit’s operational certification and cleared it for active deployment.
According to the IDF, soldiers in the battalion have completed specialized courses in heavy weapons, drone operations and sniper training. The IDF said all programs were adapted to accommodate a Torah-observant lifestyle, allowing soldiers to serve while maintaining strict religious standards.
“It’s possible to be Chareidi and be a combat soldier. You are making history,” said Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan, commander of the IDF’s Ground Forces.
The battalion’s commander, identified as Lt. Col. A., described the unit as a model of religious dedication and courage. “We’re cultivating soldiers with yiras shamayim who are heroes, men of valor and men of truth,” he said.
The development comes amid major changes in Israel’s draft policy. In 2024, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that, following the expiration of exemption laws, Chareidi men must be drafted into the army. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has since pushed legislation aimed at enlisting 10,000 Chareidim within two years, calling it a “revolution” in military service.
In an October address to the Knesset, Netanyahu pointed to the Chashmonaim Brigade as “proof” that yiddishkeit and army service can coexist.
“These fighters enlisted as Chareidim and will be discharged as Chareidim,” he insisted. “We will expand frameworks that make this possible.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Yeshiva World NewsA chilling message scrawled across a wall at the University of Melbourne has highlighted concerns about rising antisemitism as Israeli President Isaac Herzog concluded a tense visit to Australia.
“Death to Herzog,” along with pro-Israel and pro-Australia slogans and a symbol linked to Hamas propaganda, was spray-painted Thursday morning on the university’s Parkville campus. The graffiti was quickly removed, and police have opened an investigation.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students condemned the message, calling it a call for violence that “crosses a clear moral and legal line” and warning that Jewish students already feel unsafe.
The incident came as security concerns forced Herzog to cancel a planned visit to Melbourne’s Adass Yisrael synagogue, still closed after a 2024 firebombing later linked by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to Iran.
Herzog’s tour has been marked by large protests and heavy police presence. Dozens have been arrested following clashes in Sydney and Melbourne. He met this week with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian leaders, including Jacinta Allan and Margaret Gardner.
Speaking at a memorial event attended by Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon, Herzog warned that “blind hatred” had turned Jewish identity into a target.
“I say to the protesters: go protest in front of the Iranian embassy,” he said.
Yet Herzog struck a hopeful note in interviews, saying he still believes most Australians support peace and coexistence.
“There is antisemitism. It is frightening and worrying,” he said. “But there is also a silent majority that wants respect and dialogue.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON D.C (VINnews)-President Trump issued a strong endorsement of Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, declaring that U.S. relations with Venezuela are progressing strongly as oil begins to flow again from the South American nation.
In a statement posted on his social media platform, Trump highlighted ongoing engagement with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez and her representatives.
“We are dealing very well with President Delcy Rodriguez, and her Representatives,” Trump wrote. “Oil is starting to flow, and large amounts of money, unseen for many years, will soon be greatly helping the people of Venezuela. Marco Rubio, and all of our Representatives, are doing a fantastic job, but we speak only for ourselves, and don’t want there to be any confusion or misrepresentation.”
Trump’s comments come amid the Trump administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela following the U.S. military operation that captured former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, was sworn in as interim leader, and the U.S. has pushed for cooperation on oil production, counter-narcotics and reducing ties with adversaries like China, Russia, Iran and Cuba.
The president expressed enthusiasm for Rubio’s role, writing, “WE LOVE MARCO! 🇺🇸”
Trump also addressed a recent Wall Street Journal article about Florida energy mogul Harry Sargeant III, a Trump ally who has pursued opportunities in Venezuela’s oil sector.
“There is a story about a man named Harry Sargeant III in The Wall Street Journal,” Trump stated. “He has no authority, in any way, shape, or form, to act on behalf of the United States of America, nor does anyone else that is not approved by the State Department. Without this approval, no one is authorized to represent our Country. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
The clarification highlights the administration’s insistence that only officially approved channels—led by the State Department under Rubio—handle U.S. dealings with Venezuela.
The statement reflects broader U.S. policy aims to revive Venezuela’s oil industry through American companies, with proceeds intended to benefit Venezuelans while advancing U.S. interests in energy security and regional stability. Trump has previously described potential oil deals as a way to “make Venezuela great again” without significant U.S. costs.
Rubio, a longtime critic of the Maduro regime, has played a central role in negotiations and has testified to Congress that the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela but is using economic leverage, including a naval quarantine on certain oil exports, to ensure cooperation.
No immediate response was available from the State Department or Venezuelan officials to Trump’s latest remarks.
Yeshiva World NewsAfter nearly nine decades of tracking presidential popularity — a run that began in the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt — Gallup is stepping away from one of its most recognizable political measurements.
The polling giant announced this week that it will no longer regularly publish approval and favorability ratings for individual political figures, marking a major shift in how one of Washington’s most closely watched data shops approaches public opinion. The change “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership,” the organization said.
In a follow-up statement, a Gallup spokesperson emphasized that the company is redirecting its resources toward long-term research on social and economic conditions rather than political personalities.
“Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” the spokesperson said. “This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission.”
Gallup said it will continue producing research through projects such as the Gallup Poll Social Series, the World Poll, and its quarterly business reviews, even as it winds down its signature presidential approval tracking.
The decision comes as President Donald Trump has faced a sustained slide in Gallup’s own approval numbers, including erosion among Republicans and on policy areas that once formed the backbone of his political appeal, such as immigration.
Trump’s approval rating last December ranked among the lowest Gallup had recorded since it began presidential polling in the 1930s, placing him near the bottom of a dataset that spans nearly a century of American political history.
However, the organization denied any pressure from Trump, saying the shift was driven solely by internal priorities.
“This is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals,” the spokesperson told The Hill.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Boropark24YS GOLD
We regret to inform you of the passing of Reb Kalman Leser, a pillar of the Bobover chassidus who left this world at the ripe old age of 101. He was a longtime Boro Park resident, and leaves behind a beautiful family of chassidim and yirei shomayim.
He was born into an illustrious family of Sanzer chassidim in the town of Czarnow, and the family was centered in the nearby town of Tarnow. Since they were adherents of the Me'or Vashemesh, and an ancestor even helped smuggle him out of prison, the name Kalmish is found often in this family.
Reb Kalman's grandfather made his way to the first Bobover Ruv, and later to his son, The Kedushas Tzion of Bobov.
He endured the worst of the Holocaust over six years, and spent all this time in the labor of camps of Germany. Most of his family was killed, but he was fortunate that his three sisters survived.
After some years in Fernwald DP Camp where he became close to the Klausenberger Ruv, he came to America, and settled in Brownsville, and later to Crown Heights and Boro Park, when the Bobover Ruv moved there. He was instrumental in teaching watchmaking to survivors, so they would be able to earn a living.
Reb Kalman was known as true chassidishe Yid who was known throughout the chassidus as a yerei Shomayim who transmitted the traditions of Bobov to future generations. Among his children are highly regarded chassidim, talmidei chachomim, and yirei shomayim who adorn their communities with Torah and chassidus.
The levaya will take place in front of the Bobover Beis Medrash later afternoon. Details will follow.
Yehi zichro baruch.
The Lakewood ScoopHi,
With the Purim season in the air and the boys busy with Purim shtick, I would like to bring an important concern to everyone’s attention.
I strongly feel that if a parent buys Purim shtick for their child, it is only responsible that they supervise when it is being used. Last year, a neighbor’s house almost caught fire and another child was badly burned. Just last night there was another very close call.
Parents, please take responsibility. If you are purchasing these items for your children, supervision is necessary to ensure everyone’s safety.
It also seems that some of the kids using them on our block don’t even live here and were told they cannot do it on their own block. This makes the situation even more concerning.
Let’s work together to keep our children and our homes safe this Purim.
Thank you.
TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to us via Whatsapp or via email [email protected]
Vos Iz NeiasNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are dropping Thursday as the market splits further between perceived losers and winners from the rush into artificial-intelligence technology.
The S&P 500 fell 1% after erasing an early gain that brought it just below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 494 points, or 1%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% lower.
AppLovin tumbled 18.1% despite reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Like other software companies, it’s come under pressure recently from worries that AI may undercut its business while fundamentally changing how people use the internet.
AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi pushed back on such worries, saying in a conference call with analysts that indicators show his company is doing well. “There’s a real disconnect between market sentiment and the reality of our business,” he said.
Its stock nevertheless worsened its loss for the young year so far, which came into the day at 32.2%.
Cisco Systems dropped 11.5% despite likewise topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue last quarter. The tech giant indicated that it may make less profit off each $1 of revenue during the current quarter than it did in the past quarter.
Analysts said that could be an indicator of higher prices for computer memory that everyone is having to pay amid the rush driven by AI.
More broadly, questions are rising about whether businesses that are spending heavily on AI will end up seeing high-enough profits and productivity to make the investments worth it.
In the meantime, the companies serving customers with huge AI budgets are benefiting.
Equinix, for example, jumped 11.8% even though the digital infrastructure company’s results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. It gave financial forecasts for 2026 that topped analysts’ expectations, and CEO Adaire Fox-Martin said that “demand for our solutions has never been higher.”
The company’s data centers are helping to power the world’s move into AI.
Outside of tech, McDonald’s rose 2% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The restaurant chain credited moves to improve its value and affordability, including cutting prices on some U.S. combo meals in September.
Walmart’s rally of 3.2%, meanwhile, was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. It erased losses from earlier in the week after a report said spending at U.S. retailers overall stalled in December.
In the bond market, Treasury yields fell after a report said slightly more U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected.
The number was nevertheless lower than the prior week’s, which is a signal that the pace of layoffs may be improving. It also followed a surprisingly strong report on the job market from Wednesday, which said the nation’s unemployment rate improved last month.
A strengthening job market could push the Federal Reserve to keep its cuts to interest rates on pause, even if President Donald Trump has been loudly and aggressively calling for lower rates. That’s because lower rates can worsen inflation at the same time that it gives the economy a boost.
It all raises the stakes for Friday’s upcoming report on inflation at the U.S. consumer level. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 2.5% last month from 2.7% in December.
A separate report on Thursday said that sales of previously occupied homes slumped last month by more than economists expected, which also weighed on yields.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.12% from 4.18% late Wednesday.
In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi rushed 3.1% higher thanks to gains for Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and other tech stocks. The moves were more modest in other Asian markets and in Europe.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3%.
Vos Iz NeiasDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,002 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists said Thursday.
The slow rise in the number of dead from the demonstrations adds to the overall tensions facing Iran both inside the country and abroad as it tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program. A second round of talks remains up in the air as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case directly with U.S. President Donald Trump to intensify his demands on Tehran in the negotiations.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated. If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference,” Trump wrote afterward on his Truth Social website.
“Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit. … That did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “general skepticism” that negotiations with Iran will lead to significant achievement, though he described his meeting with Trump as “excellent.” “The president believes that Iranians already understand who they are dealing with,” Netanyahu said before boarding a plane to return to Israel. “I think the conditions he is setting, combined with their understanding that they made a mistake the last time when they did not reach an agreement, may lead them to agree to conditions that will enable a good agreement to be reached.”
Netanyahu stressed that any agreement must also include concessions about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and support for militant proxies, not only about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Iran at home faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression of all dissent in the Islamic Republic. That rage may intensify in the coming days as families of the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for the loved ones.
Activists’ death toll slowly rises
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. The slow rise in the death toll has come as the agency slowly is able to crosscheck information as communication remains difficult with those inside of the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, given authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.
The rise in the death toll comes as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program.
Diplomacy over Iran continues
Senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani met Wednesday in Qatar with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Qatar hosts a major U.S. military installation that Iran attacked in June, after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June. Larijani also met with officials of the Palestinian Hamas militant group, and in Oman with Tehran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen on Tuesday.
Larijani told Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network that Iran did not receive any specific proposal from the U.S. in Oman, but acknowledged that there was an “exchange of messages.”
Qatar has been a key negotiator in the past with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. Its state-run Qatar News Agency reported that ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke with Trump about “the current situation in the region and international efforts aimed at de-escalation and strengthening regional security and peace,” without elaborating.
The U.S. has moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so.
Already, U.S. forces have shot down a drone they said got too close to the Lincoln and came to the aid of a U.S.-flagged ship that Iranian forces tried to stop in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Trump told the news website Axios that he was considering sending a second carrier to the region. “We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going,” he said.
Concern over Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was “deeply appalled by credible reports detailing the brutal arrest, physical abuse and ongoing life‑threatening mistreatment” of 2023 Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
The committee that awards the prize said it had information Mohammadi had been beaten during her arrest in December and continued to be mistreated. It called for her immediate and unconditional release.
“She continues to be denied adequate, sustained medical follow‑up while being subjected to heavy interrogation and intimidation,” the committee said. “She has fainted several times, suffers from dangerously high blood pressure and has been prevented from accessing necessary follow‑up for suspected breast tumors.”
Iran just sentenced Mohammadi, 53, to over seven more years in prison. Supporters had warned for months before her arrest that she was at risk of being put back into prison after she received a furlough in December 2024 over medical concerns.
MatzavSen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said Wednesday that he would back another round of U.S. military action against Iran, similar to Operation Midnight Hammer, if circumstances require it, declaring he would be “the one Democrat” willing to openly endorse such a move.
Speaking on Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Fetterman made clear he supported the prior operation and would not hesitate to do so again under similar conditions.
“I absolutely was fully supportive and was cheering for that Midnight Hammer. And, now, if that’s required for a second round, I’ll be the one Democrat to absolutely say that’s entirely appropriate.”
Fetterman also expressed skepticism about Iran’s reliability in past diplomatic agreements, arguing that prior efforts failed to curb its nuclear ambitions. He pointed to enrichment levels reached under an earlier deal as a reason for concern.
“I don’t believe — you can’t really trust. The last time there was a treaty with Iran, they ended up with 900 pounds of just a step below…nuclear weapon-grade enrichment. So, that’s why — we demonstrated last year that we can hit them, we know where they are, and we have the capabilities to reach them. And now here we are again, and that’s why the prime minister’s here, because I think we’re all in lockstep to stand with Israel as our special ally, and that’s why I’m proud to stand with the prime minister and now with the president, too.”
The Pennsylvania senator further indicated that he would oppose any renewed effort in Congress to limit presidential war powers related to Iran, as he had previously.
“If they do bring up another Iranian war powers bill, I will vote no just like I did the first time they brought that up.”
{Matzav.com}
Boropark24By Y.M. Lowy
New York State DMV offices will be closed beginning tomorrow afternoon as the agency carries out a major technology system update.
According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, all DMV offices statewide will shut down starting Friday at 2:00 p.m. and remain closed through Tuesday, February 17. During this period, online transactions and phone services will also be unavailable.
The shutdown is necessary to complete system upgrades and improvements. No in-person, online, or phone services will be processed while the work is underway.
All DMV services are expected to resume at the start of business on Wednesday, February 18.
Residents who need DMV services are advised to plan ahead and complete any urgent transactions before the closure begins. For additional details, the DMV has posted updates on its official website.
Vos Iz NeiasNEW YORK (VINnews) — A man charged in an antisemitic stabbing in Brooklyn last December was arraigned and released on bail Tuesday, according to court documents reported by The Times of Israel.
Armani Charles, 28, allegedly stabbed a Jewish man in the chest near the Chabad movement’s world headquarters and made antisemitic remarks during the attack. The victim was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. Video captured part of the incident.
The victim later told authorities that Charles said, “I’m going to kill Jewish people,” and, “We wouldn’t be in this mess if the Holocaust had happened.”
Charles pleaded not guilty and was released after posting at least $50,000 in bail. He faces 14 charges, including assault with intent to cause serious injury, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, and aggravated harassment based on race or religion. Six of the charges are classified as hate crimes.
A suspect charged in a December antisemitic stabbing in Brooklyn has been arraigned and released on bail. Armani Charles is accused of making antisemitic threats before stabbing a Jewish man near the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City.
The victim was… pic.twitter.com/wzYWxBpRd2
— ILTV Israel News (@ILTVNews) February 12, 2026
Yeshiva World NewsIsraeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday that President Donald Trump believes Iran may be pushed into accepting what he called “a good deal,” following the two leaders’ latest White House meeting.
“I have just concluded a short but important visit to Washington, during which I spoke with our great friend, President Trump,” Netanyahu said. “We have a close, genuine, and open relationship.”
According to the prime minister, the talks focused mainly on Iran and the future of nuclear diplomacy.
“The president believes the Iranians already understand who they are dealing with,” Netanyahu said. “He thinks the conditions he is setting, combined with their understanding that they made a mistake last time, could lead them to accept terms that would make it possible to achieve a good deal.”
Still, Netanyahu signaled caution about the
prospects for diplomacy.
“I do not hide my general skepticism about the possibility of reaching any agreement with Iran,” he said.
He added that he told the White House any deal must go beyond nuclear limits. “It must include the components that are important to us — not only the nuclear issue, but also ballistic missiles and Iran’s regional proxies,” Netanyahu said.
The “excellent conversation” also addressed the war in the Gaza Strip, he said.
“This was another conversation with a great friend of Israel — a president like no other,” Netanyahu added.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Vos Iz NeiasGAZA (JNS) – Hamas will not lay down its weapons until Israel is “eliminated,” Osama Hamdan, a senior official in the terror organization, vowed on Wednesday.
“We have been very clear with mediators, and in our messages passed on to the relevant parties, that the matter of Palestinian weapons is linked to the presence or elimination of the occupation,” stated Hamdan, referencing Israel in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“To this day, the Palestinian national motto states that the occupation needs to be eliminated,” he stated. “The weapons are legal according to international law, and by virtue of the will of the Palestinian people, so these weapons will not be laid down until their goal is achieved.”
Hamas’s official charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and refers to parts of the Quran that call for Muslims to kill Jews everywhere.
However, Hamdan said, “if the establishment of a Palestinian state is in the cards, it is possible to have some kind of agreement on a hudna,” or a temporary truce, which according to Islamic doctrine can be used to rebuild, rearm and prepare for future hostilities.
During this hudna, “all relevant parties will enable the Palestinians to establish their independent state,” he explained. “This state will be allowed to fulfill its duty of defending its people, land and rights. Then, I believe that the Palestinians as a whole will have their own military, armed forces and security agencies,” the top terrorist said.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Jan. 21 that the terror group would be “blown away very quickly” if it fails to lay down its weapons under the second phase of his administration’s peace plan for Gaza.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session in Davos, Switzerland, after his address to the World Economic Forum, the president said Hamas had “agreed to give up their weapons” as part of his 20-point plan.
Phase 2 of the plan calls for Hamas to lay down its arms with the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to the Strip.
Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that “the last thing the world should contemplate is sending forces to replace the occupation and clash with the Palestinians on behalf of the occupation.
“No Palestinian will accept this,” he added, noting that since the United Nations Security Council voted to adopt Trump’s plan for international forces, these countries “should deploy at the borders and prevent the enemy [Israel] from going back to its aggression against our people.”
Several of Hamas’s top leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have publicly rebuffed key parts of Trump’s proposals.
“As long as our people are under occupation,” Mashaal told Al Jazeera earlier this week, “disarmament is an attempt to turn our people into victims, make their elimination easier and facilitate their destruction.”
“Questions about the resistance’s weapons are being raised forcefully. Some want to place it in the context that whoever carried out Oct. 7 must be cornered and made to pay the price,” he said, in reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people.
“As those who participated in the resistance, we must not accept this,” he declared, saying that “resistance is the right of occupied peoples.”
Abu Marzouk told the Qatari outlet on Jan. 28 that Hamas never agreed to disarm. “Not for a single moment did we talk about surrendering weapons,” he said, claiming the issue was never raised in the talks.
The United States is demanding that Hamas give up all weapons capable of being used to attack Israel, but will allow them to keep small arms, at least at first, according to sources cited by The New York Times on Tuesday.
The report, which cited anonymous officials, said draft plans envisioned phased disarmament, which is expected to take “months or longer” to be carried out.
It was not immediately clear who would take possession of the weapons Hamas was to hand over or how the disarmament would be completed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset on Jan. 26 that Phase 2 does not entail Gaza’s reconstruction, but demilitarization.
According to the prime minister, demilitarization “will happen—as our friend Trump said—the easy way or the hard way, but it will happen.”
MatzavThe individual believed to have abducted Nancy Guthrie made a string of clumsy mistakes that defy logic, according to a retired senior FBI official, who said the suspect’s actions suggest he was unlikely to be “a trained assassin.”
James Gagliano, a former supervisory special agent with the FBI, pointed to surveillance footage showing the suspect outside the Tucson home of Savannah Guthrie’s mother. He said the way the man handled and carried his holstered firearm stood out immediately — and not in a way that reflected experience.
“It does not look like a trained assassin or somebody who’s been doing this a long time,” he told “Fox & Friends” early Thursday.
Gagliano emphasized that the manner in which the weapon was positioned appeared unusual and inconsistent with professional training.
“I look at the gun, I’ve never ever seen somebody carry a weapon that way. I carried a weapon in the service of my country for 33 years. I have never seen somebody carry it that way,” the ex-FBI official continued.
Based on what he observed, Gagliano said the suspect’s equipment setup appeared poorly planned.
“This looks like it was thrown together either last minute or the person got a holster from one person and the weapon from somebody else.”
He also questioned why the suspect approached the front entrance of the residence, where he was captured on the homeowner’s doorbell camera, rather than using a less visible access point.
“There are multiple points of entry that you could get into very easily,” he said of the “Today” show host’s mom’s home in Tucson.
Gagliano described a rear entrance that, in his view, would have been far simpler to exploit without attracting attention.
“In the back of the house, there is a door that’s got like nine panel window panes in it, and you could have easily broken one panel, reached in your hand, unlocked the door and gone in with nobody noticing.
“So why did this suspect [go] to the front?” he asked.
“It really boggles the mind.”
Another potential break in the case emerged Wednesday, when The NY Post photographed authorities recovering a black glove in the desert area near Guthrie’s quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of Tucson. Gagliano said that item could prove decisive if it links back to the suspect.
“If the gloves come back to this person, if there’s DNA on it and they ultimately be the item that undoes him … who commits a crime, a violent crime, abducts somebody and then drops off clues 1.3 miles from the house?” he said.
He noted that the glove appears similar to the pair worn by the armed figure seen in video footage, and suggested it could provide critical forensic evidence as investigators race to locate the missing woman, who requires medication to survive.
“And why is that? Well, the DNA aspect. So you can pull off the trace fingerprints, hair, and fiber, any type of body fluids on it,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, The NY Post observed at least one member of the FBI’s Evidence Response team retrieving the glove from brush in the desert landscape near the Guthrie home.
Authorities declined to provide details when questioned about the possible evidentiary significance of the recovered item.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Chief Rabbinate on Wednesday began registering women for its rabbinical certification exams for the first time, following High Court rulings that the long-standing exclusion was unlawful discrimination, according to the Jerusalem Post Thursday.
The exams, which carry professional and financial implications in Israel’s public sector, will include multiple certification tiers, with the first session scheduled after Passover. Registration will run through the end of February.
The legal battle began in July when the High Court ruled that barring women violated state anti-discrimination law, emphasizing that the exams serve as state-recognized certifications affecting employment and salary. The Rabbinate unsuccessfully attempted to limit women to certain subjects, but the court rejected the move in November.
Petitioners, led by ITIM, Kolech, and the Rackman Center, hailed the decision as historic. Rabbi Dr. Seth Farber of ITIM called it a step forward for equality within halacha and a boost to public trust in religious institutions.
The Rabbinate said a professional committee is reviewing broader exam reforms, but women will now be able to sit for the same exams as men under the existing system.
MatzavNYC Mayor Zohran Mandani sparked controversy after quoting religious texts to defend sanctuary policies. The PBD panel debated his policies on immigration and crime in New York City. From rising crime stats to trash-filled streets and policing clashes, the discussion turns fiery and unapologetic.
WATCH:
Vos Iz NeiasALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The appointment of Donald T. Kinsella as the federal government’s top prosecutor by federal judges in northern New York was dead on arrival when word reached Washington’s Justice Department headquarters.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his smiling picture affixed to his social media feed, ensured that by announcing on Wednesday in a post that judges don’t pick U.S. attorneys, the president does. Then he wrote: “You are fired, Donald Kinsella.”
The online firing of the onetime chief of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District apparently left John A. Sarcone III in charge even after a federal judge last month concluded he was serving as U.S. attorney unlawfully. Sarcone also was quoted in a news release from the office two days ago.
Those who clicked on “Meet the U.S. Attorney” on the web site for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York on Thursday were greeted with the “staff profile” page for Sarcone, though his title is now “First Assistant U.S. Attorney.”
A woman who answered the phone at the federal prosecutor’s office in Albany responded to a request to speak with Kinsella by saying: “Technically, he’s not employed with our office anymore.”
Messages were left for Kinsella at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, the law firm where he is a senior counsel and where a web site describes him as a 40-year veteran of “complex criminal and civil litigation over a ”distinguished career.”
Emails sent to the web address for media inquiries at the U.S. attorney’s office bounced back on Thursday. An email sent to Sarcone seeking comment on the latest developments was not immediately returned.
Last month, Judge Lorna G. Schofield in New York City blocked subpoenas requested by Sarcone, saying he was not lawfully serving as U.S. attorney and that any “of his past or future acts taken in that capacity are void or voidable as they would rest on authority Mr. Sarcone does not lawfully have.”
Sarcone is among several prosecutors around the country found by federal judges to lack authority after the Republican administration used unusual maneuvers to place them or keep them in their posts without U.S. Senate confirmation.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Jan. 20 that Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments against a pair of Trump’s adversaries, was leaving her position in the Eastern District of Virginia as her months-long tenure had concluded. A judge had concluded in November that her appointment was unlawful and that indictments brought there against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.
In December, Alina Habba r esigned as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.
Bondi appointed Sarcone to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York in March. But when his 120-day term elapsed, judges in the district declined to keep him in the post. That same day, the Department of Justice took coordinated steps to install Sarcone as acting U.S. attorney for the district.
On Jan. 8, Schofield ruled that “federal law does not permit such a workaround.”
Vos Iz NeiasSEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday that it believes the teenage daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is close to being designated as the country’s future leader as he moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.
The assessment by the National Intelligence Service comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip.
In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they are closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old — appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, said lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.
First appearing in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022, Kim Ju Ae has since accompanied her father to an increasing number of events, including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings. She traveled with him to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years on the sidelines of a World War II event.
Speculation about her political future intensified last month when she joined her parents on a New Year’s Day visit to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a sacred family mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of her late grandfather and great-grandfather, the country’s first- and second-generation leaders. Some experts saw the visit as the clearest sign yet that she’s positioned to be the heir to her 42-year-old father.
South Korean officials initially expressed doubt that she could be chosen as a North Korean leader, citing the country’s deeply conservative culture and tradition of male-dominated leadership. But her increasingly prominent appearances in state media have prompted a reassessment.
In its previous assessment of Kim Ju Ae’s status in September, the NIS told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un’s decision to bring her along on his trip to China was likely part of an effort to build a “narrative” possibly paving the way for her succession.
“In the past, (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being in the midst of ‘successor training.’ What was notable today is that they used the term ‘successor-designate stage,’ a shift that’s quite significant,” Lee said.
According to Lee, the agency cited her growing presence at high-profile military events, her inclusion in the family visit to Kumsusan, and signs that Kim Jong Un was beginning to seek her input on certain policy matters.
Not much is known about Kim’s daughter
Despite her increased visibility in propaganda, North Korean state media have never published the name of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, only referring to her as his “respected” or “most beloved” child.
The belief that she is named Kim Ju Ae is based on an account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, in which he recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013. South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born sometime that year.
In 2023, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un and his wife also likely have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown.
Since its foundation in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by male members of the Kim family, beginning with the country’s founder Kim Il Sung and followed by his son, Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Un was just 26 when he was officially named heir during a 2010 party conference, two years after Kim Jong Il suffered a debilitating stroke. Following his father’s death in December 2011, he was abruptly thrust into the throne with relatively little preparation.
Some analysts suggest that Kim Jong Un’s decision to debut his daughter early possibly reflects his own experience of being rushed into power.
Party congress may offer hints toward succession plans
Kim Ju Ae’s first known visit to Kumsusan last month was also her father’s first visit to the site in three years. Given the palace’s status as a key symbol of the Kim family rule, the trip should be seen as a symbolic gesture by Kim Jong Un to present his daughter as his heir before his grandfather and father as he prepares for the major ruling party congress, said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.
The Workers’ Party congress in late February, last held in 2016 and 2021, could provide a stage for Kim Jong Un to formalize his succession plans, possibly by giving his daughter the party’s first secretary post, its No. 2 job, although such a decision might not be immediately disclosed to the outside world, Cheong said.
Other analysts question whether she would receive such a high-profile post or any formal party role, given that party rules require members to be at least 18.
If Kim Jong Un does use the party congress to cement his daughter as successor, the signs would be more subtle, said Koh Yu-hwan, former president of South Korea’s Institute of National Unification.
For example, the party may issue self-praise about how North Korea has survived longer than most other Communist states and credit that to how the country established a “successful inheritance of the revolution,” he said.
“If you see comments like that, it would be reasonable to think that Ju Ae has been cemented,” as heir, Koh said.
The Lakewood Scoop
MatzavThe wife of Reb Avraham Ben Dayan, the young avreich who was arrested eight months after his wedding, returned from a prison visit deeply shaken and is leveling serious accusations against military authorities. Speaking to Kikar HaShabbat, she said that her husband has faced mistreatment during his detention, including restrictions on religious observance and inadequate access to kosher food.
Reb Ben Dayan, a graduate of Yeshivas Maor HaTalmud who married approximately eight months ago, was arrested on Motzaei Shabbos and remains incarcerated in Military Prison 10. His family accuses the military of severe harassment and says he has been sentenced to ten days in detention beginning last Motzoei Shabbos.
As previously reported, Ben Dayan had spent Shabbos in Ofakim and was stopped by a traffic officer in the community of Tifrach on suspicion of a traffic violation. During the stop, the officer discovered that he had been classified as a draft “deserter” due to his failure to report to the enlistment office. He was transferred to a local police station and subsequently handed over to military police authorities.
In a phone call with family members shortly before sunset on the day of his arrest, Ben Dayan reportedly said that he had requested several times to put on tefillin but that his requests were denied. His family expressed shock at what they described as the denial of a basic religious mitzvah in the State of Israel and voiced serious concerns about kashrus standards and his ability to maintain a religious lifestyle while in custody.
According to the family, contact with Ben Dayan ceased about twenty minutes before sunset, leaving uncertainty as to whether he was ultimately able to put on tefillin in those final moments.
Responding to the military’s clarification regarding the tefillin incident, Ben Dayan’s wife said, “The IDF spokesperson is lying and trying to claim that the detainee did not request to put on tefillin until two in the morning. It is important for us to say that this is false and untrue, and they did not allow him to put on tefillin until the very last moment.”
She also alleged deficiencies in the food provided to him. “Until yesterday, they did not bring him mehadrin kosher food as is customary. Only yesterday, for the first time, did he eat normal and kosher food. Until now, he mainly lived on fruits and vegetables. This abuse is incomprehensible.”
According to her, he has also been restricted from studying Torah. “He does not have the ability to go and learn in the shul. Avraham, who is a precious avreich, wanted to use the time to sit and learn, but the military authorities, in inexplicable cruelty, are not allowing it. They do not allow him to go to the shul except during davening times.”
She further claimed that authorities are seeking to humiliate him. “They want to degrade him. When they transferred him from the Bahadim base to Prison 10 to meet with me, they decided to shackle him in both hands and feet. It is unclear what they wanted from him and why they needed to humiliate him to that extent. Why are they not placing him with other chareidim? He has no chareidi environment at all. It is absurd that the prison rabbi came to ask him questions from Chumash to determine whether he is chareidi or not.”
Regarding his communication rights, she added, “On the advice of his commander — they did not even assign him a proper commander — he signed a prisoner’s rights form, and they were obligated to give him a phone call on Motzaei Shabbos. From Motzaei Shabbos at eight o’clock until the next day, he was not given the right to speak with his wife. The chaos and search efforts happened only because they did not grant him the legal right to call me.”
In response to the tefillin claims, the IDF spokesperson said, “The detainee was arrested on Motzaei Shabbos by the Israel Police and transferred to the Military Police. He remained in custody overnight until late morning. During his detention, he prayed, and upon arriving in the afternoon at the military prison, he requested to put on tefillin and was told he would be given the opportunity upon arrival at his detention unit. However, due to an unexpected delay in his processing and according to a report received afterward, he ultimately did not manage to put on tefillin.”
The statement continued: “It should be clarified that this is an extremely unusual case that does not align with IDF procedures. The IDF regrets the distress caused. Procedures at the prison have been sharpened for immediate implementation, and the matter will be thoroughly investigated by commanders to prevent similar cases in the future. The detainee is currently being held in a facility that contains all the necessary equipment in accordance with his lifestyle.”
Approximately two hours after publication of the initial report, the IDF spokesperson issued an additional statement: “Contrary to what has been claimed, the detainee is receiving the conditions and rights to which he is entitled, including davening times in a shul, mehadrin kosher food, and phone calls. During the intake interview, the detainee was informed that he is entitled to receive mehadrin kosher food if he requests it, but he did not request it. In the military prison, there is no gap between meat and vegetarian meals in Badatz-level kashrus.”
The statement added, “The detainee is in direct contact with the prison rabbi. The IDF detention system continuously makes adjustments in accordance with detention conditions and the number of detainees and ensures the provision of mehadrin kosher food to allow detainees to maintain their religious lifestyle.”
A military source further stated, “The detainee claims that he did not understand from whom he needed to request Badatz-level kosher food, despite being instructed by his commanders how to do so. In addition, he exercised his right to a phone call on Motzaei Shabbos and is being held in a unit designated for detainees with charges similar to those attributed to him. Every detainee has the option to request gender-specific supervision in the military prison, as was explained to him during the intake process. The detainee was shackled during transfers between detention facilities in accordance with standard procedures.”
As previously reported, Ben Dayan has received strong backing from leading gedolim, including Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch and Rav Dov Landau.
Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch personally called to be mechazeik and encourage Ben Dayan’s wife after he was handed over to military police months after his wedding. During the call, the rosh yeshiva said, “With Hashem’s help, they will do the maximum that can be done. In a few days he will be released, with Hashem’s help,” assuring her, “No more than ten days.”
Rav Dov Landau also sent a handwritten letter of support. Immediately after writing the letter, Rav Landau requested that it be delivered to the avreich without delay, and his attorney conveyed it to him shortly thereafter.
In the letter, Rav Landau wrote, “To the dear avreich, Rabbi Avraham Ben Dayan, may he live long and well, the distressing news about the shocking injustice done to you — that you were imprisoned ‘for the sin’ of Torah study — has caused me great anguish.”
He continued, “I hereby strengthen you and your family. They did not intend this action against you personally, but against all the sons of Torah, whose learning is a thorn in their eyes. It pains them to see the blessed growth of the Torah world, and you have merited to be a representative of Torah learners in order for them to strike at them through their schemes.”
He concluded, “We hope to Hashem that you will merit to be released swiftly and return to your studies, sanctify Heaven in all your ways and conduct, and sit once again in the tent of Torah as before. Seeking your peace and the peace of your Torah, Dov Landau.”
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered legal proceedings to begin revoking the citizenship of Israelis convicted of espionage for Iran, marking the first use of a legal provision that allows for such action, officials said Thursday.
The directive, issued with the backing of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, applies to all Israeli citizens convicted of serious espionage offenses, including Jewish citizens, officials said. Until now, the provision under Israel’s Citizenship Law had primarily been considered for Arab Israelis involved in terrorism.
Netanyahu described acts of espionage against Israel as a “fundamental breach of trust” and instructed authorities to pursue citizenship revocation once legal proceedings are complete and convictions are finalized.
The law allows those stripped of citizenship to retain permanent residency, so individuals without another nationality may still live in Israel. The move, however, carries symbolic weight, affecting voting rights and public status.
Over the past two years, roughly 60 people have been charged with spying for Iran. Most are ordinary citizens with no prior criminal records. Last week, two 20-year-old brothers from Jerusalem were indicted for allegedly passing security information to Iranian operatives for payment.
Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, warned that Iranian recruitment efforts are increasing, highlighting the growing risk posed by espionage within the country.
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — A top Democrat is calling for a watchdog investigation after photographs emerged suggesting that the Justice Department has been tracking the search history of lawmakers who are reviewing files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate what he characterized as “spying” on members of Congress who this week have reviewed less-redacted versions of the Epstein files at a department annex and on department-owned computers.
Photographs taken during Attorney General Pam Bondi’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday showed her holding a binder open to a page that said “Jayapal Pramila Search History” and that listed a series of documents that were apparently reviewed. Pramila Jayapal is a Democratic congresswoman and was among the Judiciary Committee members who pressed Bondi during the hearing about the department’s handling of the Epstein files.
Jayapal called it “totally unacceptable” and said lawmakers will be “demanding a full accounting” of how the department is using the search history.
“Bondi has enough time to spy on Members of Congress, but can’t find it in herself to apologize to the survivors of Epstein’s horrific abuse,” Jayapal said in a post on X.
A bipartisan contingent of lawmakers has traveled in recent days to a Justice Department outpost to review less-redacted records from the files, but some who have seen the documents have complained that too much information about Epstein associates remains withheld from view. The Trump administration Justice Department said last month that it was releasing more than 3 million pages along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images related to Epstein investigations.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately return a request seeking comment Thursday. Representatives for the inspector general’s office also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
In a statement, Raskin said that not only had the Justice Department withheld records from lawmakers “but now Bondi and her team are spying on members of Congress conducting oversight in yet another blatant attempt to intrude into Congress’s oversight processes.”
He added: “DOJ must immediately cease tracking any Members’ searches, open up the Epstein review to senior congressional staff, and publicly release all files—with all the survivors’ information, and only the survivors’ information, properly redacted—as required by federal law.”
MatzavSenior officials in the Degel HaTorah faction clarified Thursday morning that no instruction has been issued by leading gedolim to oppose the draft legislation currently under discussion. On the contrary, they said they have been directed to continue working vigorously toward an agreed-upon law that would regulate the status of yeshiva students and bring an end to their arrests.
According to senior figures in the party, “There is no directive from the leading rabbinic authorities to oppose the law being discussed at this time. On the contrary, they have instructed us to proceed with negotiations with the Knesset’s legal advisers in an effort to reach legislation that will be acceptable to them and withstand scrutiny by the High Court of Justice.”
They added that other political factions are attempting to derail the process. “There are elements in other parties trying to do everything possible to halt the legislation. They are the ones briefing and speaking in the name of Litvishe rabbonim despite having no connection to them, and they are working forcefully to sabotage the bill’s passage.”
Sources close to Hagaon Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch emphasized Wednesday night that the fundamental position remains unchanged. “Nothing has shifted in the principled stance that the draft law must be legislated and that the status of yeshiva students must be regulated. The instruction to Degel HaTorah’s Knesset members is to continue advancing the legislation.”
Similarly, associates of Hagaon Rav Dov Landau said Thursday morning, “We are continuing efforts to reach a law that will stop the arrest of yeshiva students. This is the most urgent issue for the rosh yeshiva. Sanctions are a secondary matter in importance.”
Despite ongoing talks, senior chareidi lawmakers acknowledged overnight that negotiations with the Knesset’s legal advisory team are not progressing smoothly. “Although we are trying to be flexible with the legal advisers and have agreed that sanctions would take effect immediately, there are still gaps and disagreements,” one senior figure said. “The primary sticking point concerns the question of oversight over Torah learners. It is unclear whether, at the end of the process, we will reach a bill that can pass second and third readings.”
The debate comes amid heightened tensions following the arrest of yeshiva students in recent days. At a special gathering held at Yeshivas Maor HaTalmud after the arrest of Reb Avraham Ben Dayan several months after his wedding, Rav Landau issued a forceful declaration that no yeshiva student would enlist in the army under any framework.
“The entire Jewish world is shocked by the criminal act in which wicked authorities imprisoned in a military jail an outstanding Torah scholar who has nothing in his world but the four cubits of halacha, and this solely because of his desire to learn Torah,” Rav Landau said. “But the dear scholar has merited that, through him, there is such a great awakening to Torah study in public. Merit is brought about through the meritorious — apparently he has great merits.”
“While he sits behind walls and bars, bound in iron chains, the voice of Torah that grows stronger as a result of his imprisonment echoes from one end of the world to the other, shattering walls of falsehood, breaking chains of wickedness, reaching the Heavenly Throne and giving voice to the cry of the Bnei Yisroel from the distress of their oppressors and pursuers.”
“The Torah world is now undergoing severe persecution from misguided brothers. The fears are heavy and widely shared. Their schemes are no longer hidden but carried out openly, and their entire aim is to eradicate the Torah world, God forbid.”
“To those who plot evil and scheme wickedness, who seek to break our spirit and steal the treasure of our world, we say clearly: Do not imagine that you will succeed! In complete contrast to you, we are people of noble spirit. Our hands will not do harm, and we do not wish to use your tools of strife. But know that standing against Torah learners is a war against the eternity of Israel.”
“History is filled with those who sought to make Torah forgotten from Yisroel. They passed and vanished from the world, their names forgotten and their rule gone like a fleeting shadow. But the Torah stands forever. You cannot break those whose lives are spirit alone. Your time and your rule will pass, but we will continue to cling to our eternal Torah, the Torah of Hashem. There is no one who can stand against the Torah of Hashem, against Torah learners, or against the halls of Torah. Jailers may imprison the body, but there is no power in the world that can imprison the spirit.”
“We hereby declare in a loud voice: Whether the authorities agree or not, not even one married scholar, not even one yeshiva student, will go to the army — not in this way and not in any other way,” Rav Landau emphasized. “The place of Torah learners is exclusively within the halls of the yeshivos and kollelim. Let everyone know — whether they understand it or not — this is the reality. So it was, and so it will be.”
He concluded, “May it be the will of Hashem that the emissaries of the Torah world who have been imprisoned be released swiftly from darkness to light, and may we all merit every good, to learn Torah in quiet and tranquility.”
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsFive Arab-Israelis were murdered in five separate locations within the past 12 hours as the pervasive violence and murders in the sector continue to spiral out of control. The number of murders in the Israeli-Arab sector since the beginning of the year is now 45.
Arab violence has been out of control for years, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and senior police officials have complained in the past that Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara’s obstruction of his policies has worsened the situation, including her refusal to approve technological intelligence means and the use of administrative detention against Arab criminals on the grounds of being “illegal and discriminatory.”
In addition, Israeli judges hand down absurdly light sentences for violent crimes, resulting in a total lack of deterrence in the sector.
Israel Police Chief Danny Levy, who held a situation-assessment meeting on Arab crime on Thursday morning with the police’s senior command, confirmed Ben-Gvir’s complaints against Baharav-Miara.
It should be noted that along with legal difficulties, the majority of serious crimes in the Arab sector, including murders, go unsolved due to the Arabs’ refusal to provide testimony to the police and in court. Additionally, when the police do carry out operations against crime in Israeli-Arab areas, Arab MKs and left-wing Israelis lash out at the police for “discrimination.”
During the meeting, Levy declared that Israel is facing a “national state of emergency” in light of the wave of killings.
Levy called for the mobilization of all government ministries—including the security establishment, the justice system, and local leadership—for a coordinated national effort against organized crime.
“At the outset, I repeat what we have said again and again—we are in a national emergency,” Levy said. “The fight against criminal organizations requires a deep, systemic response by all government ministries: education, welfare, economy, and justice, together with local leadership. Everyone must take part, including the IDF and civil-society organizations.”
“The growing number of murders since the beginning of the year, particularly in Arab society—where many of the victims are innocent people caught in conflicts between criminals and between families and crime organizations—is intolerable and must stop. The overwhelming majority of Arab citizens are law-abiding and are the ones suffering from this violence. We call on local leaders and religious figures to speak out clearly against it.”
Addressing the courts and the State Attorney’s Office, Levy said, “There is an urgent need for tougher sentencing, for legal courage in filing rapid indictments, and for immediate handling of requests for administrative restraining orders. Immediate legislation is required to restore technological tools to the police!
“I call on the Attorney General, the State Attorney’s Office, and the government of Israel—return the technological tools to us immediately. We cannot stop or prevent crime when our hands are tied, our ears are blocked, and our eyes are covered.”
Levy added that while the police are carrying out intensive operations, seizing weapons, making arrests, preventing attacks, and targeting the economic infrastructure of criminal organizations, “it is not enough.”
“This is the time to roll up our sleeves. Winning this fight requires a united national effort.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews)-The Israeli Navy completed a major multi-day maritime exercise this week, involving warships, submarines, elite special forces and other IDF units, aimed at bolstering readiness to protect Israel’s territorial waters and strategic offshore assets, the military said.
The drill, which included hundreds of sailors, centered on defending Israel’s exclusive economic zone, particularly its offshore natural gas and oil rigs, which the Israel Defense Forces described as critical “strategic assets” at sea.
Participants included missile boats, corvettes, submarines and patrol vessels, along with Shayetet 13 naval commandos. The Israeli Air Force, C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate, and additional IDF branches also took part, the military said.
Troops rehearsed a range of scenarios, including repelling seaborne infiltrations, engaging enemy naval forces, countering aerial threats, conducting multi-front operations, fighting in both open waters and coastal areas, and safeguarding key infrastructure such as gas rigs, ports and other maritime facilities.
The exercise comes amid ongoing regional tensions, including threats to Israel’s energy infrastructure from hostile actors in the Mediterranean.
The IDF emphasized that the drill enhanced interoperability across branches and improved the navy’s ability to respond to potential threats in complex maritime environments. No specific dates or further operational details were released.
Vos Iz Neias(AP) – Russia has attempted to fully block WhatsApp in the country, the company said, the latest move in an ongoing government effort to tighten control over the internet.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said late Wednesday that the Russian authorities’ action was intended to “drive users to a state-owned surveillance app,” a reference to Russia’s own state-supported MAX messaging app that’s seen by critics as a surveillance tool.
“Trying to isolate over 100 million people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” the WhatsApp spokesperson said. “We continue to do everything we can to keep people connected.”
Russia’s government has already blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and ramped up other online restrictions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms should comply with Russian law to see it unblocked, according to the state Tass news agency.
Earlier this week, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it will introduce new restrictions on the Telegram messaging app after accusing it of refusing to abide by the law. The move triggered widespread criticism from military bloggers, who warned that Telegram was widely used by Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and its throttling would derail military communications.
Despite the announcement, Telegram has largely been working normally. Some experts say it’s a more difficult target, compared with WhatsApp. Some Russian experts said that blocking WhatsApp would free up technological resources and allow authorities to fully focus on Telegram, their priority target.
Authorities had previously restricted access to WhatsApp before moving to finally ban it Wednesday.
Under President Vladimir Putin, authorities have engaged in deliberate and multipronged efforts to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply, and focused on improving technology to monitor and manipulate online traffic.
Russian authorities have throttled YouTube and methodically ramped up restrictions against popular messaging platforms, blocking Signal and Viber and banning online calls on WhatsApp and Telegram. In December, they imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime.
While it’s still possible to circumvent some of the restrictions by using virtual private network services, many of them are routinely blocked, too.
At the same time, authorities actively promoted the “national” messaging app called MAX, which critics say could be used for surveillance. The platform, touted by developers and officials as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more, openly declares it will share user data with authorities upon request. Experts also say it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption.
The Lakewood ScoopThe 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,
I’m writing to report a very bumpy area at the intersection of Chateau and River that feels like an unmarked speed bump. I’m surprised that the intersection was left in such bad shape after the state’s construction work, as it’s uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for drivers.
Could you please look into getting this fixed?
Additionally, I’d like to ask if there is an ordinance regarding shoveling snow in front of residential properties, and if so, who is responsible for enforcing it?
Thank you
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good morning. I will ask our engineer to reach out to the state’s contractor to see about the Chateau Dr./River Ave. intersection.
Property owners are responsible for shoveling the sidewalks in front of their property. It has rarely been an issue in the past, but code enforcement would be responsible for enforcement.
Stay warm
Ray
—————–
Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]
Have a question for the Chief? Send it to [email protected]
MatzavAt a special gathering held at Yeshivas Maor HaTalmud following the arrest of kollel yungerman Reb Avraham Ben Dayan, Hagaon Rav Dov Landau delivered a forceful and unequivocal declaration that no yeshiva bochur will enlist in the army under any framework.
The event was convened in response to the arrest, which took place months after the young avreich’s chasunah. Addressing the crowd, Rav Landau spoke in sharp terms about the situation and the broader implications for the Torah world.
“The entire Jewish world is shaken by the criminal act in which wicked authorities arrested and imprisoned in a military jail an elevated avreich who has nothing in his world except the four cubits of halachah, and this solely because of his desire to learn Torah,” Rav Landau said. “But the precious avreich has merited that through him there has been such a great awakening to Torah study among the public, and merit is brought about through one who is meritorious — apparently he has great merits.”
“While he sits behind walls and bars, bound in chains of iron, the voice of Torah that grows stronger as a result of his imprisonment echoes from one end of the world to the other, shattering walls of falsehood, breaking chains of wickedness, and piercing until the Heavenly Throne, giving voice to the groans of the Bnei Yisroel from the distress of their oppressors and pursuers.”
Rav Landau continued by describing what he called an intense campaign against the Torah community. “The Torah world is now undergoing a terrible persecution by misguided brothers. The fears are heavy and widely shared. Their schemes are no longer hidden but out in the open, and their entire aim is to uproot the Torah world, Heaven forbid.”
He then addressed those he accused of seeking to undermine the yeshiva world. “To those evildoers and schemers of wickedness who seek to break our spirit and steal the treasure of our world, we say in clear language: Do not imagine that you will succeed! In complete contrast to you, we are people of noble spirit. Our hands will not do evil, and we do not wish to use your tools of strife. But know that standing against Torah learners is a war against the eternity of Israel.”
“History is filled with those who sought to make Torah forgotten from Yisroel. They disappeared from the world, their names forgotten and their rule passing like a fleeting shadow. But the Torah stands forever. You cannot break those whose lives are spirit alone. Your time will pass and your rule will sink away, but we will continue to cling to our eternal Torah, which is the Torah of Hashem. There is none who can stand against the Torah of Hashem, against those who learn it, and against the halls of Torah. Jailers may imprison the body, but there is no power in the world that can imprison the spirit.”
Rav Landau concluded with a sweeping declaration: “We hereby proclaim in a loud voice: Whether the authorities agree to this or not, not even one avreich, not even one yeshiva bochur, will go to the army — not in this form and not in any other form,” he emphasized. “The place of Torah learners is solely within the halls of the yeshivos and kollelim. Let everyone know, whether they understand this or not, this is the reality. So it was and so it will be.”
He ended with a tefillah: “May it be the will of Hashem that the emissaries of the Torah world who were imprisoned emerge quickly from darkness to light, and may we all merit every good, to learn Torah in quiet and tranquility.”
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasLYON, France (VINnews) — A French court on Thursday sentenced a 55-year-old man to 18 years in prison for the 2022 killing of his 89-year-old Jewish neighbor in Lyon, rejecting an antisemitic motive in the crime.
The Rhône Assize Court found Rachid Kheniche guilty of murder in the death of René Hadjadj, who was pushed from the 17th floor of his apartment building in Lyon’s 8th district in May 2022.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence. The court imposed a slightly lighter penalty while confirming the murder conviction.
A central issue during the trial was whether the killing was committed because of the victim’s religion. Jurors declined to apply the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism, determining that the evidence presented did not sufficiently establish that the act was motivated by religious hatred.
The court did, however, recognize that Kheniche’s judgment was impaired at the time of the crime due to psychiatric disorders, according to expert testimony presented during the proceedings. Under French law, diminished responsibility does not eliminate criminal liability but can lead to a reduced sentence.
The verdict prompted expressions of disappointment from the victim’s relatives and members of the Jewish community, who had argued that the religious dimension of the crime was evident.
Prosecutors and civil parties have the option to appeal the decision.
The case has renewed debate in France over how courts address antisemitic motives when mental health issues are involved, echoing previous high-profile cases that sparked national controversy.
Vos Iz Neias(AP) – Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell sharply in January as higher home prices and possibly harsh winter weather kept many prospective homebuyers on the sidelines despite easing mortgage rates.
Existing home sales sank 8.4% in last month from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
Sales fell 4.4% compared with January last year. The latest sales figure fell short of the 4.105 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
Home sales slowed sharply across the Northeast, Midwest, South and West.
“The decrease in sales is disappointing,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “The below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation this January make it harder than usual to assess the underlying driver of the decrease and determine if this month’s numbers are an aberration.”
Despite the sharp drop in sales, home prices continued to climb last month. The national median sales price increased 0.9% in January from a year earlier to $396,800. Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 31 months in a row.
The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. The combination of higher mortgage rates, years of skyrocketing home prices and a chronic shortage of homes nationally following more than a decade of below-average home construction have left many aspiring homeowners priced out of the market. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained stuck last year at 30-year lows.
Boropark24By Yisroel R.
The FDNY is stepping up enforcement against drivers who park in front of fire hydrants. Instead of giving regular parking tickets, officials say they are now issuing criminal violations in certain cases for vehicles blocking hydrants.
Fire officials say the change comes after several incidents where parked cars delayed firefighters from connecting to hydrants while responding to serious fires. In one case last February, crews responding to a fire at a Buddhist center in the Bronx found a car blocking the hydrant. Two people died in that fire. Firefighters had to run longer water lines, costing valuable time.
Similar situations happened again throughout the year, including a fire on Jerome Avenue where a food truck was parked in front of a hydrant. Officials say every delay increases the risk to residents and to firefighters working at the scene.
City data shows 311 complaints about cars blocking hydrants have increased by 157 percent over the past six years, rising from 62,126 complaints to 165,021. Parts of Queens and Brooklyn were among the areas with the highest number of complaints.
Drivers who receive the criminal violations must appear in court. So far, 10 have been issued, with fines ranging from $2,500 to $4,000.
FDNY says the goal is to discourage the behavior before it leads to more danger. FDNY hopes that by issuing criminal violations, drivers will think twice before parking in front of a hydrant.
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — Avivit Eliyahu, a veteran nurse at Hadassah Mount Scopus, never imagined that a routine flight from Ethiopia to Israel would include such dramatic moments. Mid-flight, shortly after the meal was served, one of the passengers noticed something unusual: a man of about 75 seated a row ahead was slumped in his seat, his head tilted at an unnatural angle. He was unresponsive and making strange sounds.
“At first he seemed stable, then he began to gasp,” Avivit recalled. “Two young passengers were sitting next to him asleep — they had no idea anything was wrong.”
Within moments, the familiar call was heard: “Is there a doctor or nurse on board?” Avivit did not hesitate. “I stood up immediately — it’s instinct. I’m a nurse everywhere, even when I’m on vacation.”
When she reached the passenger, the situation quickly became clear. “Because it happened right after the meal and he wasn’t responding, I realized he was likely experiencing partial choking — food had probably entered his airway.”
She checked his pulse and found it extremely weak, barely detectable. “I knew every minute was critical.”
Without equipment but with experience and determination, she began to act. “I asked the two young passengers beside him to lay him down on the firmest surface possible. As required, I started clearing secretions from his mouth, checking his pulse, trying to assess the situation. It was truly a field-condition scenario.”
Flight attendants gathered around her and, she said, were alert and visibly stressed. “They asked whether an emergency landing was necessary. For a moment, there was concern we might have to land in Saudi Arabia. These are split-second decisions, but I stayed focused on the task.”
Avivit said the passenger was traveling alone. “According to people around him, his son had put him on a flight from Israel to Ethiopia to visit relatives.”
Since the man was unconscious and partial choking was suspected, she began chest compressions in an effort to dislodge the obstruction. “At Hadassah, there is a structured resuscitation training program for staff, including periodic refreshers. In moments like this, the training becomes a real lifesaving tool.”
After minutes that felt like an eternity, she said, the passenger suddenly opened his eyes. “It was an enormous sense of relief. He started moving his lips but remained very confused. I asked those nearby to speak to him gently in Amharic, but he was still detached and didn’t truly understand where he was.”
Ultimately, after updating the captain that the passenger’s condition had stabilized, the decision was made to continue the flight as planned. He remained under Avivit’s close supervision until landing. Avivit said fellow passengers approached her to praise her actions. “It was moving, but also exhausting. I felt a great deal of responsibility and stayed on high alert throughout the flight. Even the pilot came over to thank me.”
Vos Iz NeiasWASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining within the historically healthy range of the past few years.
Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 7 fell by 5,000 to 227,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s basically in line with the 226,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.
Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to a still-low 4.3% from 4.4%. However, government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands. That reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, a third of the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.
While weekly layoffs have remained in a historically low range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years, a number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts recently, including UPS, Amazon, Dow and the Washington Post in recent weeks.
Mounting layoff announcements in the past year, combined with the government’s own sluggish labor market reports, have left Americans increasingly pessimistic about the economy.
The Labor Department also recently reported that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish, even though the economy is registering solid growth.
Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labor market in which hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty raised by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.
Economists are conflicted about whether the stronger-than-expected January job gains are a one-off or possibly the first sign of a recovering labor market, which could lead the Fed to further delay more cuts to its key interest rate.
Some Fed officials have specifically argued that last year’s weak hiring shows that borrowing costs are weighing on growth and discouraging companies from expanding. A sustained pickup in hiring could undercut that theory.
Fed officials signaled in December that they expect to reduce their key rate once more this year, while Wall Street investors expect two reductions, according to futures pricing.
Thursday’s unemployment benefits report from the Labor Department also showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which balances out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 7,000 to 219,500.
The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan. 31 increased by 21,000 to 1.86 million, the government said.
MatzavTensions within the chareidi political camp escalated Wednesday night after a senior Shas official sharply criticized what he called the circulation of “inaccurate quotes” attributed to leading rabbanim regarding the proposed draft law.
The controversy followed a report on Channel 12 News claiming that the Slabodka Rosh Yeshiva HaGaon Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch said about the bill being advanced by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth, “This is not the law that was promised to us — we will have to vote against it.”
In response, a very senior figure in Shas lashed out at Litvishe political activists, accusing them of irresponsibly publicizing selective statements in the name of gedolei rabbanim. “Litvishe activists without responsibility are putting out quotes every few days from leading rabbanim against the draft law. It is a disgrace and a shame. The rabbanim have clarified time and again that they stand behind the law,” the Shas official said.
According to the Shas source, the publication of such statements appears aimed at creating political pressure and destabilizing the chareidi camp at a particularly sensitive stage of negotiations.
At the same time, those close to Rav Hirsch sought to calm the situation, emphasizing that there has been no change in his fundamental position that a draft law must be enacted to formally regulate the status of yeshiva students.
They added that the directive to Degel HaTorah Knesset members remains to continue advancing the legislation, while safeguarding the core principles that were agreed upon at the outset.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasLONDON (AP) — A U.S. judge said President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC can go to trial in 2027.
Judge Roy K. Altman of the federal court for the Southern District of Florida rejected an attempt by Britain’s national broadcaster to delay proceedings.
He set a February 2027 trial date.
Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
Yeshiva World NewsNew satellite images show Iran quickly working to fortify its most critical remaining nuclear site, signaling growing concern in Tehran about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike.
According to the Institute for Science and International Security, imagery from Feb. 10 reveals intensified construction at a massive underground complex beneath Kolang-Gaz La Mountain near Natanz, long considered the heart of Iran’s nuclear program.
Most major facilities were heavily damaged during the 2025 Israel-Iran war, but this tunnel complex survived. Since then, analysts say, Iran has treated it as a strategic fallback.
“Fordow was already difficult to destroy,” said David Albright, referring to the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. “This new site may be even harder.”
Images show concrete being poured over tunnel entrances, reinforced headworks, and heavy equipment surrounding the facility — clear signs of “hardening” against airstrikes. The mountain shielding the complex is far taller than Fordow’s, offering deeper protection.
While the site does not yet appear operational, smaller vehicles and interior outfitting suggest preparations are underway.
Israeli and U.S. officials have long warned that Iran could use hardened facilities to revive enrichment activities lost at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.
For now, the construction surge may offer a narrow window. But analysts caution that with each layer of concrete, Tehran is making an already difficult target even harder to reach.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Vos Iz NeiasMINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday.
“As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference.
“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” he continued.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.
Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.
“The surge is leaving Minneapolis safer,” Homan said. . “I’ll say it again, it’s less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”
Homan announced last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but that still left more than 2,000 on Minnesota’s streets. Homan said Thursday that the drawdown began this week and will continue next week. He said he plans to stay in Minnesota to oversee the drawdown.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that he expected Operation Metro Surge to end in “days, not weeks and months,” based on his conversations with senior Trump administration officials. He told reporters he spoke this week with both Homan and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also said he had a “positive meeting” with Homan on Monday and discussed the potential for a further drawdown of federal officers.
Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.
“We’re very much in a trust but verify mode,” Walz said, adding that he expected to hear more from the administration “in the next day or so” about the future of what he said has been an “occupation” and a “retribution campaign” against the state.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not reply to a request for comment on the governor’s remarks.
Walz said he had no reason not to believe Homan’s statement last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but the governor added that that still left 2,300 on Minnesota’s streets. Homan at the time cited an “increase in unprecedented collaboration” resulting in the need for fewer federal officers in Minnesota, including help from jails that hold deportable inmates.
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — A Jewish American family visiting Syria found themselves eating only fruit for dinner. The food at the hotel was not kosher, and the hotel owner quickly realized there was a problem. Against the backdrop of Jewish tourists returning to Syria under the country’s new regime, he decided, according to a report in The New York Times, to offer a kosher menu for Jewish guests.
The Royal Semiramis, a five-star hotel in Damascus, reopened only in April 2025. Recently, following the introduction of its kosher menu, it has become a central hub for Jews arriving in the city. According to reports, it is the only place in Syria that serves kosher food. Although Syria’s Jewish community now consists of only a handful of individuals, the number of Jews visiting Damascus has been rising since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime — along with the demand for kosher meals.
Bachor Simantov, one of the last remaining members of Damascus’s Jewish community, said that the hotel opened a kosher section in its kitchen. “The plates, the utensils — everything is new and kosher. Jews bring meat from America and eat kosher, but with God’s help, in April, after Passover, a ritual slaughterer will come and slaughter meat for the restaurant in Damascus.”
Simantov said he frequently visits the restaurant. He explained that the kosher section is intended to encourage Jews to come to Syria. “We are encouraging Syrians to return to the country for investment, to open businesses, to pray at the synagogue. If someone wants to return to their old home, there is no problem with that — the government has no problem.”
Rabbi Asher Lepatin, an Orthodox rabbi from Detroit who dined at the kosher restaurant in Damascus , told Israel’s Kan outlet Arab Affairs correspondent Roi Kais:
“The hotel truly did everything to provide kosher food. They wanted us to eat real food, not just fruit. The owner bought new cutlery and genuinely organized kosher meals. We brought the meat from the United States. There is no kosher certification, but it was kosher. The menu mainly included pitas, meat, and salads.”
Rabbi Lopatin in Damascus
American travel influencer Nick Maddock, who has more than 190,000 followers on Instagram, wrote on January 11: “One of the things that surprised me most and that I now appreciate about Syria is how diverse it is. It’s truly a mosaic of cultures, religions and ethnic groups. And Damascus is the center of it all. Although not many remain, Syrian Jews are an integral part of that mosaic — which is why I greatly appreciated that this restaurant has a fully available kosher kitchen.”
Maddock posted the written caption alongside a video from the restaurant, together with Joseph (Joe) Jajati, a Syrian-American Jewish businessman who frequently visits Syria.
In the video, Maddock films the kitchen and explains that there are completely separate utensils for kosher food, as well as different preparation methods. A sign in English can be seen reading, “For kosher food only, do not touch.” Maddock emphasizes that it is likely the cleanest kitchen he saw in all of Damascus.
Vos Iz NeiasKYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities in overnight attacks, officials reported on Thursday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow was “hesitating” about another round of U.S.-brokered talks on stopping the fighting.
Washington has proposed further negotiations next week between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Miami or Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, which was the location of the last meeting, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday.
Ukraine “immediately confirmed” it would attend, he said. “So far, as I understand it, Russia is hesitating,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a messaging app interview late Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that another round of talks was expected “soon” but gave no further details.
American officials made no comment on the possibility of further talks as part of a yearlong peace effort by the Trump administration. Zelenskyy said last week that the United States has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal.
But with Russia’s invasion of its neighbor marking its fourth anniversary later this month, disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv over key issues have held up a comprehensive settlement. The issues include who keeps the Ukrainian land that Russia’s army has so far occupied, especially in the eastern Donbas industrial heartland, and Moscow’s demands for Kyiv to surrender more territory.
Ukraine wants Western-backed security guarantees, including a date for joining the European Union, and a postwar reconstruction package in place before it can contemplate signing a proposed 20-point settlement, Zelenskyy said.
Russia hammers civilian areas
Russia has meanwhile continued to pound Ukrainian civilian areas, including residential areas and the power grid, and Moscow has not responded to a U.S. proposal for an “energy ceasefire” that would also halt Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, Zelenskyy said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged Russia to stop hitting electricity infrastructure, reminding Moscow in a statement that targeting civilian infrastructure is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, Russia fired 219 long-range strike drones, 24 ballistic missiles and a guided aircraft missile at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force.
The main targets were the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the second-largest city of Kharkiv, Dnipro in central Ukraine, and the southern port city of Odesa, the air force said — all cities that have come under relentless bombardment.
In Dnipro, Russian strikes injured four people, including a 4-year-old girl and a newborn boy, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha wrote on Telegram.
In Kyiv, several residential buildings were damaged, and two people were injured, according to the city administration.
In Odesa, one person was injured as a residential high-rise was partially destroyed and a market and a supermarket caught fire, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha wrote on Telegram.
Temperatures have moved above freezing point in Kyiv, but it is still bitterly cold in the city.
Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine, said 2,600 buildings were left without heating after the Kyiv attack in addition to 1,100 buildings in the capital that already were without heating due to previous attacks.
In Odesa, nearly 300,000 residents were left without running water, Kuleba said, while in Dnipro the central heating system stopped working for some 10,000 people.
Ukraine strikes Russian oil and equipment
Ukraine has hit back at Russia with long-range strikes on military targets and oil refineries that generate a large slice of Russia’s income.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Thursday that one of its domestically produced, long-range “Flamingo” missiles hit one of the Russian military’s biggest storage sites for missiles, ammunition and explosives in the Volgograd region and caused major explosions.
Separately, Ukrainian forces also hit and started a fire at the Michurinsk Progress Plant in Russia’s Tambov region, a defense enterprise producing high-technology equipment for aviation and missile systems, the General Staff said.
Ukraine’s military also confirmed it damaged the Volgograd oil refinery in a strike the previous
MatzavThe Pentagon is moving forward with plans to potentially send a second U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, as President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on Iran and makes clear that nuclear negotiations must yield concrete results.
Trump has publicly reiterated that while diplomacy remains his preferred path, military action remains an available option if talks fail.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, defense officials are drafting operational plans that would dispatch another carrier to reinforce the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group currently deployed in the region.
Such a step would substantially increase American naval strength in an area already facing rising tensions.
Earlier this week, Trump signaled that a breakdown in discussions with Tehran would prompt a swift U.S. response, including bolstering American forces in the Middle East.
“We’re not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters, adding that while discussions are ongoing, “if we don’t make a deal, we’ll handle it the other way.”
He stressed that although he favors a diplomatic resolution, sustained pressure is an essential component of his strategy.
“They understand that,” he said of Iranian leaders. “We want peace, but it has to be real peace.”
The Journal reported that the USS George H.W. Bush is currently being prepared and could be deployed once the president issues a final authorization.
Meanwhile, the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group has shifted from its prior operations in the Indo-Pacific to waters near the Arabian Sea, restoring a continuous U.S. aircraft carrier presence across the broader Middle East.
At the core of a carrier strike group is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that operates as a floating air base capable of conducting extended combat missions.
Each carrier typically carries between 60 and 75 aircraft, including F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes, E-2D Hawkeye early warning aircraft, and MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
In addition to the carrier, the strike group includes guided-missile cruisers and destroyers outfitted with the Aegis combat system, enabling both air defense and protection against ballistic missiles. An attack submarine is often attached as well, providing underwater warfare capability.
Together, these assets provide long-range strike capacity, missile interception, maritime security enforcement, and rapid-response capabilities during regional crises.
Deploying a second carrier would represent the largest American naval buildup in the Middle East in recent months and would significantly strengthen the military backing behind U.S. diplomatic efforts.
Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran resumed on Feb. 6 in Muscat, Oman, marking the first sustained engagement since last year’s confrontation involving Iranian-backed militias and U.S. forces.
American officials have maintained that any future agreement must permanently block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and include rigorous inspection and verification requirements.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” stressing that enforcement and transparency are non-negotiable elements of any deal.
The Trump administration has also sought to widen the scope of negotiations to cover Iran’s ballistic missile development and its support for proxy groups throughout the region.
Tehran, however, has resisted expanding the framework of talks, insisting its nuclear activities are peaceful and rejecting what it calls unrelated demands.
Iran continues enriching uranium to elevated levels, and Western officials warn that the enrichment process is nearing weapons-grade thresholds, sharply reducing the time Iran would need to produce a nuclear weapon.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said this week that Iran “does not seek nuclear weapons” and is prepared to provide assurances about its nuclear activities, though he did not signal a halt to enrichment.
On Wednesday, Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, with Iran emerging as the central topic of discussion.
Following the meeting, Trump said he “insisted that negotiations continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated,” but reiterated that “we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Netanyahu stated that Israel believes any agreement must address not only uranium enrichment but also Iran’s missile arsenal and its backing of armed groups across the Middle East.
Israeli officials have consistently warned that a limited nuclear arrangement would fail to neutralize broader regional threats posed by Tehran.
The Pentagon has not yet made a final determination regarding the additional deployment, though defense officials noted that preparing the strike group ensures the United States can act swiftly if the president gives the order.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasTEL AVIV (AP) — Two Israelis have been charged with using classified military information to place bets on how future events will unfold, Israeli authorities said Thursday, accusing the individuals of “serious security offenses.”
A joint statement by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, domestic security service Shin Bet and police said that a civilian and a reservist are suspected of placing bets on the U.S.-based prediction market Polymarket on future military operations based on information that the reservist had access to.
Israel’s Attorney General’s Office decided to prosecute the two individuals following a joint investigation by police, military intelligence and other security agencies that resulted in several arrests. The two face charges including bribery and obstruction of justice.
Authorities offered no details on the identity of the two individuals or the reservist’s rank or position in the Israeli military but warned that such actions posed a “real security risk” for the military and the Israeli state.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan had reported earlier that the bets were placed in June ahead of Israel’s war with Iran and that the winnings were roughly $150,000.
Israel’s military and security services “view the acts attributed to the defendants very seriously and will act resolutely to thwart and bring to justice any person involved in the activity of using classified information illegally,” the statement said.
The accused will remain in custody until the end of legal proceedings against them, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Prediction markets are comprised of typically yes-or-no questions called event contracts, with the prices connected to what traders are willing to pay, which theoretically indicates the perceived probability of an event occurring.
Their use has skyrocketed in recent years, but despite some eye-catching windfalls, traders still lose money everyday. In the U.S., the trades are categorized differently than traditional forms of gambling, raising questions about transparency and risk.
MatzavIsraeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu announced in Washington that Israel will take part in President Donald Trump’s newly formed “Board of Peace,” signing on to the initiative during meetings with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Following his discussion with Rubio, Netanyahu wrote on X that he “signed Israel’s accession as a member of the “Board of Peace.””
Netanyahu traveled to the U.S. capital primarily for talks with Trump focused on Iran, but the visit also included discussions about the new international body.
The Board of Peace was established under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in mid-November. The resolution authorized the board, along with participating countries, to organize an international stabilization force in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire there began in October under a Trump-backed proposal approved by both Israel and the Hamas militant group.
According to the original framework of Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was intended to oversee the enclave’s temporary administration. Trump later indicated that, with him serving as chair, the body would broaden its mandate to address conflicts beyond Gaza on a global scale.
The board’s inaugural session is set for Feb. 19 in Washington, where members are expected to focus on plans for rebuilding Gaza.
International reaction to Trump’s invitation to join the initiative, first introduced in late January, has been measured. A number of analysts have expressed concern that the new body could weaken or sideline the United Nations.
Although several U.S. partners in the Middle East have opted to participate, many of America’s longstanding Western allies have declined to join.
The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly tested by renewed violence. Gaza health officials report that at least 580 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began in October, while four Israeli soldiers have also reportedly died during the same period.
According to the Gaza health ministry, Israel’s military campaign has resulted in more than 72,000 Palestinian deaths and triggered widespread hunger while displacing the territory’s entire population.
Various human rights specialists, academics and a U.N. investigative body have described the campaign as amounting to genocide. Israel rejects that characterization, saying it is acting in self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 hostages in an attack in late 2023.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — In today’s world, where Israel is fighting for its public legitimacy in the international arena, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stands out as an exceptional phenomenon. He leads a country with a clear Muslim majority, yet has become one of the sharpest and most articulate voices supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against its enemies. He did not hesitate to wear the hostages’ pin on the lapel of his coat during official speeches, and he holds positions on Hamas that would make even the most militant Israelis nod in agreement.
Rama, who visited Israel about two weeks ago, is a painter and former professor of art. He is known to paint routinely between cabinet meetings and fateful phone calls.
In an interview with journalist Shlomo Cooperman in Mishpacha magazine, published on Thursday morning, the prime minister was asked: “If you had to sketch one drawing right now that captures the state of the world today, what would we see?”
“Chaos,” he replied in a single word. “That’s what I would draw. And it wouldn’t be particularly difficult,” he added with a weary smile, “since all my paintings are absolute chaos. Apparently, the world and my studio speak the same language.”
“I don’t know how familiar you are with our history,” he continued, “but we have a deep connection with the Jewish people, who arrived in Albania in different waves over the centuries. In the city of Sarandë, we have the remains of an ancient 5th-century synagogue with a beautiful menorah mosaic. Jews were always welcomed here when they fled persecution in Europe. In the Middle Ages, in the city of Vlorë, Jews even formed the majority of the population.”
Rama spoke proudly of this history: “On the eve of the war, only about 200 Jews lived in Albania, and we are the only country where more Jews lived after the Holocaust than before it. The population grew to around 3,000 because we protected them like no one else. We did not hand over a single Jew to the Nazis. About 75 Albanians were officially recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, but in practice the entire population mobilized.”
For Rama, Israel and Albania stand on the same side of the divide not only because of history, but because of a shared contemporary existential threat. “Albania experienced direct Iranian cyber aggression, and we responded decisively,” he said, referencing the severing of ties with what he called “the butchers of Iran.” For him, it is a matter of national pride that Albania stands alongside Israel and the United States against what he described as “hell on earth,” where innocent people are murdered on a massive scale, with reports indicating tens of thousands killed within days. “The fact that we are acting against a common enemy explains – very cruelly, unfortunately – why we stand together. This is not political convenience, but moral principle.”
Rama has repeatedly stated that Hamas are the “Nazis of the 21st century.” When asked whether he still stands by those words, he did not hesitate: “I believe this completely,” he said firmly. “For me, this is not a political slogan but a historical analysis. We are a people who saved Jews from the original Nazis, and anyone who studies history can easily recognize the same ideology of annihilation. Hamas’s ideology is a threat to humanity itself, just as the Nazis were eighty years ago.”
The Lakewood ScoopAfter completing rigorous training, 25 firefighter recruits received their volunteer fire company badges during graduation ceremonies held February 9 at Lacey High School.
The graduates were joined by family members, friends, instructors, and fellow first responders as they marked the start of their service to communities throughout Ocean County.
Manchester Mayor Joseph Hankins, a former chief of the Manchester Fire Department, delivered the keynote address, reflecting on the responsibility and honor associated with earning a firefighter’s badge. Ocean County Commissioner Robert S. Arace also addressed the class, congratulating the recruits on behalf of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners.
“Becoming a firefighter is not just about mastering skills or completing training, it is about earning the trust of your community,” Arace said. “That trust is earned, and tonight you’ve earned it, and Ocean County is proud of you.”
The graduates and their respective fire companies are:
Robert Ackerman Jr., Kreisler Fortes, and Jack Koehler, Forked River Fire Department; Madison Braun and Nicholas Knipple, Seaside Heights Fire Department; Nathan Brindley and Scott Brindley, Barnegat Light Fire Department; Tyler Chervencik, Lanoka Harbor Fire Department; Christopher Colacci and Christopher Pollina, West Tuckerton Fire Department; Joshua Davis and Daniel Mitchell, Lakehurst Fire Department; Elvir Divanovic, Bradden Galassi, and Robert Price Jr., Waretown Fire Department; Michael Ford, Lavallette Fire Department; Matthew Linsley, Beachwood Fire Department; Melissa Myslinski, Mystic Island Fire Department; Austin Nahrwold, Manitou Park Fire Department; Matthew Perez, Pleasant Plains Fire Department; Jonathan Rainforth and Trent Stanfield, Pinewald Pioneer Fire Department; Cole Rizzolo and Reece Rizzolo, Whiting Fire Department; and Ricardo Rubio, Stafford Township Fire Department.
Several recruits also received special recognition during the ceremony. The Father Mychal Judge Award for Leadership was presented to Tyler Chervencik of the Lanoka Harbor Fire Department. Melissa Myslinski of the Mystic Island Fire Department received the Stanley Marks/Alex Letyshev High Achievement Award, and the Davenport Brotherhood Award was presented to Madison Braun of the Seaside Heights Fire Department.
The graduates will now begin active service with their respective volunteer fire companies across Ocean County.
Yeshiva World NewsAs tension soars over issues surrounding the legislation of a Chareidi draft law, Channel 12 News reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attempted to speak by phone to HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch but did not receive a response.
However, the report added that despite the cold shoulder, messages were passed through intermediaries indicating that efforts are still underway to formulate solutions that would prevent “political escalation.”
Earlier on Thursday, Kikar H’Shabbat reported that senior Degel HaTorah officials clarified that in accordance with the instructions of Gedolei HaTorah, they are continuing attempts to advance a draft law that will regulate the status of bnei yeshivos. The report comes after HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau declared on Wednesday evening that “not even one Ben Torah will join the army, whether the authorities agree or not.” In addition, HaGaon HaRav was quoted as saying that the Chareidi MKs will vote against the law in its current formulation.
“There is no instruction from Gedolei Yisrael to oppose the law currently being discussed,” the sources said. “On the contrary, they are the ones who instructed us to move forward in negotiations with the Knesset’s legal adviser in an attempt to reach a law that will be agreed upon and will withstand review by the Supreme Court.”
They added, “There are elements from other factions who are trying to do everything in order to stop the legislation. They are the ones briefing and speaking in the name of the Gedolei Yisrael despite having no connection to them and are trying to sabotage the passage of the law.”
Sources close to HaGaon HaRav Hirsch clarified on Wednesday evening: “Nothing has changed in the fundamental position that a draft law must be enacted and the status of bnei yeshivos must be regulated. The instruction to Degel HaTorah’s Knesset members is to continue working for the legislation.”
In addition, those close to HaGaon HaRav Landau said on Thursday morning: “Efforts are continuing to reach a law that will stop the arrests of bnei yeshivos. This is the most urgent issue for the Rosh Yeshiva; the sanctions issue is secondary in importance.”
Meanwhile, senior figures in the Chareidi parties told Kikar HaShabbat, “Even though we are trying to show flexibility with the legal adviser and we agreed that the sanctions would take effect immediately, there are still disputes—primarily and especially regarding the question of oversight over lomdei Torah. It is impossible to know whether, at the end of the process, we will succeed in reaching a law that will pass its second and third readings (in the Knesset).”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
MatzavA legislative proposal by opposition leader Yair Lapid seeking to formally classify Qatar as an enemy state is scheduled to be discussed this Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
Under the terms of the bill, Qatar would be officially designated an enemy state, and all existing Israeli legal provisions that apply to such countries would automatically extend to it.
The explanatory section accompanying the proposal asserts that Qatar provides financial backing and support to the Hamas terrorist organization, operates and funds a global propaganda apparatus that amplifies its messaging, consistently incites against Israel, and inflicts significant harm on Israel’s standing internationally.
{Matzav.com}
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — In what is being described by some as a move of vindictiveness and seemingly selective enforcement, Rishon LeZion Mayor Raz Kinstlich has issued a demolition order over a building addition at the study hall of Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Beeri, known as “the Yanuka”, located in the city. On Thursday morning municipal police forces arrived to supervise the demolition, and currently negotiations are under way with the rabbi and his followers.
Local residents gathering at the site told Bechadrei Charedim that the step constitutes improper targeting of a synagogue. “This is religious persecution in the Land of Israel. There are many unapproved and unregulated structures in the area, yet the mayor chose, for irrelevant reasons, to act specifically against a synagogue. This is bullying, selective and discriminatory enforcement,” they said.
The Yanuka, Rav Shlomo Yehuda Beeri
Shlomi N., a regular worshipper at the synagogue, told Bechadrei Charedim: “The mayor is trying to spread claims as if the neighborhood has a problem with the synagogue. The opposite is true. We draw holiness and support from this place. We all love the synagogue and the rabbi, and we oppose this harassment. We will settle accounts at the ballot box.”
A source close to the synagogue’s management said: “There is an improper effort by the mayor to clash with the synagogue and with the Yanuka, to whom many people flock for blessings and salvation. The claim about congestion in the area is nonsense. We approached the municipality countless times to regulate an alternative, suitable, and larger location. But there has been no willingness on the mayor’s part to resolve the matter, only to fight and provoke.”
Other sources at the synagogue hinted at possible political involvement behind the move, though no evidence has yet been provided.
Efforts are currently underway to regulate the situation without harming the synagogue.
Yeshiva World NewsNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended his push to raise taxes on the city’s highest earners on Wednesday, arguing that soaring living costs and persistent budget pressures leave City Hall with few alternatives — even as new revenue figures complicate his case.
Testifying before state lawmakers in Albany at a joint legislative budget hearing, Mamdani was pressed to explain why he is urging the Legislature to approve a 2 percent income tax increase on residents earning more than $1 million a year.
“I think the why comes from the fact that we are the most expensive city in the United States,” Mamdani said in response to questioning from Assembly member Amanda Septimo.
“There simply isn’t enough money that we wish there could be,” he added, framing the proposal as a necessary response to mounting fiscal and affordability pressures.
Mamdani warned that failing to invest in public services and infrastructure would only accelerate the departure of working- and middle-class residents, a trend that has increasingly worried city and state leaders.
“If we take that approach year after year, what happens is we do see the exodus that’s happening right now,” Mamdani said. “Working middle-class people leave the city, leave the state, trying to find a place where their ends can be a little bit easier to meet.”
Mamdani has consistently argued that New York’s long-term stability depends on asking more from its wealthiest residents, calling for a 2 percent increase in personal income taxes and a 4 percent hike in corporate taxes.
Since assuming office, he has pointed to what he initially described as a multibillion-dollar budget gap in the current and upcoming fiscal years as justification for the increases. In recent weeks, the administration has warned that without new revenue, the city could face painful cuts to housing, transit, education, and social services.
But new disclosures this week have complicated that narrative.
Mamdani’s budget director, Sherif Soliman, told lawmakers that the city’s previously projected $12 billion shortfall failed to account for roughly $7.2 billion in end-of-year tax revenue. The revelation significantly reduced the size of the projected deficit and raised fresh questions about whether sweeping tax increases are still necessary.
The revised numbers prompted skepticism among some lawmakers and fiscal watchdogs, who argue that the administration may be overstating the urgency of new taxes.
Critics say the shrinking gap undermines Mamdani’s claim that New York is facing an immediate fiscal crisis and strengthens the case for restraint at a time when high-income residents and major employers already complain about the state’s tax burden.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has repeatedly pushed back against raising income taxes, warning that New York is already among the most heavily taxed states in the country and risks driving away investment and talent. Hochul has emphasized economic competitiveness and retention of high earners as central to her fiscal strategy, putting her at odds with progressive lawmakers and the city’s new mayor.
The dispute highlights a familiar fault line in New York politics: whether the state’s affordability crisis is best addressed through higher taxes on the wealthy or through spending restraint and economic growth.
Mamdani and his allies argue that without new revenue, the city will struggle to fund affordable housing, transit upgrades, and public safety initiatives, which they say are essential to keeping New York livable for working families.
Opponents counter that repeated tax hikes have contributed to population losses and business relocations, particularly since the pandemic, and warn that further increases could deepen those trends.
The debate is likely to intensify as Albany negotiates its final budget in the coming months.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
MatzavBy Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha opens with the words, “Ve’aileh hamishpotim asher tosim lifneihem — These are the laws that you shall place before them.”
Rabi Akiva, in the Mechilta, hears in these words not merely a command to teach, but a lesson in how Torah must be transmitted. Tosim lifneihem, he explains, does not mean to present information in the abstract, but to lay it out like a shulchan aruch, a fully prepared table, arranged with care, clarity, and invitation. Torah is not meant to be delivered as raw data, but as nourishment: accessible, enticing, and alive.
Great teachers exhaust themselves in pursuit of this ideal. They labor not only to know Torah, but to serve it, presenting it with flavor, with structure, with an inner music that allows the student not merely to learn, but to taste and appreciate. A good rebbi does not speak at his talmidim. He sets a table before them and invites them into a feast.
One such rebbi was Rav Mendel Kaplan. His shiur was not simply a classroom. It was an atmosphere. We did not merely absorb Torah from him. We breathed it in. He fed us a wide menu of spiritual food, equipping us not only with knowledge, but with the tools to interpret the world beyond the walls of the bais medrash. Headlines became texts, and world events became commentaries, refracted through the prism of Torah until their deeper meanings emerged.
There is a story told of a villager in the legendary town of Chelm who returned home from shul one Shabbos and repeated the rov’s sermon to his wife.
“The rov says that Moshiach may come very soon,” he told her, “and he will take us all to Eretz Yisroel.”
His wife wrung her hands in distress. “But what will be with our chickens? Who will feed them? How will we live?”
The husband stroked his beard thoughtfully. “You know, life here is hard. The goyim harass us, we are poor, the roof leaks, and our feet freeze all winter. Maybe it will be better there.”
She thought for a moment, and then her face lit up. “I have a solution,” she said. “We’ll ask Hashem to send the goyim to Eretz Yisroel — and we’ll stay here with the chickens.”
We smile at the foolishness of Chelm, but too often, we are no different. We live inside history, yet fail to read it. We experience events, but miss their meaning.
This past weekend, a kind of living commentary was on full display during the annual Rubashkin Alef Bais Gimmel Shabbaton. At a time when headlines scream instability and fear, hundreds gathered not to analyze geopolitics or speculate about what comes next, but to be inspired by a Yid who has lived through the harshest challenges and emerged with unshaken faith. His message was not theoretical. It was not abstract. It was Torah lived, tasted, and tested — tosim lifneihem in its most literal sense.
What resonated with the Shabbos attendees was not only Reb Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin’s story, but his clarity. Instead of anxiety, there was perspective. Instead of bitterness, gratitude. Instead of confusion, trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The uplifting Shabbos spent with Reb Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, his family, and so many wonderful Yidden looking to grow as maaminim was a reminder that emunah is not just a slogan, but a lens through which life itself becomes understandable. That, too, is how history is meant to be read.
We often mistake warning signs for noise, and blessings for burdens. We assume we understand the world, when in truth we need teachers — living meforshim — to explain to us what is really happening between the lines of the newspaper.
Chazal tell us: “Why was the mountain called Sinai? Because from it descended sinah — hatred.” From the moment the Torah was given and the Jewish people became a nation with a mission, a new force entered the world, a relentless, irrational hostility that would accompany us until the arrival of Moshiach.
This hatred is not merely a historical artifact. It is not confined to ancient exile or medieval blood libels. It is alive. It breathes. It mutates. It adapts to each generation’s language and technology.
The world recently marked the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Much has changed since those dark years. Entire institutions were built to ensure that such horrors would never return. And yet, the ancient sinah remains intact, resurfacing in new forms, under new banners, with old obsessions. Jews are mocked, judged by double standards, and vilified. The very state created as a refuge from hatred has become a magnet for it.
Anti-Semitism rises not only in Europe, but in America. Digital platforms amplify it, spread it, and normalize it. What once required mobs now needs only algorithms.
Rashi tells us that Yisro came to join the Jewish people after hearing about Krias Yam Suf and Milchemes Amaleik. The meforshim explain that these events conveyed not only how deeply Hashem loves the Jewish people, but how intensely the nations of the world oppose them. Yisro recognized the paradox at the heart of Jewish existence — to be beloved by Hashem and resisted by history. He understood that truth itself provokes opposition, and that the more transformative the truth, the more violently it is resisted.
When Albert Einstein introduced relativity, the scientific world initially mocked him. A book titled One Hundred Scientists Against Einstein appeared. When asked about it, Einstein reportedly shrugged and said, “If I were really wrong, why would one not be enough?” He understood what Jews have always known: Truth does not generate mild disagreement. It generates disproportionate fury.
From Har Sinai onward, the Jewish people have lived inside that fury.
After World War I, the League of Nations was created to ensure peace. After World War II, the United Nations rose from the ashes of Auschwitz, pledging that tyranny would never again be allowed to flourish. After 9/11, world leaders announced a new era with a global war on terror, a united front against evil.
And yet, history keeps repeating itself, not because of a lack of institutions, but because of a surplus of illusion. They did not factor in apathy. They did not factor in corruption. They did not factor in moral exhaustion. They did not factor in hatred.
Everything now moves at a blistering pace. Wars begin, fade, and are replaced before their consequences are understood. Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Iran — each crisis dissolves into the next.
The world feels unstable, yet we continue our routines as though nothing is hanging above us.
The sword is suspended — and we discuss the wallpaper.
As anti-Semitism intensifies and the old sinah resurfaces, we argue over trivialities, chase distractions, and obsess over matters of little weight. We scroll while history groans.
Perhaps, a place to begin is with what we allow into our minds and homes. Since the invention of print, ideas have traveled disguised as information. Newspapers and books have always been vehicles for more than news. They are carriers of values, assumptions, and worldviews. The Maskilim mastered this art, writing heresy in poetic Hebrew, quoting Chazal while emptying their teachings of meaning, as they mocked gedolim, rabbonim, lomdei Torah, and shomrei Torah umitzvos. Generations were torn away not by open rebellion, but by subtle infiltration.
Words are never neutral. They shape taste. They train perception. They define what feels normal.
That is why those who write, teach, and speak bear responsibility under the same command: “Aileh hamishpotim asher tosim lifneihem.” What we place before others must be honest, just, and true — a table that nourishes, not poisons.
The Alter of Kelm taught that tosim lifneihem k’shulchan aruch means that real intelligence emerges only when learning has flavor. Depth is not dryness. Wisdom is not sterile. A melamed who teaches with clarity, elegance, and taste awakens in his students not only understanding, but desire and a hunger for more.
The difference between superficial knowledge and deep understanding is the difference between eating and tasting. One sustains life. The other transforms it.
The task of man, the Alter concludes, is to become truly intelligent — not clever, not informed, but wise.
That wisdom begins with refusing to settle for shallow readings of Torah or of life. It demands that we study more deeply, interpret more honestly, and live more consciously. It requires that we understand not only what is happening around us, but also what it is asking of us.
We must speak more truthfully, treat people more carefully, and live in a way that creates kiddush Hashem rather than its opposite.
The Meshech Chochmah, in one of his classic elucidations, writes in his sefer on last week’s parsha that the Jews merited the many miracles Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed for them upon leaving Mitzrayim even though they were still entangled with avodah zorah because their middos and interpersonal conduct were refined. But in generations whose people speak lashon hora, quarrel, and act without derech eretz and sensitivity, Hashem removes His Shechinah from their midst, as He did at the time of the Second Bais Hamikdosh. Even though the people were engaged in Torah study and observance, nevertheless, because there was sinas chinom — hatred — among them, the Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed.
I saw in a new sefer by Rav Yitzchok Kolodetsky something both amazing and frightening that Rav Chaim Greineman would relate from his father, Rav Shmuel Greineman, brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish. He would say that the Chazon Ish taught that the Holocaust came about as a result of sins bein adam lachaveiro, failures in how Jews treated each other.
When we look around us, when we contemplate what is happening in the world and wonder what we can do, what is demanded of us, and how we can help draw Moshiach closer, it would do us well to ponder the message the Chazon Ish and the Meshech Chochmah sent.
Parshas Yisro, in which the Torah discusses how Klal Yisroel was presented with the gift of the Aseres Hadibros and the Torah, is followed by Parshas Mishpotim, which we study this week. By arranging the parshiyos in this way, the Torah teaches us that to maintain the lofty levels reached at Har Sinai, we must properly follow the laws of Mishpotim, which deal with interpersonal conduct.
It is not sufficient to be on a high spiritual level intellectually and theoretically. We must match that with our actions and conduct. If we cut corners financially, if we are careless with another person’s dignity, and if we are not scrupulous in ensuring that we do not harm others financially, then we are lacking in fulfilling the obligations we accepted upon ourselves at Har Sinai.
In Parshas Mishpotim, Klal Yisroel reaches its highest moment when it declares, “Na’aseh v’nishma — We will do, and later we will hear and understand.” Action before comprehension. Commitment before clarity. A nation stepping into destiny with certainty, armed and motivated by faith.
May we merit to return to that summit, to toil in Torah, taste its depth, refine our character, and hear in the background of all we do the sounds of Sinai, so that we can raise ourselves and our people and bring us closer to the geulah sheleimah bekarov b’yomeinu. Amein.
Vos Iz NeiasJERUSALEM (VINnews) — The charedi community in Lod was in uproar after the municipality demolished overnight the “Ohel Reuven” synagogue in the Achisamach neighborhood, under orders from Mayor Yair Revivo.
While residents slept overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, municipal bulldozers, accompanied by Border Police officers, moved in on the site. One worshipper said, “At 4:00 a.m., under cover of darkness and with unmatched cruelty, the synagogue was razed to the ground. This is not law enforcement, this is bureaucratic terror.”
Community leaders described the demolition as “outrageous selective enforcement.” Members of the congregation said, “The excuse of ‘illegal construction’ is a mockery. Within walking distance of the ruins stand at least five other synagogues built in exactly the same way. There, for some reason, the bulldozers never arrived. Why? Who at city hall has an interest in trampling one community while turning a blind eye to others?”
Residents also questioned the timing of the operation. “Those who act fairly do not show up at 4:00 a.m. like criminals. Where is the equality? How is enforcement carried out only against one specific community while others appear immune? Where is the heart? Destroying a place of worship in such a manner is a wound that will not heal quickly.”
Rabbi Shlomo Zaafrani, the community’s rabbi, tore his garment and wept over the destruction of the synagogue, citing verses from Lamentations: “She weeps bitterly in the night, tears upon her cheek,” and “For Mount Zion, which lies desolate, foxes prowl over it.” He also quoted Yirmiyahu: “If you do not heed it, my soul shall weep in secret.”
Professional sources in the municipality stressed that “significant expansion work was carried out at the site without any engineering plans, supervision, or building permits, creating exposed and dangerous electrical hazards in the heart of a residential neighborhood filled with children. The structure posed a real risk of collapse. We cannot wait for a disaster and then ask, ‘Where were the authorities?’ The responsibility to protect human life overrides all other considerations.”
The municipality added that it is advancing “a rapid legal solution for the construction of a permanent facility for the community” and will assist in arranging a temporary site meeting all required engineering and safety standards.
The Lod Municipality said: “Despite repeated warnings and explicit notices, expansion work continued, including the construction of eight-meter-high walls without permits or engineering oversight. Such building activity presents a tangible danger to life in a residential neighborhood. We will not wait for tragedy. Out of our duty to safeguard lives, we acted to remove the hazard.”
A statement from the mayor’s office read: “The operation was conducted in accordance with the law, with enforcement authorities, and during the early morning hours to prevent friction and maintain public order. There is no selective enforcement and no targeting of any specific community. Each case is handled based on its legal and safety circumstances.”
The municipality further noted: “Just this week, two large illegal homes were demolished in the Pardes Snir neighborhood, not out of desire, but out of obligation to uphold the law and ensure public safety. At the same time, we remain in contact with the community and are prepared to advance a lawful, regulated, and safe solution that respects the sanctity of the synagogue while protecting human life.”
Yeshiva World NewsIran’s foreign minister denied reports that Tehran secretly executed thousands of protest participants, dismissing the claims as politically motivated and accusing Israeli media of advancing a hostile narrative.
In remarks posted publicly, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected a report published by Yisrael Hayom alleging that Iran’s regime carried out mass executions after privately assuring Washington it would refrain from doing so.
“Whenever Miriam Adelson’s mouthpiece pushes a dramatic claim about Iran, it’s worth asking who it serves,” Araghchi said, referencing the newspaper’s ownership. “Even the U.S. president has acknowledged where her primary loyalties lie.”
He categorically denied the substance of the allegations.
“The facts: No executions have taken place, no court process has been concluded, and more than 2,000 prisoners have been pardoned,” he said. “Before buying the narrative being peddled, consider who benefits from it and who may actually be doing the deceiving.”
The original report claimed that Iranian authorities had quietly executed thousands of individuals involved in anti-government protests, despite conveying to U.S. officials that no such actions would occur. The allegations, if substantiated, would represent a major human rights violation and a breach of diplomatic assurances.
Analysts note that the sharp tone of Araghchi’s response suggests Iranian officials view the report as potentially damaging to ongoing diplomatic efforts. By dismissing the claims outright and emphasizing prisoner pardons, Tehran appears to be attempting to blunt international backlash and preserve leverage in talks with Washington.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
MatzavTwo members of Iran’s Jewish community have been released from detention following intervention by senior communal leaders, while a third Jewish detainee remains behind bars, according to a report aired on Kan Reshet Bet.
The two men, one from Tehran and the other from Shiraz, had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in protests against the regime of the Ayatollahs. Their release came after prominent figures within Iran’s Jewish community engaged with government authorities on their behalf.
All three were reportedly detained as part of a broader sweep carried out by Iranian security forces in recent weeks, during which numerous individuals were taken into custody. While two of the Jewish detainees have now been freed, efforts are continuing to secure the release of the third individual, with senior community members said to be actively pressing the matter with officials.
At the same time, members of the Jewish community took part over the past day in official events commemorating the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Their participation was widely viewed as a public demonstration of solidarity with the ruling regime.
Homayoun Sameh, the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, together with Rabbi Younes Hammami, one of the community’s rabbinic leaders, spoke favorably about the government and what they described as its positive treatment of religious minorities.
Both Sameh and Hammami also granted interviews to Iranian media outlets in which they voiced support for the Islamic Revolution. In one widely circulated image, Shamkh was seen standing alongside Rabbi Hammami while holding a placard that read: “The Islamic Revolution Day is the day of light overcoming darkness.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva World NewsA heated clash between Attorney General Pam Bondi and Rep. Becca Balint erupted Wednesday during a marathon House Judiciary Committee hearing, turning a routine oversight session into a charged confrontation over antisemitism, political accountability, and past investigations.
The exchange unfolded as lawmakers questioned Bondi about the Justice Department’s priorities and enforcement record. Balint, a Vermont Democrat, had pressed the department on civil rights and oversight issues when Bondi abruptly pivoted to Balint’s past handling of matters related to Jeffrey Epstein.
“I was curious if you, congresswoman, asked Bill Clinton that,” Bondi said, referring to Bill Clinton. “Didn’t see one tweet, not one, I didn’t see one tweet when Joe Biden was in office about Bill Clinton. Didn’t ask Merrick Garland anything about Epstein, not once, when he was.”
Bondi also cited Joe Biden and Merrick Garland in her criticism, suggesting that Balint had failed to pursue aggressive oversight during the previous administration.
The attorney general then escalated the exchange by turning to Balint’s voting record.
“And also, I want the record to reflect that, you know, with this anti-Semitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution condemning…” Bondi said, trailing off as Balint reacted.
Balint immediately pushed back, raising her voice.
“Oh, oh, do you want to go there, attorney general, do you want to go there? Are you serious?!” she said.
“Talking about anti-Semitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust! Really? Really?” Balint added, before standing up and walking out of the hearing room.
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(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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The Lakewood Scoop
