President Donald Trump said Friday that he would be open to an agreement freezing Iran’s nuclear program for 20 years, but insisted that any deal would require ironclad assurances from Tehran before the United States would agree to end the war.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One while returning from his trip to China, Trump discussed the latest Iranian proposal and indicated he had serious objections to parts of it.

“Well, I looked at it, and if I don’t like the first sentence, I just throw it away,” the President replied, explaining that the first sentence of the Iranian proposal was “an unacceptable sentence because they fully agree, no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don’t read the rest of their letter.”

Asked whether a 20-year moratorium on Iran’s nuclear activity would satisfy him, Trump responded that the issue was not the length of time but whether Iran could be trusted to comply.

“No, 20 years is enough, but the level of guarantee from them is not enough. In other words, it’s got to be a real 20 years, not a fake 20.”

Trump also revealed that Iran was a major topic during his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to Trump, Xi strongly opposed Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and discussed the strategic importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.

Trump said Xi “feels strongly they can’t have a nuclear weapon. He said that very strongly. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. And he wants them to open up the strait. But as he said, ‘they closed it, and then you closed them’. And it’s true. We control the strait. And they’ve done no business, literally they’ve done no business in the last two and a half weeks, which is approximately $500 million a day. So we’re doing very well on all fronts.”

The president said he remains hopeful that Iran will eventually agree to a deal. Trump added that Iranian officials told him that only the United States and China possess the capability to remove the country’s enriched uranium stockpiles, which he referred to as “nuclear dust.”

During an interview Thursday night with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump warned that his patience with Tehran is quickly running out.

“I’m not going to be much more patient. No, I’m not. They should make a deal. Any sane person would make a deal, but they might be crazy,” Trump clarified.

The interview aired shortly after Trump suggested on Truth Social that military operations against Iran may continue.

The remarks came in a broader post reflecting on his recent visit to China and comments made by Xi Jinping about the United States.

“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct. Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!” wrote Trump.

“President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration, which includes all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, the military decimation of Iran (to be continued!),” he added.

Trump has repeatedly stated that the United States will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and he reiterated that position again Tuesday before departing for China.

Speaking to reporters at the time, Trump warned Tehran that it must accept American conditions for ending the conflict and resolving concerns surrounding its nuclear activities.

“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” Trump said, rejecting the idea that rising prices in the US pushed him to seek an end to the war.

{Matzav.com}

As Jewish families across the United States prepare to usher in Shabbos, they are doing so with an added layer of national recognition; the first time in American history that a sitting president has formally called upon the Jewish people to observe a mitzvah.

In his Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation issued May 4, President Donald Trump urged Jewish Americans to mark what he termed “Shabbat 250,” a nod to the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations. “From sundown on May 15 to nightfall on May 16, friends, families, and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great Nation,” the proclamation read, describing Shabbos as “the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty.”

The announcement has sparked a series of invitation-only events across Washington tied to the proclamation. Among the most sought-after invitations is the White House reception scheduled for the Indian Treaty Room, where Jewish members of the Trump administration are expected to attend. Another private dinner, co-hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, is set to gather Jewish administration officials, congressional staffers, and policy figures. The event will feature wine provided by Psagot Winery, an Israeli vineyard located in Yehudah and Shomron.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work for an administration that values religious freedom,” Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, long-time Trump ally and United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism told Belaaz. “The president is a true friend and advocate for the values of religion.”

Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, President of the Tzedek Association, who has worked extensively with the Trump Administration, told Belaaz: “Shabbos has always been the secret of Jewish survival. Through every generation and every challenge, Shabbos kept Yidden connected to Hashem, to family, and to our mesorah. At a time when America prepares to celebrate 250 years, it is especially meaningful to see Jews across the country coming together to honor the gift of Shabbos and the religious freedom this great country has given us to observe it proudly. In a world that moves so fast and pulls people in so many directions, Shabbos reminds us what truly matters; emunah, family, kedusha, and gratitude to the Ribbono Shel Olam.”

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, said in a statement; “I’m obviously delighted by the president’s call to observe Shabbat, because this reinforces Jewish identity with Jewish observance and tradition.”

Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, issued a statement endorsing the call. “This weekend, following President Trump’s encouragement, we will mark Shabbat 250,” he said. “We will pause to acknowledge all the blessings that the Almighty has provided American Jews through the unique devotion to liberty embedded in this nation.”

Chabad announced special Shabbos 250 programming, and more than 7,500 people registered on Shabbat250.org pledging to observe the day.

For many in the Torah world, the moment carried a weight that transcended politics. Rabbi Dovid Katz, Executive Director of the Israel Heritage Foundation, told Belaaz that the president’s call stirred deep emotion, drawing a striking contrast to the struggles of an earlier generation of American Jews.

“70-80 years ago, when Yidden were here in the United States and the government did not push Yidden to observe Shabbos, every erev Shabbos people had a big nisayon of should I observe the Shabbos and how will I put bread and parnosa for my children and my wife? Or should I unfortunately chas v’shalom violate Shabbos? And it was every erev Shabbos people went through this nisayon,” Rabbi Katz said. “And Baruch Hashem, b’yomeinu hayeim b’zman hazeh, today, instead of Yidden having the same nisayon, the government, the president, and his entire staff — I texted today and WhatsApped today and communicated with over 40 people that are close to the Trump administration and everybody is so excited and so happy and so pushing for this that I really think that it’s almost k’yom shekulo Shabbos.”

Rabbi Katz, who said he had written letters to President Trump and the administration in support of the initiative, drew on a teaching of the Rizhiner Rebbe zy”a to give the moment a broader spiritual frame.

“We are all entering in Moshiach days,” he said, “and the holy Rizhiner Rebbe zy”a once said that before Moshiach will come, Hashem will give a very big shefa and very good days for Klal Yisroel and Klal Yisroel will think that we’ve reached the highest happiness, the highest simcha, and the highest achievements — and Hashem will say wait, there’s much more to come, Moshiach is here and now you’ll really know what yom shekulo Shabbos means.”

NISSIM: A child scooterist is lucky to be alive today after darting into a street in Lakewood and being narrowly missed by a car.

LAKEWOOD (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) When his Seforim on the Yamim Tovim came out they shook the Torah world, and now the very first Chailek of Rav Yeruchem Olshin’s shiurim on Torah are now out in a beautiful volume called, “Meged Yerachim.”  The first volume is only on BaMidbar Nasoh and Bahaaloscha.  Perusing its pages, the Torah world will have a similar reaction.  It has 30 Simanim on Sugyas in Chumash and 71 maamarim on Mussar and MAchshava.  Both sections together total 630 pages. 

  What follows is a brief overview of the sugyos’ contents based on its tochain mefurat. Note that this is just of BaMidbar

Siman 1. why Hashem waited a full month before counting Bnei Yisrael.

1. Why were Bnei Yisrael counted on the first of Iyar instead of the first of Nisan, when the Shechinah  first came to dwell among them?
2. The Shechinah arrived on the first of Nisan, but it only became permanently settled thirty days later, on the first of Iyar.
3. Two separate ideas about the Shechinah resting — one is the Shechinah resting “in the Mishkan,” and the other is the Shechinah resting “upon the Jewish people” themselves.
4. A puzzling contradiction in Rashi (Maseches Beitzah) about when the Shechinah left Har Sinai — was it on the first of Nisan or the twentieth of Iyar?
5. Rashi seems unsure about the exact date the Shechinah departed from Sinai.
6. A closer look at Rashi’s uncertainty regarding when the Shechinah moved from Har Sinai to rest upon the Jewish people.
7. The counting took place on the first of Iyar, before the Shechinah came to rest upon them on the twentieth of Iyar.

Siman 2: Who Goes Out to War? The Age Requirement of Twenty

Why soldiers must be at least twenty years old, and whether this applies to every type of war.

1. Rashi’s statement that a person does not go out to war until age twenty.
2. Rashi’s proof: the Torah writes “all who go out to the army” instead of “all who go out as soldiers.”
3. Does the age requirement of twenty apply only to a milchemes mitzvah (obligatory war), or also to a milchemes reshus (optional war)?
4. What is the basis for saying that the age of twenty applies only to a milchemes mitzvah and not to a milchemes reshus?
5. The age of twenty represents true adulthood — the point at which a person is ready to carry responsibility for the community.

Siman 3: “Bnei Naftali” — A Different Phrasing

Why did the Torah uses a slightly different phrase when counting the tribe of Naftali?

1. For every other shevet (tribe), the Torah writes “Livnei” (to the sons of), but for Naftali it writes only “Bnei Naftali” (the sons of Naftali). Why the change?
2. Within Shevet Naftali, there were more daughters than sons.
3. The Pnei Yefos (Haflaah) explains that it was not necessary to count Bnei Naftali in the usual way because the total was already known.
4. The Chasam Sofer’s view: Bnei Naftali were counted even though the number was already known.
5. The Pnei Yefos’s explanation does not fit with the opinion of the Ramban.
6. Even according to the Ramban, the earlier point still holds — but according to the Netziv (quoting the Arizal), the general total works differently.

Siman 4: Why Shevet Levi Was Counted Separately

This Siman explains why the Leviim were not counted together with the rest of Klal Yisrael.

1. Two reasons why Shevet Levi was not counted along with the other shevatim.
2. Why Rashi did not give the reason that the Leviim were left out because they did not go to war.
3. Why Rashi did not give the reason that the Leviim were left out because they did not receive a portion in Eretz Yisrael.
4. The reasons Rashi did give make sense because Rashi understood the counting itself as coming from Hashem’s deep love for the Jewish people (mitoch chibasan).

Siman 5: Counting Shevet Levi Without Shekalim — The Danger of Counting Jews

The unique way the Leviim were counted and the danger of counting Jews directly.

1. Why were the Leviim not counted using shekalim (coins) like the rest of the Jewish people, or at least like most of them?
2. The danger of plague that comes from a direct count.
3. The sugya seems to suggest that the prohibition only applies when counting all of Klal Yisrael — but counting a portion of the nation might be permitted.
4. The Gemara did not actually prove that counting even a portion of Klal Yisrael is forbidden, because perhaps the rule there referred to the whole nation.
5. A closer reading of the sugya does show that even counting a portion of Klal Yisrael is forbidden.
6. If so, the question becomes: how was Moshe Rabbeinu allowed to count Shevet Levi?
7. The Chasam Sofer holds that counting a portion of Klal Yisrael is forbidden — so why was there no danger of plague here?
8. Since this counting was also done through the Shechinah itself, there was no prohibition, because the goal was to know the full total.

Siman 6: The Leviim Camped Around the Mishkan — Guarding the Mikdash

The mitzvah of guarding the Mishkan and Beis HaMikdash.

1. The commentators ask why the encampment of the Leviim around the Mishkan was so important. There are two separate laws involved: guarding the Mikdash, and the placement of Machaneh Leviyah.
2. A deeper look at the two laws regarding the Leviim’s encampment.
3. The Rambam and Ramban appear to disagree with the approach of the Gra”z (the Baal HaTanya).
4. The Rambam’s view, backed by other Rishonim: the guarding of the Mikdash is for the honor of the Mikdash.
5. The Rambam also holds that guarding is meant to prevent a zar (a non-kohen) from entering.
6. A difficulty on the Rambam: the pesukim themselves seem to say the purpose of guarding is specifically to keep out a zar.
7. The resolution — there are actually two reasons for the mitzvah of guarding: the honor of the Mikdash, and preventing a zar from entering.
8. In the Mishneh Torah, the Rambam does not mention guarding against zarim, because in the Beis HaMikdash the gates were already closed.
9. The repetition in the pesukim corresponds to the two reasons for guarding — the honor of the Mishkan and keeping out a zar.

Siman 7: Teaching Torah to Students Is Like Raising Your Own Children

This Siman explores the relationship between a rebbi and his talmid.

1. Anyone who teaches the son of his friend Torah — the pasuk considers it as if he had given birth to him himself.
2. A rebbi is obligated to teach his students just as he would teach his own sons, because they are truly considered his sons.
3. The Pachad Yitzchak’s view: the idea that “students are called sons” only applies to a talmid muvhak — a primary, outstanding student.
4. Even a student who is not a talmid muvhak is still considered like a son.
5. In Torah learning, the relationship does not fully reach the level of “sons of Hashem” — rather, it is “as if he had given birth to him.”
6. Rashi did not need to bring a separate proof for the term “sons,” because it is already learned from the pasuk: “And these are the toldos of Aharon and Moshe.”

Siman 8: The Work of Bnei Kehas Is Called “Melachah,” Not “Avodah” — and the Aron Carried Its Carriers

This Siman looks at the unusual wording the Torah uses for the work of Bnei Kehas, and the famous concept that the Aron miraculously carried those who carried it.

1. The work of Bnei Kehas is called “melachah,” while the work of Bnei Gershon and Bnei Merari is called “avodah.”
2. Bnei Kehas carried on their shoulders (called “melachah”), while Gershon and Merari used wagons (called “avodah”).
3. The reason the term “melachah” is used for Bnei Kehas is connected to the famous teaching that the Aron carried its bearers.
4. If the Aron carried its own bearers, why is the term “melachah” (work) used at all for Bnei Kehas?
5. The Aron carrying its bearers means it lightened the load — not that it removed it completely.
6. The Aron only began to carry its bearers after they themselves first began to carry it.

Siman 9: “From Thirty Years and Above” — When a Ben Levi May Begin Avodah at Age 13

An apparent contradiction about the age at which a Levi may serve in the Mishkan.

1. The Rambam writes that a ben Levi is fit for avodah once he reaches the age of bar mitzvah, even before age thirty.
2. The Kesef Mishneh answers that a Levi under thirty is not given avodah on a regular basis — he is only allowed to serve occasionally (derech mikreh).

And what follows is from the very last Maamar on parshas Bahaaloscha:

How great is the middah (character trait) of “nosei b’ol im chaveiro” (sharing in the burden of one’s fellow) — that through it, the shotrim (officers/foremen) in Mitzrayim merited to be appointed among the seventy zekeinim (elders) and to receive upon themselves the resting of the Shechinah literally from Moshe Rabbeinu. And also Moshe Rabbeinu himself merited, through this very middah, to be the leader of Klal Yisrael, and through it as well [he merited] that the Shechinah rested upon him from HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

But they rose to an even more elevated level through this middah — they merited causing the Shechinah to rest upon them from Moshe Rabbeinu himself. For this middah teaches us more than anything else the great value of acquiring Torah and its wisdom, because through it a person is able to distance himself from the falsehood of “self-love,” which is one of the forty-eight ways through which Torah is acquired. And through it a person merits to bring himself close, and to draw near, to the truth of “Toras Emes” (the Torah of truth) — to attain Torah and to grow in it to such a degree as to be [counted] among the Sanhedrin.

And this is a matter that pertains to every single individual in his life — both in matters between a person and his fellow, and in matters between a person and the members of his own family. For a person, by his very nature, is by instinct a lover of himself. And the middah of “nosei b’ol im chaveiro” is in essence the nullification of self-love and the entering into the troubles and difficulties of one’s fellow — to be all given over to the other, to give one’s eyes and heart to feeling distress over one’s friend, as if his own pain and difficulty were his fellow’s troubles and difficulties.

[This is] just as Moshe Rabbeinu, alav hashalom, did when he went out to his brothers “and saw their burdens” — that he gave his eyes and his heart to ponder and to feel the pain and distress of his fellows, to be in distress over them and to share with them in their burden. And it is incumbent upon us to walk in the ways of our forefathers and to attach ourselves to their middos. Through this we will merit to distance ourselves from falsehood and to draw close to the truth, to reach the elevated level of acquiring the Torah and attaining its wisdom — which is “Toras Emes” — just as the shotrim in Mitzrayim merited, who suffered blows and torments for the sake of their fellow Jews, and at the end were lifted up to an elevated [station] and exalted standing, regarding which Hashem commanded Moshe:

“Gather to Me seventy men from the elders of Yisrael, whom you know to be the elders of the people and its officers… and I will take from the spirit that is upon you and place it upon them, and they shall bear with you the burden of the people.”

The author can be reached at [email protected]

A new poll published Friday found that a majority of Israelis believe Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu should step away from political life and not run in the next election, as opposition parties continue to gain strength in the latest surveys.

The poll, published by Maariv and conducted by Lazar Research, comes amid continued uncertainty surrounding the conflict with Iran, growing concerns over Israel becoming increasingly entangled again in Lebanon, and rising public attention to escalating violence inside Israeli society.

According to the survey, both the Likud party and Otzma Yehudit each dropped by one seat this week.

The poll found that 55% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should not seek reelection and should retire from politics altogether. By contrast, 38% said they want him to continue leading Likud into the next election, while 7% said they were undecided.

The survey also showed the coalition bloc slipping to 49 seats, while the Zionist opposition bloc climbed to 61 seats — enough for a governing majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Despite losses by Likud and Otzma Yehudit, the coalition’s decline was partially offset by Shas gaining one mandate.

Under the poll’s current breakdown, Naftali Bennett’s “Beyachad” party would emerge as the largest faction with 26 seats, followed closely by Likud with 25 seats.

The “Yashar” party led by Gadi Eisenkot received 16 seats, while the Democrats were projected to win 10 mandates. Otzma Yehudit and Yisroel Beiteinu each received 9 seats, as did Shas. Yahadut HaTorah was projected at 7 seats, while Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am each stood at 5.

Within the opposition bloc, Eisenkot’s Yashar party strengthened by an additional seat compared to the previous poll, helping push the opposition camp to the 61-seat threshold. Other opposition parties remained largely unchanged from last week’s numbers, while the Arab parties collectively held steady at 10 seats.

The poll also examined a possible joint political list between Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper. According to the survey, such a slate would narrowly pass the electoral threshold with 3.3% of the vote, translating into four Knesset seats.

However, that scenario would lower the opposition bloc from 61 seats to 58, while the coalition would also weaken slightly, dropping to 48 seats.

The Maariv poll additionally revisited the possibility of a united alliance between Bennett’s Beyachad party, Eisenkot’s Yashar faction, and Yisroel Beiteinu.

In that scenario, the combined list would receive 49 mandates — two more than in last week’s poll.

The Democrats, who previously surged to 14 seats due to voters opposed to such a merger, would decline to 11 seats in the updated scenario, though that would still leave them one seat stronger than in the standard polling model without a united opposition slate.

Even with the three-way alliance, however, the opposition bloc would stand at 60 seats — one short of the 61-seat majority that a similar arrangement achieved in the previous poll. Netanyahu’s coalition, meanwhile, would rise slightly to 50 seats, gaining one mandate compared to last week.

{Matzav.com}

The United Arab Emirates tried unsuccessfully to persuade fellow Gulf states to join a coordinated military attack on Iran shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched their campaign against the Islamic Republic in late February, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed personally phoned leaders across the region, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to argue for a collective Gulf response. His counterparts refused.

The breakdown helps explain a series of recent fractures between the UAE and its Gulf neighbors, most notably Abu Dhabi’s shock decision last month to withdraw from OPEC after six decades of membership, a move widely seen as a blow to Saudi Arabia and the cartel it leads.

Saudi Arabia did strike Iran in March, according to the Bloomberg report, but quickly pivoted to backing Pakistani-led mediation efforts to end the war. The UAE, the report said, was upset that it was not invited to play a greater role in that process.

Qatar, after Iran struck its Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas plant – the largest in the world – considered retaliating but ultimately opted not to.

The Trump administration was aware of the UAE’s effort to assemble a joint military response and had hoped Saudi Arabia and Qatar would join, the report said.

The revelations come amid mounting evidence that the UAE has emerged as the most hawkish of the Gulf states on Iran, and the one most deeply aligned with Israel. The UAE has carried out multiple covert strikes on Iran during the war, including an early-April hit on an Iranian oil refinery on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, according to earlier reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg reported this week that at least one of those strikes was coordinated with Israel as a response to an Iranian attack on the UAE’s Borouge petrochemicals facility.

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, has taken a sharply different approach. After its initial March strike, Riyadh distanced itself from further offensive action, wary of the implications for its oil infrastructure, its Red Sea diversification plans, and the prospect of drawing Houthi forces more deeply into the conflict.

The widening rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has reshaped Gulf politics. Saudi Arabia has aligned more closely with Turkey and Pakistan, while the UAE has leaned harder into its Abraham Accords partnership with Israel. According to Axios, when the UAE announced its OPEC departure on the same day Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman convened a Gulf leaders’ summit in Jeddah, the Saudis were “blindsided and livid.”

Personal animosity between the two leaders, combined with longstanding disagreements over Yemen, Sudan and Palestine, has fueled the breakdown, and the Iran war appears to have accelerated it. UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed had initially lobbied Trump to avoid the war, but once it began, pushed for a decisive outcome, determined that Iran not emerge emboldened. Mohammed bin Salman, by contrast, was initially supportive of the war but quickly sought an off-ramp as damage to the Saudi oil economy mounted.

The Trump administration, U.S. and regional sources told Axios, was slow to recognize the depth of the rift and chose not to intervene as it deepened. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi early in the crisis that Washington would not take sides.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Federal prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty against the man accused of murdering two Israeli Embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, in what authorities describe as a calculated antisemitic terror attack.

According to federal investigators, Elias Rodriguez faces hate crime charges, terrorism related offenses, and premeditated murder in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple connected to the Israeli Embassy who were reportedly preparing to become engaged.

Officials allege Rodriguez traveled from Chicago to the Washington area ahead of the May event, carrying a handgun inside checked luggage before allegedly targeting attendees outside the museum.

Witnesses told investigators they saw Rodriguez pacing near the building before suddenly opening fire on a group gathered outside. Prosecutors say surveillance footage captured Rodriguez continuing to shoot at the victims after they collapsed to the ground, before allegedly reloading and fleeing the scene.

Authorities say Rodriguez later entered the museum and admitted responsibility for the attack.

“I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” he allegedly stated after the shooting, according to court filings.

Federal prosecutors also claim Rodriguez praised the active duty Air Force member who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in 2024, allegedly describing him as “courageous” and calling him a “martyr.”

Aaron Bushnell sets himself on fire outside Israeli Consulate (Screenshot via Talia Jane on X)

The hate crime charges mean prosecutors must prove the attack was motivated by antisemitism.

On Friday, Acting US Attorney for Washington, DC, Jeanine Pirro announced her office formally filed notice seeking the death penalty against Rodriguez.

“Just this morning, before I came here, we filed notice that my office will seek death against the defendant, Elias Rodriguez, for the killing of two young Israeli Embassy staff members at the Capitol Jewish Museum,” Pirro said during the press conference.

Pirro with JBN Editor-at-Large Eddie Devir at White House dinner

Pirro used the announcement to send a broader warning against political violence in the nation’s capital.

“My message to anyone who seeks to commit political violence in this district, DC is not the place,” Pirro declared. “You will be held accountable and you will face the full wrath of the law.”

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 22: Mourners light candles during a vigil for the victims of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting outside of the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Two Israeli Embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were gunned down Wednesday evening after an event at the museum by a man shouting slogans in support for Palestine. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

She added that federal prosecutors intend to pursue the case aggressively and emphasized that acts of violence driven by hatred or extremism will face severe consequences under federal law.

Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including the newly added terrorism related counts. The case is expected to become one of the most high profile antisemitic terror prosecutions in the United States in recent years.

Federal authorities in the United States have arrested and charged an Iraqi citizen accused of organizing an international terrorism campaign that allegedly targeted Jewish and American institutions across Europe and North America, according to a report Friday by CNN.

Prosecutors say the suspect, identified as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, was connected to Iran-backed terrorist organizations and helped coordinate numerous planned attacks intended to pressure the West over the ongoing war involving Iran.

According to the federal criminal complaint, investigators believe al-Saadi was involved in planning at least 18 separate terror operations throughout Europe, in addition to alleged plots aimed at targets in the United States and Canada.

Court filings state that al-Saadi acted on behalf of organizations aligned with Iran and pursued antisemitic and anti-American attacks designed to destabilize international security.

The complaint alleges that al-Saadi “directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests,” in retaliation for the war and to “further the terrorist goals of Kataib Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and his associated,” according to the complaint.

US officials have not publicly disclosed the precise details surrounding the suspect’s capture. However, flight records reportedly show that a Department of Justice aircraft commonly used for sensitive extradition missions traveled to Turkey earlier this week before returning through Morocco and landing in the New York area late Thursday night.

Al-Saadi has now been charged with multiple serious federal offenses, including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to support acts of terrorism, and conspiracy to bomb a public location.

Investigators said one of the alleged plots involved plans to bomb a major Jewish synagogue in New York City. According to prosecutors, al-Saadi attempted to hire an individual he believed to be affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the attack. Authorities say the supposed cartel operative was actually an undercover federal agent.

The complaint alleges that al-Saadi agreed to transfer $10,000 to finance the synagogue bombing and insisted that the attack be filmed for propaganda purposes. Prosecutors say he instructed that the bombing take place on April 6 and later sent a message demanding answers after the explosion did not occur.

In addition to the alleged network of planned attacks in Europe, prosecutors claim al-Saadi was involved in organizing two separate terror operations inside Canada and was also working to establish additional terrorist cells capable of launching future attacks within the United States.

{Matzav.com}

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (VINnews) – President Trump sharply rebuked a New York Times reporter Friday, accusing him of treasonous reporting that downplayed America’s decisive military victory against Iran.

“You should be ashamed of it. I actually think it’s TREASON,” Trump said during a candid exchange aboard Air Force One. “When you write like they’re doing well militarily, and they have no navy, no air force, no anti-anything, by the way, we knocked out 85% of their manufacturing for the missiles!”

Trump emphasized the overwhelming success of U.S. operations.

“We had a total military victory, but the fake news, guys like YOU write incorrectly, you’re a fake guy, guys like you!” the president declared.

He singled out the New York Times and CNN as particularly egregious in their coverage.

“I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write, but you in the New York Times and CNN I would say are the worst,” Trump said.

Trump also highlighted the consequences of such reporting, noting the New York Times’ declining subscriber base as Americans reject the misleading narratives.

“Then I read the New York Times, and they act like they’re doing well. And everybody knows, that’s why your subscribers are way down. You know, the Times subscribers are way down because seeing saying that,” he remarked.

The president’s forthright comments reflect his steadfast commitment to countering dishonest media narratives that seek to undermine his administration’s strong national security achievements in neutralizing the Iranian threat.

The United States announced Friday that the ceasefire arrangement between Israel and Lebanon will remain in effect for another 45 days as negotiations between the two countries continue under American mediation.

The extension came after a third round of discussions hosted by the Trump administration in Washington, DC.

“On May 14 and 15, the United States hosted two days of highly-productive talks between Israel and Lebanon. The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” said State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott.

Pigott said additional negotiations are already scheduled for the coming weeks, with separate diplomatic and military channels set to move forward.

“The State Department will reconvene the political track of negotiations on June 2 and June 3. In addition, a security track will be launched at the Pentagon on May 29 with military delegations from both countries,” he added.

American officials expressed hope that the talks could eventually lead to a broader and more stable agreement between the neighboring countries.

“We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border,” said Pigott.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, also commented on the negotiations following the latest meetings in Washington.

“Concluding 2 days of negotiations with Lebanese and American officials, I’m looking forward to the next steps. The peace talks were frank and constructive, and are set to move forward on two tracks: security and political,” he wrote on social media.

Leiter cautioned that the process could face challenges, while emphasizing that Israeli security would remain the top priority.

“There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great. What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers,” added Leiter.

US officials said Thursday that the first day of discussions had been “productive and positive,” with talks focused on creating a permanent peace arrangement and securing the full disarmament of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization.

According to Reuters, Thursday’s negotiations lasted approximately eight hours and centered largely on developing a framework for a long-term security agreement. Talks resumed Friday morning.

Even as negotiations continued, Hezbollah reportedly violated the ceasefire Friday by firing mortar shells and launching explosive drones toward Israeli territory.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINNews) – Israeli officials said Friday that the military carried out a strike in Gaza City targeting a senior Hamas commander believed to have played a central role in planning the Oct. 7 attacks.

ראשוני: ניסיון חיסול של מנהיג חמאס עז א-דין אל-חדאד pic.twitter.com/NEtHcdKZ7d

— מעריב | Maariv (@MaarivOnline) May 15, 2026

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz identified the target as Izz al-Din al-Haddad, whom they described as a top Hamas military leader responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

The strike took place in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood after Israeli intelligence tracked the commander for days, according to defense officials, who said early assessments indicated the operation may have succeeded.

Former hostages, including Emily Damari, reacted publicly following reports of the strike, describing Haddad as directly tied to their captivity and the Hamas-led assault on Israel.

The address was given at last night’s Haskhafa in the Workplace event.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $200,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Monica Witt, a former American counterintelligence official accused of defecting to Iran and passing classified information to the Iranian regime.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office announced that Witt was charged in 2019 with multiple espionage-related offenses tied to allegations that she provided sensitive U.S. national defense material to Iran.

Witt previously served with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations as both an intelligence specialist and special agent from 1997 through 2008. After leaving active duty, she continued working as a government contractor until 2010.

Federal authorities say those roles gave her access to highly classified intelligence at the SECRET and TOP SECRET levels, including information involving covert American intelligence operatives.

According to investigators, Witt defected to Iran in 2013 and later assisted Iranian intelligence efforts by supplying information that jeopardized U.S. personnel and intelligence activities overseas. Authorities further allege that she helped the Iranian regime identify and investigate former American colleagues.

The FBI said Witt’s alleged activities aided Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which the United States classifies as a terrorist organization. Officials described the case as an ongoing threat to national security interests.

“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution,” said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.

The bureau believes Witt may still be residing in Iran. Investigators said she speaks fluent Farsi and may also use the aliases “Fatemah Zahra” and “Narges Witt.”

{Matzav.com}

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee on Friday announced that he is ending his bid for reelection, his career upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month’s Supreme Court decision.

Republicans in Tennessee this month enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a Cohen’s majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

“I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,” Cohen told reporters in his Washington, D.C. office.

Cohen is challenging the state’s redistricting effort in court and said that he would reenter the race if that lawsuit succeeded in restoring his old congressional district.

He lamented that Tennessee would likely shift to an entirely Republican congressional delegation after the next election, warning that it could also leave the state out of the loop once Democrats are able to regain the White House.

Redistricting targeted Cohen’s district

Tennessee was the first state to pass new congressional districts after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

Cohen has represented his Memphis-based district for about two decades, among the last of the white Democrats representing the South. He has been a longtime member of the House Judiciary Committee and has focused on strengthening voting access and civil rights.

“It’s unique in America that an African-American majority district has elected a white guy, and that we’ve got a great relationship, great amount of support,” said Cohen, who is also the first Jewish person to represent Tennessee in Congress.

He was facing a primary challenge from state lawmaker Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat who represents Memphis in the state’s General Assembly. Pearson has said he will continue his campaign in the state’s newly redrawn 9th Congressional District.

But Cohen predicted that it would be nearly impossible for Tennessee Democrats to win a seat in Congress with the new districts. He added there was a chance the redistricting effort could “backfire on the Republicans” but that would require an “unbelievable registration effort among Democrats” and a massive vote turnout effort.

Cohen vows to oppose Trump

Sitting in his congressional office with staff looking on, Cohen pointed to photos of Memphis and local projects that he had championed during his career and expressed worry that Memphis voters would no longer have a voice in Washington. He also recounted how he had worked with the state’s Republican leaders to win funding during the Biden administration for a larger bridge to cross the Mississippi River into Memphis.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Cohen was “a powerful champion for civil rights” and that “the City of Memphis, the Congress and the nation are better because of Steve’s commitment to making a difference.”

Cohen said that the Republican’s redistricting effort was being done “for Donald Trump to get one more vote, he thinks, to stop them from being impeached.”

Still, he vowed to use his remaining time in Congress to try to mount opposition to Trump, calling the president “the greatest threat to democracy and to decorum and grace that we’ve ever seen.”

Like many lawmakers, Cohen has often attracted attention with colorful outbursts during congressional debates and hearings. During Trump’s first term, in 2019, Cohen brought a bucket of fried chicken to a House Judiciary Committee hearing at which then-Attorney General William P. Barr was a no-show.

“The message is Attorney General Bill Barr is not brave enough to answer questions from a staff attorney and members of the Judiciary Committee,” he said in a statement at the time.

(AP)

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) – U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., warned Thursday that antisemitism is rising on the fringes of both major political parties and that failing to confront it enables further hatred.

In a New York Times guest essay published Sunday, the New Jersey Democrat called out his own party for what he described as a glaring double standard in addressing antisemitism, particularly from the far left.

“Antisemitism is rising on the fringes of both parties, and silence only enables it,” Gottheimer wrote on social media, promoting the piece. “In the New York Times, I called out the antisemitism inside my own party and our failure to confront it head-on.”

Gottheimer, a member of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, noted that Democrats have consistently and strongly condemned right-wing antisemitism, citing examples such as the 2017 Charlottesville march and former President Donald Trump’s 2022 dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

“But today, too many Democrats are noticeably and shamefully silent when antisemitism comes from the far left — at a moment when the Anti-Defamation League is reporting a surge of antisemitic incidents in the past three years,” he wrote. “It’s a glaring double standard.”

The congressman highlighted left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has millions of followers, as a key example. Piker has referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” said “America deserved 9/11,” praised Hamas as “a thousand times better” than Israel and called Israel a “fascist settler colonial apartheid state,” according to the op-ed. Several prominent Democrats have appeared on Piker’s show or campaigned with him, Gottheimer said.

Gottheimer said colleagues have privately acknowledged such comments as “disgusting” but remain publicly silent, contrasting that with their readiness to criticize Trump. He also pointed to a Michigan Democratic convention nominee who shared posts praising a Hezbollah leader and invoking antisemitic tropes against Israelis.

The lawmaker, who represents New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District, urged consistent principles in condemning hate regardless of its political source.

“Hate is hate,” he wrote. “It doesn’t get a pass because it comes from your side of the aisle.”

Gottheimer has long been vocal on antisemitism issues, including co-sponsoring resolutions condemning rhetoric from both far-left and far-right figures.

New Jersey seniors who qualified for the state’s new Stay NJ property tax relief program are beginning to receive a second round of benefit payments, the Treasury Department announced today.

The state Division of Taxation has started mailing the second quarterly installment of Stay NJ benefits to eligible residents who applied through the combined PAS-1 application for Stay NJ, ANCHOR and Senior Freeze benefits for tax year 2024.

According to the Treasury Department, the average second payment totals $645.58, following an average first installment of approximately $600 distributed in February. Stay NJ benefits are issued quarterly rather than as a lump-sum payment.

The Stay NJ program is designed to reduce property tax costs for eligible senior homeowners. Benefit amounts are calculated using a formula that considers a taxpayer’s property tax bill along with eligibility for the state’s ANCHOR and Senior Freeze property tax relief programs. Payments are being distributed by paper check.

Eligible applicants received letters from the state in fall 2025 outlining the benefits they qualified for under each program. Depending on income and other eligibility requirements, residents may have qualified for one, two or all three relief programs. Senior Freeze benefits were distributed during summer 2025, while ANCHOR payments were issued in the fall.

State officials also noted that applications are currently being accepted for the 2025 tax year. Seniors and disabled residents can apply through the PAS-1 combined application at propertytaxrelief.nj.gov. The filing deadline is November 2, 2026.

The Treasury Department said the continuation of New Jersey’s property tax relief programs remains subject to state budget appropriations.

Taxpayers seeking assistance can visit one of the state Division of Taxation’s regional information centers, schedule a telephone appointment with a representative, use the agency’s online virtual assistant, or call the Property Tax Relief Hotline at 1-888-238-1233.

Spain can’t seem to quit its antisemitic campaign against Israel. The pattern is clear: They joined the ICJ case against Israel of genocide. They honored notorious antisemite Francesca Albanese. And now they are boycotting Eurovision 2026 over Israel’s participation in the contest.

Spain joined Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia in withdrawing from Eurovision 2026, protesting what it calls Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, continuing the vicious blood libel against Israel that has resulted in a massive spike in antisemitic rhetoric and violence against Jews all around the world.

A video on X purports to show an audience member attempting to disrupt the Israeli contestant’s performance at Eurovision 2025.

Spain is one of the “Big Five” nations whose broadcasters are the biggest financial backers of the Eurovision contest, but it warned it would withdraw if Israel were allowed to compete.

José Pablo López, president of the board of Spain’s state broadcaster, issued a statement explaining the move.

“As joint organizers of the Eurovision song contest, we share a collective responsibility,” he said self-righteously. “While Israel has regularly participated in the competition, the current events and the genocide currently taking place make it impossible for us to look the other way.”

But no one does virtue-signaling self-righteousness better than Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.

“This year we will not be at Eurovision, but we will do so with the conviction of being on the right side of history,” he wrote smugly on X. “For consistency, responsibility and humanity.”

Spain’s 2025 Eurovision contestant, Melody. (Photo By Jose Oliva/Europa Press via Getty Images)

It would be interesting to see these two moral giants confronting the facts and explaining how they fit with their conception of genocide.

The facts are these:

• No military has ever warned a population before striking as extensively as Israel’s military, with millions of leaflets, cell phone texts and calls. Millions. And no other military has sacrificed the military advantage of surprise by publishing maps of their movements ahead of time.
• By the end of the second year of the war, Israel had facilitated one ton of aid per person into Gaza.
• The Biden administration warned the Israelis not to invade Rafah because it would take months to evacuate the civilian population. They did it in under two weeks, sending nearly a million civilians to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, where they had set up temporary housing and field hospitals.
• Israel vaccinated nearly the entire child population of Gaza (over 90 percent) against polio during wartime.
• Israel destroyed 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings and 92 percent of its residential homes, without killing a correspondingly high percentage of Gazans. How is that possible without taking extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm?
• According to some estimates, Israel has dropped about 100,000 tons of munitions on Gaza. Not 100,000 bombs, but 100,000 tons of bombs. Taking the most inflated death count of 100,000 deaths that is even higher than the Hamas count, that’s one person per one ton of explosives. How on earth is it possible to kill only one person per one ton of explosives in an area as densely populated as Gaza without taking extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm?
• A genocide means the destruction of the members of a group as such. If the Israelis want to kill Arabs as such, why have they left alone Arabs in Israel, as well as the 3 million Arabs in the West Bank?
• Can a genocide be conducted without a single massacre? For example, horrific massacres were perpetrated during the Rwanda genocide. We know this because massacres in which civilians are rounded up for the purpose of mowing them down, or rampaging through villages, leave a ton of forensic evidence. So far, there is zero forensic evidence of a single massacre against Gazans by Israel in the entire duration of the war. War crimes, yes, as in every war. But no massacres.

So here’s a challenge to all the five countries: Read that list and explain how this is genocide.

If you countries are wrong, if that list proves that Israel is not only not committing genocide but has taken extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm, then you have engaged in a monstrous libel against Israel that has resulted in violence against Jews leading to death.

And history will judge you for that.

Amid the observances marking Yom Yerushalayim, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu called Friday on Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu and members of the Israeli government to advance the establishment of a shul on Har Habayis, declaring that the time has come for a permanent Jewish presence at the site.

Rav Eliyahu, the rov of Tzfas and a member of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Council, delivered the remarks while standing opposite Har Habayis.

“You see the mosque behind me, Al-Aqsa,” Rav Eliyahu said. “This is from the exile. For two thousand years we were in exile, so they (the Muslims) built this structure here. But in truth, this was the site of the First Beis Hamikdash, which brought Kiddush Hashem to the world, the Second Beis Hamikdash, and here will be the Third Beis Hamikdash — that is a fact. This is how Hashem planned it, and this is how it will be.”

Rav Eliyahu said that until the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash, the State of Israel should establish a permanent Jewish foothold on Har Habayis through the construction of a shul in an area permissible according to halacha.

“In the meantime, until the Beis Hamikdash is built, there needs to be a shul here,” he said. “Now the Muslims already understand that this is not theirs. We need to establish our hold.”

During his remarks, Rav Eliyahu also referenced his father, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, saying that he had previously ruled that it is permissible to establish a shul on Har Habayis in areas where entry is allowed according to halacha.

Concluding his statement, Rav Eliyahu issued a direct appeal to Israel’s leadership.

“This is our role, this is the role of Am Yisroel, this is the role of the leaders, the government ministers, the prime minister,” he said. “A shul on Har Habayis — the time has come!”

{Matzav.com}

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government faces a prolonged period of uncertainty after a week of maneuvering within the governing Labour Party failed to oust Prime Minister Keir Starmer but started the clock on a leadership contest that could last well into the summer.

Although Starmer vowed to fight on after a bruising week in which one Cabinet member resigned, dozens of lawmakers called for the prime minister to quit and his new policy proposals were largely ignored, some observers believe it’s only a matter of time before he steps aside.

The message of the past week “is that Labour seems to have made up its mind that Keir Starmer is going to have to go,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “And he’s going to have to go reasonably quickly, and he’s going to have to be replaced by someone who can, unlike him, connect with the public.”

Cabinet resignation adds pressure on Starmer
Weeks of speculation about Starmer ’s future broke into open rebellion Thursday when Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned in preparation for a possible a leadership bid and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, declared his intention to return to Parliament. Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced she had cleared up a tax issue that forced her to resign from the Cabinet last year, thus freeing her up as well.

Starmer is under growing pressure to step down after Labour pe rformed dismally in local and regional elections last week, hemorrhaging votes to both the anti-immigrant Reform UK party on the right and the Green Party on the left. The electoral drubbing cemented doubts among many party members about Starmer’s judgment, vision and leadership less than two years after he led Labour to a landslide victory.

But the potential contest to unseat him is on hold for now as the party waits to see if Burnham can win a special election for a seat in Parliament that would allow him to enter the race. If he returns to the House of Commons, Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer.

On Friday, Labour’s executive body approved Burnham to run for the seat that became available when a Labour lawmaker resigned to make way for the Greater Manchester mayor. That election is expected to be in the next five or so weeks.

As and when a challenge to Starmer emerges, Labour’s National Executive Committee will set the timetable for any leadership election. The most recent contest lasted three months.

The government’s borrowing costs rose Friday and the pound weakened on investor concern about continued disarray in Westminster. The pound has dropped 1.3% against the U.S dollar this week.

Starmer’s supporters urge rivals to think again
Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday appealed to party members to step back from the brink of a divisive leadership contest that he said would prevent the government from tackling issues like the cost of living crisis and bolster the prospects of Reform UK.

“This weekend people just need to take a breath, look at what’s gone wrong this week, and come back next week ready to do what we said we’d do — country first, party second — and focus on delivering the change we were elected to deliver,” he told the BBC.

That plea came after a week of political jockeying that overshadowed everything else in Westminster.

The infighting reached a crescendo on Thursday morning when Streeting resigned. While praising Starmer’s “courage and statesmanship” in international affairs, Streeting said he had lost confidence in the prime minister’s leadership because of missteps on domestic issues.

“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift,” Streeting wrote in a stinging resignation letter.

“Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords,” he added. “You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

Opportunity knocks for the popular mayor of Greater Manchester
Streeting stopped short of putting himself forward as the best candidate to lead the party at the next general election, suggesting Starmer should step aside to allow a “broad” field of candidates to debate the future of the party.

That seemed to be a nod to Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who left Parliament in 2017 to run for mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham has been looking for a way to return to the House of Commons so he can challenge Starmer for the top job.

Josh Simons, a Labour lawmaker from Northern England, provided that opening on Thursday by resigning his seat explicitly to make way for Burnham. But that was only the first step for Burnham. Before he can return to Westminster, Burnham must win a special election to represent Makerfield, a community where Reform UK posted strong results in last week’s local elections.

Burnham acknowledged those challenges on Thursday when he announced his candidacy for the seat.

“I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times,” he said in a statement.

The Jewish community was the primary target of hate crimes in Toronto during 2025, according to a report published by the Toronto Police Services Board.

The annual hate crime statistics report found that Jews, who comprise less than 3 percent of Toronto’s population, were victims in 82% of all religiously motivated hate crimes and accounted for 35% of all reported hate incidents across the city.

Toronto police documented 81 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents during the year. Officials also stated that a Jewish resident was 14 times more likely to experience a hate-related incident than other residents of Toronto.

The findings come amid what Jewish organizations describe as a dramatic increase in antisemitic attacks throughout Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. Since February, synagogues have reportedly been hit by gunfire, Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalized and shot at, and visibly Jewish individuals have been assaulted in public.

Police additionally reported a 24% rise in hate crimes compared to the same period the previous year.

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Vice President Michelle Stock described the statistics as “deeply alarming.”

“Jewish Canadians are being targeted simply for who they are,” Stock says, calling on government officials, law enforcement, and civic leaders to work together to combat antisemitism, extremism, and hate-driven violence.

Residents of Rosh Hanikra, Liman, Nahariya, Betzet, and Akhziv remained in shelters for more than 30 minutes earlier, following sirens triggered by suspected hostile aircraft infiltration from Lebanon.

The IDF launched interceptors toward several drones launched by Hezbollah. One was successfully intercepted, while others fell in open areas per protocol, the military says. No injuries or damage reported B”H.

The IDF condemned the incident as yet “another violation of the ceasefire understandings by Hezbollah”.

Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, reportedly created two public Spotify playlists during the early months of the Gaza war that featured profanity-laced anti-Israel music, including songs containing antisemitic themes, according to an exposé published by The Free Press.

One playlist, title featured tracks such as “Amrikkka,” “Intifada,” and “Ana Bakrah Israel,” which translates to “I Hate Israel.”

Another playlist, reportedly created in January 2024, included the song “FREE PALESTINE,” featuring lyrics, with profanity used between most words, that said: “Free Palestine, Israel gon’ die [expletive]. [Expletive], it’s they land, why you out here tryna rob it. No shalom [expletive], [expletive], this Haram [expletive].”

The same playlist also reportedly contained an anti-police track which also used profanity.

According to the report, Duwaji and the mayor’s office declined to comment on the findings, which examined the first lady’s online presence and questioned her previous claims that she had remained a private citizen following her husband’s election. Duwaji had apologized for some tweets she had posted as a teenager which said Tel Aviv, purchased by early Jewish settlers, “should never have existed,” praised Palestinian terrorists and used anti-black racial slurs. However, she has not apologized for “liking” posts that celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre.

While Duwaji has not publicly confirmed ownership of the Spotify account, the report stated that the playlists were made private after The Free Press requested comment and before the article was published.

The report also noted that Duwaji previously apologized for using what she described as “harmful” language online, though she has not specifically addressed the anti-Israel material.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called off a planned trip to New York next week where he had been scheduled to participate in a major rabbinical ordination ceremony, with his office saying the decision was tied to an intense international travel schedule and ongoing tensions in the region.

The event was scheduled for Tuesday at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the central rabbinical training institution of the Conservative movement.

Ynet reports that a source involved in preparations for the trip claimed the cancellation stemmed from concerns surrounding possible interactions with President Donald Trump connected to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s reported pursuit of a pardon. Herzog’s office forcefully rejected the allegation.

According to the source, people close to Herzog worried Trump might attempt to pressure the Israeli president regarding a pardon for Netanyahu by arranging an unexpected meeting, delaying him, or otherwise placing him in an uncomfortable position during the visit.

The source said Herzog’s appearance at the New York ceremony had been planned roughly a year in advance. Officials in Herzog’s circle reportedly believed that a possible Independence Day visit by Trump to Israel could help improve relations between the two leaders. That trip, however, never materialized, leaving Herzog’s advisers weighing whether the New York visit should proceed.

The source further claimed that the final decision to cancel the trip was reached approximately one month ago and that Herzog recorded a video message for the ordination ceremony about three weeks ago.

Herzog’s office sharply denied the report and dismissed the claims outright.

“It never happened and was never created,” the President’s Residence said in a statement. “Anyone publishing this is spreading a lie and risks defamation.”

The statement added that journalists had already been informed weeks ago — around the time the invitation became public — that Herzog would not be attending the ceremony.

“The report is so wrong that it completely ignores the fact that the president is expected to travel to visit communities in the United States in the coming months,” the statement said. “Due to the heavy travel schedule and in light of the sensitive situation in the region, it was decided to decline the invitation.”

Officials also pointed to Herzog’s recent diplomatic trips to Kazakhstan, Panama, and Costa Rica as factors that contributed to the decision to remain in Israel rather than make the additional journey to New York.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces wrapped up a pre-planned overnight snap drill along the Jordanian border Friday, testing readiness for sudden terrorist incursions, drone attacks and complex incidents in civilian areas.

The exercise, dubbed “Sulfur and Fire,” involved the 96th and 80th Regional Divisions responsible for the border, along with special forces units. It included scenarios of terrorist infiltrations into communities, drone strikes and multi-front incidents in the Dead Sea’s resort and industrial zones, the IDF said.

Troops practiced rapid call-up and deployment of standing army and reserve forces, coordination between the two divisions, and air-ground integration. Fighter jets and helicopters carried out dozens of strikes within short time frames, according to the military.

Special forces simulated a terrorist infiltration at a Dead Sea hotel as part of “complex incidents” in civilian areas.

The IDF reported that reservists in the 96th Division’s volunteer brigades achieved 100% turnout. An initial debrief found that new defense directives implemented since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, combined with recent reinforcements along the Jordanian border, significantly improved the military’s handling of a sudden incident.

“The standing army and reserve forces who were called up were deployed within short timeframes,” the IDF said.

Military officials plan an in-depth review of the drill to identify weaknesses and strengths, aiming to further enhance preparedness for a variety of scenarios.

A former Israeli prison chief interviewed by The Times of Israel characterized recent explosive allegations against the Israel Prison Service as “bullsh*t.”

The New York Times published an op-ed Sunday by one of its long-time columnists, Nicholas Kristof, in which he alleged systemic sexual abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, saying there existed “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.”

The claim that garnered the most attention and generated the most intense backlash was that the IDF coaches dogs to rape prisoners, with one Gazan journalist claiming he had been subjected to this type of abuse. Experts have pushed back by saying that such an action is scientifically and anatomically impossible.

Dakar Eilat, who ran two prisons in Israel, dismissed the claims. He said that constant CCTV surveillance deters abusive behavior and, as an example, pointed to a prison commander who preceded him in his position. The commander was dismissed after being caught using illegal force on prisoners.

The former prison chief said that changes were made in the prison system decades ago to prevent terrorists from planning and ordering attacks from prison. He added that following Oct. 7, the bare minimum allowable by law is given to the Oct. 7 terrorists.

He also said that during strip searches, if terrorists resist forcefully, “they will be met with force.”

But he also said many oversight mechanisms are in place to prevent abuse. About 130 Israeli and international organizations conduct inspections, with snap inspections occurring as often as five times a week. CCTV footage is constantly sent to prison headquarters for review.

Doctors follow a separate chain of command and report abuses independently, he said. Animal rights groups supervise dog training, and the Justice Department and police conduct official investigations.

All these mechanisms provide layers of oversight that prevent abuse before it happens and catch it as soon as it does. Therefore, Eilat said, covering up the kinds of abuse Kristof alleged would require hundreds of conspirators.

[Videos and photos below.] A distinguished gathering of askanim, supporters, rabbonim, and others assembled yesterday at the Manhattan offices of Outerstuff for an inaugural pre-Siyum HaShas kickoff event hosted by Shloime Werdiger, Chairman of the Board of Agudath Israel of America.

The evening marked the formal launch of early efforts leading toward next June’s Siyum HaShas and brought together individuals committed to strengthening Daf Yomi, expanding opportunities for limud haTorah, and helping shape what organizers hope will become the largest and most impactful event of harbotzas haTorah in history.

Hosted in the elegant Outerstuff offices in Manhattan, the gathering was designed not merely as a planning session, but as an opportunity to present a vision, one centered on reaching broader audiences, inspiring deeper connection to Torah, and investing in initiatives that will elevate Daf Yomi following the Siyum, which will be held on Sunday, June 6, 2027, at MetLife Stadium.

A central theme repeated throughout the evening was the ambitious goal of enabling the Siyum HaShas to ultimately reach one million people worldwide and inspire them in limud haTorah. Speakers emphasized that the objective is not only to fill a stadium, but to ignite a greater passion for daily Torah learning among Yidden across every background and community.

The event also served as the first official opportunity for attendees to reserve premium suites for the Siyum itself, giving supporters an early chance to participate in what organizers described as a historic undertaking already generating significant excitement and momentum.

Rabbi Naftali Miller opened the evening by welcoming guests and introducing Mr. Werdiger. Mr. Werdiger spoke passionately about the responsibility and privilege of preparing for a Siyum HaShas. He described it as an opportunity to inspire countless Yidden to begin learning, reconnect to Torah, and become part of something larger than themselves.

Mr. Werdiger then introduced R’ Shmuel Yosef Rieder, who delivered a detailed presentation titled “Inspiring the Masses – Programs and Initiatives.” R’ Shmuel Yosef outlined a broad range of developing initiatives designed to bring the excitement and accessibility of limud haTorah to larger audiences than ever before. Attendees listened attentively as he laid out an ambitious roadmap for expanding the Siyum’s reach and impact, with a particular focus on bringing one million people into the orbit of the Siyum HaShas and inspiring greater commitment to limud haTorah.

Mr. Werdiger then introduced renowned Daf Yomi maggid shiur Rabbi Sruly Borenstein, whose heartfelt remarks focused on the transformative power of the Siyum HaShas experience and the profound effect Daf Yomi has had on individuals and families around the world.

Rabbi Borenstein spoke emotionally about people from every background finding connection, consistency, and personal growth through daily Gemara learning. He described how the Siyum HaShas serves as a transformative moment for Klal Yisroel. He reflected on stories of individuals whose lives were changed through Daf Yomi, emphasizing what Daf Yomi can accomplish in a person’s life.

Rabbi Avi Schnall, COO of Agudath Israel of America, then thanked those in attendance and spoke about the enormous opportunity facing the Torah community as preparations continue for the Siyum HaShas.

Rav Binyomin Eisenberger, rov of Heichal Hatefillah in Boro Park, then addressed the gathering with stirring and inspirational remarks about the tremendous significance of supporting and growing the Siyum HaShas. He encouraged attendees to view their participation not merely as support for an event, but as an investment in the future spiritual strength of Klal Yisroel.

Throughout the evening, attendees expressed excitement and optimism about the ambitious vision being presented. Conversations continued long after the formal program ended, with participants discussing ideas, opportunities, and ways to help bring the plans to fruition.

VIDEOS AND PHOTOS:

ATLANTA — Residents of a northwest Atlanta neighborhood say empty self-driving cars operated by Waymo have been repeatedly circling residential cul-de-sacs for hours, raising safety and traffic concerns among families living in the area.

Dozens of empty Waymos invaded an Atlanta neighborhood and circled a cul-de-sac for hours with no passengers https://t.co/qvziT2fz2T pic.twitter.com/bjdWFddZre

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 15, 2026

Neighbors on Battleview Drive told local television station WSB-TV that dozens of autonomous vehicles began appearing in the neighborhood about two months ago, with activity intensifying in recent weeks. Some residents said as many as 50 driverless cars passed through the street between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on a recent morning.

The vehicles, which operate through Uber in Atlanta, were reportedly traveling without passengers while looping through the neighborhood’s dead-end streets. Residents said the traffic has become disruptive and potentially dangerous for children, pets and commuters waiting for school buses.

One resident placed a children-at-play sign in the roadway, temporarily preventing the cars from entering the cul-de-sac. Neighbors said several Waymo vehicles then became stuck while attempting to reroute.

NEW: 50 empty Waymos invade Atlanta neighborhoods and circle their cul-de-sacs for hours early in the mornings.

Residents say they are getting waymo traffic than usual and have tried combating the cars with a neon green sign, which only made the problem worse.

The Waymos… pic.twitter.com/qBklKCry6F

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 15, 2026

Residents said they contacted Waymo, city officials and the Georgia Department of Transportation seeking a solution.

Waymo said in a statement that it had already addressed the routing behavior. The company said it is committed to being “good neighbors” and takes community feedback seriously, adding that its autonomous ride service completes more than 500,000 weekly trips nationwide and is designed to improve road safety.

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has pledged to crack down on hate and terrorist content in Britain, the country’s media regulator said Friday.

Ofcom said X’s public commitments include restricting access in the U.K. to accounts operated by or on behalf of terrorist groups that the country has banned.

The platform also promised to review suspected illegal terrorist and hate content within 24 hours on average, and to assess 85% of the material no more than 48 hours after users have flagged it, officials said.

A spokesperson for X in the U.K. did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to concerns from some civil society groups that X failed to follow up after illegal content was flagged by users, X will engage with experts on how to improve its reporting systems, Ofcom said. X will submit quarterly performance data over a 12-month period so the regular can compare its performance against these targets.

The regulator said there’s evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech is “persisting” on social media sites and that it expects tech companies to take “firm action.”

“This is of particular importance in the U.K. following a number of recent hate motivated crimes suffered by the country’s Jewish community,” Oliver Griffiths, director of Ofcom’s online safety group, said.

Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000 people, has faced growing attacks online and in the streets, including a string of arson attacks and a double stabbing that have sparked fear and anger among Jews.

X and Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok faced intensifying global scrutiny earlier this year over after Grok, which can be accessed through X, pumped out nonconsensual deepfake images.

Ofcom responded by launching an investigation into whether Grok failed to protect users from illegal content, which Griffiths said was ongoing.

The Grok controversy also resulted in European Union regulators targeting X over whether it has done enough to contain the spread of illegal content. French prosecutors, meanwhile, sought charges last week against Musk and X including denial of crimes against humanity.

During the Yom Yerushalayim celebration at Yeshivas Mercaz HaRav, the Rishon Letzion and Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Dovid Yosef, delivered a fiery speech attacking Israel’s Supreme Court over its involvement in matters relating to the Kosel and the authority of the Chief Rabbinate.

Speaking before hundreds of talmidim, rabbonim, and public officials, Rav Yosef accused the court of showing contempt for halacha and attempting to assert control over matters of holiness traditionally guided by Torah leadership.

At the center of his remarks, Rav Yosef revealed that the Chief Rabbinate had submitted a detailed psak halacha to the Supreme Court regarding the sanctity of the Kosel, but said the submission was effectively ignored.

“We submitted a halachic ruling, but there was no response. They simply show contempt for halacha and for the rabbinate,” the Rav declared emotionally.

According to Rav Yosef, the justices operate with the belief that they alone possess authority over the holy sites of the Jewish people, while marginalizing the role of Gedolei Yisroel and the Chief Rabbinate.

Rav Yosef then directly addressed ongoing efforts to alter the prayer arrangements at the Kosel, particularly amid disputes involving the Reform movement and the southern prayer plaza.

“The Kosel does not belong to the Reform movement and not to the judges of the Supreme Court,” he said to loud applause from the crowd, before adding emphatically: “It shall never be.”

The remarks came amid growing tension surrounding the so-called Kosel compromise and efforts to formalize expanded prayer areas near the southern section of the Kosel plaza.

In recent months, the Supreme Court issued an interim ruling stating that a previous government decision regarding the southern prayer area remains in effect, while instructing state authorities to move forward with permits and construction plans connected to the site.

The ruling triggered political backlash, including support from Justice Minister Yariv Levin for advancing legislation related to the Kosel in the Knesset.

Although the gathering at Mercaz HaRav celebrated Israel’s military strength following operations against Iran, including Operation Rising Lion and Operation Roar of the Lion, Rav Yosef stressed that national strength must remain rooted in Torah and halacha.

According to the Chief Rabbi, disrespect toward the rabbinate and Jewish tradition weakens the true spiritual foundation of Yerushalayim and the Jewish people.

The speech joins a series of sharp public comments Rav Yosef has delivered in recent months on political and religious issues.

Over the past year, he repeatedly warned the chareidi public not to place excessive trust in political promises regarding the draft law, at one point asking pointedly: “Why do you believe Bibi?”

At the same time, Rav Yosef has also issued broader calls aimed at strengthening Jewish observance among the general public. In recent weeks, he urged both the Prime Minister and Israel’s President to join President Trump’s initiative promoting Shabbos observance as a historic opportunity to strengthen Shemiras Shabbos in Israel and throughout the Jewish world.

{Matzav.com}

The Howell Township Police Department announced that it will be taking part in the “Goal Zero” Traffic Enforcement Campaign this weekend, with officers increasing patrols and traffic enforcement efforts throughout the township.

According to police, the initiative is focused on reducing traffic-related fatalities and improving roadway safety across the community.

The campaign is being conducted alongside law enforcement agencies throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties in honor of Patrolman Robert Tobias of the Manchester Township Police Department, who was tragically killed in the line of duty during a roadside traffic stop.

Police say residents can expect to see an increased police presence on local roadways throughout the weekend as officers work toward making “Goal Zero” a reality in Howell.

Videos on TLS Community.

A swastika banner hung from a building on the campus of New York University Wednesday during graduation week. Swastikas flanked both sides of a Star of David in the center of a flag that resembled the purple banners hanging from the university’s buildings.

While graduates attended a graduation party called Grad Alley, a block party featuring live music, carnival games and dances, people in the crowd noticed the flag fluttering from the Steinhardt School overlooking Washington Square. The flag was taken down after about 15 minutes.

Police responded to a call about harassment at 5:21 p.m. and took a report from a man who said that someone had altered the flag to add the swastikas. A police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made.

“We are shocked and deeply troubled that this hateful symbol expressing antisemitism was raised on a flagpole overlooking Washington Square Park,” N.Y.U. spokesperson Wiley Norvell said in a statement. “Campus safety responded immediately to remove it, and we are working closely with the N.Y.P.D. to identify whoever is responsible.”

Students had previously objected to the choice of Jonathan Haidt as a commencement speaker, complaining that the psychologist opposed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It’s unclear if the incidents are linked.

The president of the school’s Hillel chapter expressed gratitude for the swift removal of the offending flag in a statement.

“There is a clear difference between political expression and invoking Nazi symbolism to portray Israel or Jews as equivalent to the perpetrators of the Holocaust,” she said. “That comparison is deeply offensive, historically distorted and antisemitic, and symbols tied to the genocide of millions of Jews have no place on our campus.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom critics have blamed for stoking an atmosphere in which antisemitic activity flourishes, denounced the act in a statement on X.

“I am outraged that a swastika flag was raised overlooking Washington Square Park,” he wrote. “This hateful antisemitic act was meant to spread fear among and intimidate Jewish New Yorkers. It has no place in our city.”

“Our administration is committed to fighting antisemitism in all its forms and protecting the safety of Jewish New Yorkers,” he added. “The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this despicable act, and I am confident those responsible will be held accountable.”

Israeli Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich delivered a wide-ranging and forceful speech overnight at the central Yom Yerushalayim celebration held at Yeshivas Mercaz HaRav, where he urged Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to adopt his plan to erase the territorial divisions between Areas A, B, and C in Yehudah and Shomron.

Addressing the large gathering, Smotrich outlined what he described as the government’s achievements in settlement development, security, and the economy, while calling for the practical application of Israeli sovereignty throughout Yehudah and Shomron.

At the opening of his remarks, Smotrich spoke about the holiness of Yerushalayim through the teachings of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt”l, explaining that the sanctity of the city stems from the broader holiness of Eretz Yisroel.

He then turned to what he described as an unprecedented wave of settlement expansion since the current government entered office.

“We are leading a revolution for the honor of the Land of Israel. We legalized all of the young settlements and approved more than one hundred new communities in Yehudah and Shomron.”

Smotrich also pointed proudly to what he called the correction of the historic injustice of the Disengagement Law, which allowed Jews to return to the northern Shomron communities of Chomesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim. He noted that over the past three years, the government approved no fewer than 60,000 housing units throughout Yehudah and Shomron.

“The Jewish people are returning home, and this time permanently,” the minister declared, before issuing a public appeal to Netanyahu. “The time has come to permanently erase the lines separating Areas B, A and C. This week I placed a detailed plan on the cabinet table, and I call from here on the Prime Minister to adopt it. The entire Land of Israel belongs to us.”

Smotrich also addressed the military conflict that has continued for roughly two and a half years, describing it as a painful and difficult war that has nonetheless produced major victories on multiple fronts.

“We are in the midst of a difficult and lengthy war that has exacted heavy prices from us, but has also produced major achievements on every front of the fighting,” Smotrich said.

He proceeded to list what he described as dramatic eliminations of senior terror leaders across the region, including Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Ali Khamenei, Mohammed Deif, and Hassan Nasrallah.

The minister additionally highlighted legislation passed this week in the Knesset dealing with prosecution of Nukhba terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre. The law was advanced by Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman.

“The law will ensure that they too will soon reach hell,” the minister said.

Despite emphasizing Israel’s accomplishments, Smotrich stressed that significant work still remains.

“There is still work left for us on every front,” Smotrich said, while adding with satisfaction that “today, the State of Israel is stronger than ever before, and its enemies are weaker than ever before.”

Despite the ongoing multi-front war taking place across seven separate arenas, the finance minister expressed strong optimism regarding Israel’s economy, attributing its success to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

“We are privileged to witness the fulfillment of the prophecies. From a country of refugees with rationing and shortages, we have become an economic powerhouse,” the minister said.

He cited several positive economic indicators, including the strengthening of the shekel, record-breaking stock market performance, and continued foreign investment pouring into Israel. Smotrich concluded by quoting the words of the prophet Yechezkel:

“And you, mountains of Israel, shall give forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for they are soon to come.”

President Trump expressed amazement Friday at the sprawling gardens and towering roses inside Beijing’s tightly guarded Zhongnanhai leadership compound during a personal tour hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“These are the most beautiful roses anyone’s ever seen! I asked the president, ‘Could you get me some for the Rose Garden?’ and he said yes. I’ve never seen roses so big!” Trump said while wrapping up his visit to China.

As Xi guided Trump through the historic complex, a translator explained that the Chinese leader had agreed to send rose seeds to the White House following Trump’s admiration for the flowers.

“We will provide the president with some of our Chinese rose (Rosa chinensis) seeds, as he wants to plant some in the rose garden,” a translator said, according to the press pool report.

“I love that. That’s great,” Trump responded.

During the walk through the compound, Xi described Zhongnanhai as the nerve center of China’s Communist leadership and the longtime residence of the nation’s rulers.

“the place where leaders of the party central government of China work and live, including myself.

“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, we have been here, including Chinese leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and so on.”

Photos from the visit showed Trump examining the former imperial grounds with visible fascination as Xi encouraged him to inspect centuries-old trees scattered throughout the property.

“On our way in, we stayed to look at some of the old trees. One of them is 490 years old. In other places within this compound, there have been trees that have lived to be over 1,000 years old,” Xi said while discussing the tour.

“The President was interested in learning all about that, including the Chinese roses, which we looked at. And I’ve agreed to send the seeds for these roses to the President as a gift.”

Trump later praised the estate, calling it a “nice place.”

Xi reportedly extended the rare invitation as a gesture of appreciation for Trump’s hospitality during Xi’s 2017 visit to Mar-a-Lago shortly after Trump entered office.

The 1,500-acre Zhongnanhai compound has served as the seat of Chinese Communist authority since Mao Zedong’s victory in the civil war in 1949. Mao chose the former imperial grounds as the headquarters of Communist leadership, believing it reflected the party’s message of governing in the name of the people.

The heavily restricted complex — often compared to America’s White House — has only rarely been opened to foreign leaders since President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China in 1972.

Barack Obama met Xi there in 2014, while President George W. Bush toured the site during a 2002 visit and met then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.

Obama’s visit included a stop at Yingtai Island, where the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned under house arrest for a decade before his death following the 1898 political upheaval.

At one point during Friday’s tour, Xi appeared to subtly needle Trump while mentioning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously been hosted at the compound.

“Can I ask the president.. does he bring them here?” Trump asked.

“Very few,” Xi replied. “We usually don’t hold diplomatic events here.

“Even after we started having some, it’s still extremely rare. For example: Putin.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, also visited Xi at the compound on June 4 of last year during what marked his 15th trip to China.

{Matzav.com}

Protesters descended on the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan Thursday to make their feelings plain about the “Israeli dogs rape Arab prisoners” libel the paper of record published Sunday, alleging widespread and systemic sexual abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons based on unverified testimony and unreliable sources.

Demonstrators held up signs that read “Der Stürmer,” a reference to the Nazi propaganda newspaper published by the notorious Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, a comparison many Jewish advocates made in the wake of the article’s publication.

Other signs read “Antizionism gets Jews killed” and “J’accuse,” a reference to the famous French journalist Émile Zola’s eponymous 19th-century article blasting the French establishment for its imprisonment and exile of Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer, over false allegations of treason that turned out to be motivated by Jew hatred. 

The crowd, representing such Jewish groups as Hineni and End Jew Hatred, chanted, “New York Times, shame on you,” “We will not be silent” and “Bankrupt the Times.” They accused The Times of blood libel and shouted “Fire Kristof,” the author of the piece.

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when Zachary Sage Fox, a famous actor and Zionist activist, arrived, carried on a protester’s shoulders.

“I am standing on the shoulders of my fellow Jews. That is a metaphor, and I’m also actually doing it,” he joked. Highlighting a consistent pattern on the part of The New York Times, he pointed to its World War II coverage, when it downplayed Hitler’s mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

The crowd also chanted, “Am Yisrael Chai.”

OMAHA NE (AP) – Someone paid more than $9 million to have lunch with basketball player Stephen Curry and Warren Buffett, and the legendary investor also promised to match the winning bid so both their favorite charities will benefit.

The auction on eBay was intended to revive an event that Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco. This year’s auction that wrapped up Thursday night also raised month for Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation that he established with his wife, Ayesha.

The anonymous winner paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Buffett and the Currys in the 95-year-old investor’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, next month.

“We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity, which reflects a shared belief that when different generations and institutions come together with purpose, we can create deeper and more lasting impact for the people who need it most,” the Currys said in a statement.

The Buffett auctions started in 2000 and continued every year until the pandemic prompted a couple years off. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for lunch with the investing giant topped $1 million. He discontinued the event after someone paid $19 million for a lunch in 2022.

A follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software titan Marc Benioff, but that version of the event didn’t last.

Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to ask them to join the lunch auction this year. Curry missed 27 games this year before returning to help the Golden State Warriors down the stretch.

Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades of leading the conglomerate. He remains chairman, but just sat through his first annual shareholder meeting — sitting in the audience instead of leading the event from stage.

(JNS) – Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is the largest city in the country, and on Jerusalem Day, its number of residents is estimated at 1.063 million. This is according to the data released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Friday’s celebration of the city’s reunification in 1967.
At the end of 2025, 56.6% of Jerusalem’s residents were Jews and others, 38.4% Arabs, and 4.9% foreigners. About 29.2% of city residents were Haredi, about half of the Jews and others in the city.

During 2025, the population of Jerusalem increased by approximately 13,100 residents. Approximately 21,000 people were added to the population as a result of natural increase and another approximately 1,500 people as a result of international migration. Some 8,300 people were subtracted from the city’s population as a result of a negative internal migration balance (the number of people leaving Jerusalem for other localities in Israel exceeds the number moving to Jerusalem). In addition, the foreign population in Jerusalem increased by approximately 4,600 compared to 2024.

The total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime) in Jerusalem was 3.68 per woman, higher than the national rate (2.89). Among Jewish and other women, the rate was 4.39 (compared to the national rate of 2.96), while among Arab women, it was 2.79 (compared to the national rate of 2.61).

The average maternal age at first birth in Jerusalem is about two years and nine months lower than the national average—25.0 compared to 27.8.

President Trump pointed to China’s lavish state facilities as fresh justification for his planned White House ballroom, saying the United States should have a grand venue of its own after visiting Beijing this week.

Just hours after departing China aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump praised the ongoing construction of the massive ballroom project in a Truth Social post, comparing it to the enormous ceremonial hall used by Chinese leaders in Beijing.

“China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!” Trump wrote alongside a photograph showing him standing with Chinese President Xi Jinping outside the Great Hall of the People, the sprawling government complex near Tiananmen Square where the Chinese government hosted a formal state banquet in his honor.

Trump said the planned White House ballroom is progressing quickly and predicted it would become unmatched in the country.

“under construction, ahead of schedule, and will be the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the U.S.A.” He added: “Thank you for all the support I have been given in getting this project going. Scheduled opening will be around September of 2028.”

The president’s remarks came after a fast-paced three-day visit to China, his first trip there since 2017. During the visit, Trump received an elaborate welcome ceremony, attended an upscale state dinner, toured a centuries-old temple, and held multiple meetings with Xi.

The formal banquet Thursday evening featured members of Trump’s inner circle and administration, including Elon Musk, Eric Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio was seen admiring the towering chandeliers inside the Great Hall of the People as Chinese officials rolled out an extravagant evening for the American delegation.

Guests were served lobster, pork dishes, and tiramisu, while a Chinese military orchestra performed “Y.M.C.A.,” one of Trump’s favorite songs.

Addressing attendees during the banquet, Trump praised the reception he received in China.

“great honor” to visit China, adding that he received a “magnificent welcome like no other.”

Trump also extended an invitation to Xi — whom he called “my friend” — to travel to Washington in September.

The president highlighted cultural ties between the two nations and noted the popularity of each country’s exports and traditions abroad.

“Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast foods chains in the United States all combined — that’s a pretty big statement,” he said.

Xi, speaking after Trump, described the visit as “historic” and urged the world’s two largest powers to cooperate rather than clash.

He called on both nations to be “partners rather than rivals,” adding, “We must make it work.”

Behind closed doors, the leaders discussed several major international issues, including the ongoing conflict involving Iran. Trump later told Fox News that Xi expressed willingness to help broker a resolution and that both leaders agreed on the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.

Taiwan also emerged as a topic during the talks, with Xi warning Trump that mishandling the issue could create “an extremely dangerous situation.”

According to the White House, the discussions additionally focused on trade matters and joint efforts to stop fentanyl from entering the United States.

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Andrew Feldman, the Jewish co-founder and chief executive of Cerebras Systems, became a billionaire overnight after the artificial intelligence company’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut Thursday.

Shares of Cerebras surged 68% in their first day of trading, pushing the company’s valuation close to $100 billion and lifting Feldman’s stake to an estimated $3.2 billion. Co-founder Sean Lie also entered billionaire status as investors poured into one of the year’s most closely watched technology offerings.

The IPO marked a dramatic rise for Cerebras, which had previously withdrawn an earlier public offering attempt before later raising private capital at a significantly lower valuation. The company is now benefiting from the explosive global demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure and advanced computing systems used to power AI models.

Founded roughly a decade ago, Cerebras has positioned itself as a challenger in the AI chip industry, competing against larger semiconductor giants by developing massive “wafer-scale” processors designed specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. The company says its technology can outperform traditional graphics processing units in certain AI inference tasks, where systems respond directly to users.

Israeli business publication Globes reported that Feldman is described by people who know him as “a Jew who speaks a few words of Hebrew and previously volunteered on a kibbutz.” The report also noted that Cerebras was founded alongside several former Intel executives and has attracted notable Israeli-linked investors and technology figures.

Feldman has also publicly emphasized diversity and interfaith respect within the company’s culture. In a recent social media post, he highlighted the workplace relationship between employees of different faiths, writing, “Anis is Muslim. I’m Jewish,” while praising the spirit of cooperation and celebration inside Cerebras.

Before founding Cerebras, Feldman launched SeaMicro, a microserver company that was acquired by AMD in 2012 for approximately $334 million.

The successful debut also delivered massive gains for early investors. Among them were Israeli-born venture capitalist Lior Susan of Eclipse Capital and former Intel executive Dadi Perlmutter, both of whom invested in Cerebras during its early years.

Cerebras’ rise comes amid intensifying competition across the AI sector, where companies are racing to build the computing infrastructure needed to support increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems. The company has also strengthened ties with OpenAI, which recently entered into a multi-year agreement with Cerebras for computing capacity and related AI services.

CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told lawmakers Thursday that Iran’s military infrastructure and regional terror network have been devastated by the recent American military campaign, saying the U.S. achieved every objective laid out under Operation Epic Fury and effectively severed Tehran’s support pipeline to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Cooper described the Islamic Republic as severely weakened after nearly six weeks of sustained combat operations targeting Iran’s military leadership, weapons industry, naval forces, and proxy infrastructure.

“We met every military objective for Epic Fury,” Cooper said, describing Iran’s command-and-control structure as “shattered” while arguing the regime currently lacks the capacity to meaningfully rebuild critical weapons stockpiles.

According to Cooper, approximately 90 percent of Iran’s defense-industrial capabilities were destroyed during the operation, including large portions of its missile production, drone manufacturing, naval infrastructure, and weapons facilities.

“In less than 40 days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives,” Cooper said, arguing the operation crippled Tehran’s ability to “project power outside its borders and threaten the region and our interests.”

Referring to Iran’s large-scale missile and drone assaults against Israel in April and October of 2024, Cooper said Tehran no longer possesses the operational strength necessary to carry out attacks of similar scale.

The CENTCOM commander also dismissed recent public reports claiming Iran preserved much of its missile arsenal and launcher systems during the conflict, stating that widely circulated open-source estimates were inaccurate, though he declined to discuss classified intelligence assessments in detail.

Cooper further testified that American operations had successfully cut off Iran’s ability to supply weapons and logistical support to allied terror groups across the Middle East.

“Today, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are all completely cut off from Iranian weapons supplies and support from Tehran,” Cooper said.

“This result was not foreordained,” he continued. “It is the culmination of months of precise planning and decades of experience.”

Cooper framed the campaign as a response to decades of Iranian-backed aggression against the United States, noting that Iranian proxy groups conducted more than 350 attacks against American troops and diplomats during the 30 months leading up to Operation Epic Fury.

“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United States a core tenant of its rule,” Cooper said.

He also described Iran’s navy as having suffered catastrophic losses, estimating that Tehran could require between five and ten years just to begin rebuilding portions of its maritime capabilities, and potentially an entire generation to restore the force to prewar levels.

As part of the naval campaign, Cooper said U.S. forces conducted more than 700 airstrikes targeting Iran’s naval mine infrastructure, destroying over 90 percent of Tehran’s estimated stockpile of roughly 8,000 sea mines intended for deployment in the Strait of Hormuz.

Despite the extensive damage, Cooper warned lawmakers that Iran still maintains some limited asymmetric warfare capabilities.

“Iran retains nuisance capability — harassment, low-end drone and rocket attacks, and residual proxy support,” Cooper stated in written testimony submitted to lawmakers.

“But it no longer possesses the means to threaten major regional operations or deter U.S. freedom of action in the air or maritime domains.”

Cooper acknowledged that while Iran’s actual ability to block commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been significantly reduced, Tehran’s threats alone continue to unsettle global shipping lanes, insurers, and oil markets.

“The Iranian ability to stop commerce has been dramatically degraded through the straits,” Cooper said.

“But their voice is very loud, and those threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and the insurance industry.”

He added that the United States and allied regional militaries remain fully capable of reopening the Strait of Hormuz by force if necessary, though he stressed that policymakers are still prioritizing diplomatic negotiations amid what President Trump recently called a ceasefire on “massive life support.”

Although Iran’s military hierarchy suffered major losses during the conflict, Cooper testified that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still maintains substantial control within the regime.

When asked whether the IRGC remained dominant following the deaths of several senior commanders, Cooper responded that the organization was still “exercising significant authority.”

Later in the hearing, Cooper agreed with Sen. Tom Cotton’s description of Iran as a “revolutionary terrorist regime.”

“They are,” Cooper responded.

The CENTCOM commander also discussed how the Pentagon altered its drone warfare strategy after months of attacks carried out by Iranian and Houthi drones throughout the region.

“The days of using high-value defenses to shoot down cheap targets are behind us,” Cooper said, arguing the United States had successfully “flipped the cost curve” against Iran’s drone warfare apparatus by forcing Tehran to rely on increasingly sophisticated — and expensive — systems.

According to Cooper, Iran’s drone capabilities have now been reduced to roughly 10 percent of what they were before the conflict began.

Cooper additionally revealed that U.S. forces incorporated numerous anti-drone battlefield tactics developed by Ukrainian forces during their war with Russia.

“We adopted a large number of tactics, techniques and procedures that the Ukrainians have passed us that have helped us defend Americans,” Cooper said.

Although the administration officially declared hostilities with Iran over following the April 7 ceasefire, intermittent clashes and maritime incidents have continued throughout the region while broader diplomatic talks remain stalled.

Earlier this week, President Trump described the fragile ceasefire as being on “massive life support” after dismissing Iran’s latest proposal as “garbage” and “totally unacceptable.”

Trump also warned that if Tehran refuses to comply with American demands regarding its nuclear program and regional activities, the United States would ultimately “finish the job” “peacefully or otherwise.”

{Matzav.com}

BEIJING (AP) – Aircraft manufacturer Boeing will make its first major sale to China in nearly a decade with an order for 200 planes, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday, a deal he said had been made during his summit with China’s President Xi Jinping this week and that could grow to as many as 750 planes.

The White House has not released details of the deal, and the company itself has not commented. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had joined Trump for the trip to Beijing, one of a large group of CEOs seeking to sell products and services to China. For Boeing, the deal would mark a significant breakthrough in a market that was once central to its long-term growth.

Trump also said the deal would benefit General Electric, which he said would supply 400 to 450 engines. General Electric did not immediately comment on the agreement.

Last month, Ortberg signaled confidence that any broader U.S.-China agreement would include aircraft purchases, telling investors he expected Trump’s meeting with Xi to be a “meaningful opportunity” for Boeing.

Ortberg took over in 2024, a calamitous year for Boeing as it came under intensifying scrutiny over production and quality failures and faced mounting financial pressure. In January 2024, a panel known as a door plug blew off a 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, renewing scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing practices.

Months later, the U.S. Justice Department revived a criminal case against Boeing tied to the two fatal Max crashes, although prosecutors later reached an agreement with Boeing to dismiss the case, committing the company to an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims’ families and internal safety and quality improvements.

Then an eight-week strike stretching through the fall by machinists who assemble the 737 Max in Washington state disrupted production and added to the company’s financial strain.

NEW YORK (AP) — North America’s largest commuter rail system is facing a potential shutdown as a deadline nears to reach a deal with unionized workers to avert a strike.

About 3,500 Long Island Rail Road workers could walk off the job Saturday if a deal isn’t reached between MTA and LIRR workers unions, potentially marking the first LIRR strike in more than 30 years. @sramosABC reports. pic.twitter.com/Mza3yGiT81

— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 15, 2026

The Long Island Railroad that serves New York City’s eastern suburbs has been negotiating for months on a new contract with labor officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers.

A strike was temporarily averted in September when President Donald Trump’s administration agreed to help. Those efforts ended without a deal, giving both sides 60 days — ending 12:01 a.m. Saturday — to again try to resolve their differences before the union was legally allowed to go on strike or the agency could lock out workers.

Five labor unions representing about half the train system’s 7,000-person workforce warned this week that Saturday’s deadline was approaching.

The LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying about 250,000 customers each weekday. LIRR workers last went on strike in 1994, for about two days. Workers nearly walked out in 2014 before then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with unions.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, has said it will provide free but limited shuttle buses during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The agency says the shuttles will depart from designated LIRR train stations to subway stops in the New York City borough of Queens.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has urged LIRR riders to work from home, if possible, as the free shuttles are meant for essential workers and those who cannot telecommute. The Democrat, months earlier, slammed the LIRR unions for “greedy asks” that threaten to “destabilize the local economy.”

But there have been signs of progress in negotiations this week.

Months ago, the MTA had proposed to the unions a 9.5% wage increase over three years, in line with what the system’s other unionized workers have already agreed to. The unions, however, held out for another yearly salary increase of 6.5%, for a total raise of 16% over four years.

But following Wednesday’s closed door meetings, Gary Dellaverson, the MTA’s chief negotiator, said the agency offered the unions what it said would effectively amount to a 4.5% raise in the fourth year of the contract. That offer, he said, was in line with what federal officials had recommended and would come in the form of lump sum payments rather than wage increases, as the union sought.

“The difference between those two positions is not unbridgeable,” Dellaverson said in a news conference. “It is describable simply in terms of money. There are no longer any complexities involved with the parties.”

Kevin Sexton, a spokesperson for the unions, acknowledged Wednesday that there was “positive movement” toward a settlement but dismissed the notion that a deal was close as “far-fetched.”

“We would like to reach an agreement that reflects the rising cost of living,” he said. “Anything short of that amounts to a cut in real wages.”

Spokespersons for MTA didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday, but the union said the two sides were expected to continue talks later that night and reconvene Friday if there was still no deal.

Susanne Alberto, a personal trainer from Long Island, said she’s already made plans with her Manhattan clients to hold virtual sessions in the event of a shutdown.

She said the union likely has the upper hand, even if she believes raises should be based on job responsibilities and not made across the board.

“The MTA is going to cave, and they know that,” Alberto said. “Why don’t they just do it now instead of waiting until virtually millions of people get inconvenienced?”

Rob Udle, an electrician who takes the LIRR at least five days a week, said he’ll likely use his vacation days rather than navigate the “nightmare” of commuting into Manhattan if the rail service shuts down.

A union member, he sympathized with the unions’ affordability concerns, but said he didn’t agree with their strongarm tactics.

“I get it, the cost of living is going up and stuff like that,” Udle said while waiting at Penn Station for a train home. “But they shouldn’t hold everybody hostage to do it. There’s a better way. You’re affecting a lot of other people.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir traveled to the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, the Kan public broadcaster reported Friday, the latest revelation pointing to the depth of military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries during the 11-week conflict.

Zamir was accompanied by other senior military officials, Kan reported. While in the country, he met with Emirati officials including UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The Israeli military has not commented on the report.

A separate report by Walla, citing a security source, said Zamir’s delegation was joined by a U.S. delegation during the visit and that the meetings focused on strengthening cooperation across various scenarios in a war with Iran, including both defensive and offensive operations. The visit, security sources told Walla, reflected what they described as “exceptional strategic cooperation” between Israel and the UAE, a direct outgrowth of the Abraham Accords.

The disclosure follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own announcement Wednesday that he had secretly visited the UAE during the war and met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, a claim the UAE denied. A source familiar with the details said Netanyahu and bin Zayed met in Al-Ain, an oasis city near the Oman border, on March 26, and that the meeting lasted several hours. Netanyahu’s office described it as a “historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”

The UAE’s official WAM news agency denied the visit, saying the country’s relations with Israel “are public and conducted within the framework of the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements.” The statement also denied that any Israeli military delegation had been received.

The denials reflect the political tightrope the UAE has walked throughout the war. Cooperation with Israel has deepened dramatically, but public sentiment across the Arab world remains hostile to overt Israeli engagement, particularly given the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Zamir visit is only the latest in a string of senior Israeli trips that have come to light in recent days. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mossad director David Barnea made at least two visits to the Gulf state during the war to coordinate military actions. Kan separately reported that Shin Bet chief David Zini also traveled to the UAE to increase coordination between the two countries’ intelligence and security agencies.

The two countries have reportedly worked together on coordinated attacks on Iran, intelligence sharing, detection and interception of Iranian missiles and drones, and the selection of Iranian targets. Bloomberg has reported that the UAE itself struck Iran multiple times during the war, in some cases in operations coordinated with Israel.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee previously confirmed previous reports that Israel had sent an Iron Dome air-defense battery to the UAE along with the soldiers to operate it – believed to be the first time the system has been deployed outside Israeli territory.

The UAE has come under sustained Iranian missile and drone fire throughout the conflict, including strikes on its Borouge petrochemicals facility and other infrastructure. Even after a ceasefire was reached last month, attacks have continued.

Iran reacted sharply to Netanyahu’s announcement of his alleged visit. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that “enmity with the great people of Iran is a foolish gamble” and called collusion with Israel “unforgivable.” Without naming the UAE directly, he warned that “those colluding with Israel to sow division will be held to account.”

“Netanyahu has now publicly revealed what Iran’s security services long ago conveyed to our leadership,” Araghchi added, though he did not explain why Iran had not gone public earlier with the intelligence he claimed it had.

Israeli leaders have made occasional public visits to the UAE since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, but the volume and seniority of wartime visits now coming to light – a prime minister, an IDF chief, and the heads of both major intelligence agencies -mark a level of overt strategic coordination that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The New York Times dismissed Israel’s threat to sue the paper over its “Israeli dogs rape Palestinians” article published Sunday that came under fire from Jewish groups and advocates, saying the case “has no merit” and is “part of a well-worn political playbook” to chill the free speech of journalists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said they had instructed officials to pursue the avenue of a lawsuit over what they called “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel.”

Nicholas Kristof. (Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Aurora Humanitarian Initiative)

The column alleged widespread, systemic violent sexual and physical abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, with claims as outlandish as the testimony of one Gazan journalist who said the IDF coaches dogs to rape Arab prisoners, saying that he himself had been raped by a dog. The column, published in the opinion section, relies on unverified testimony from 14 witnesses, all but two of whom remained anonymous. The two named witnesses are known Hamas sympathizers whose stories grew more elaborate with each retelling over the years, according to HonestReporting.

The column further relies on Euro-Med Monitor, which Israel says is a front for Hamas and from whence the “Israel dogs rape prisoners” claim first emerged nearly two years ago.

No Israeli prison guards or doctors were interviewed for the piece.

In its defense, the New York Times pointed to the author’s credentials. Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with extensive experience reporting on the sexual abuse of civilians in conflict zones, they noted, adding that he collected testimony from 14 victims that independent human rights organizations (i.e., the problematic Euro-Med Monitor) corroborated.

[Video below.] Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu attended the main Yom Yerushalayim gathering Thursday night at Yeshivas Mercaz HaRav in Yerushalayim, joining rabbonim, senior government officials, and prominent public figures for the annual event commemorating the reunification of the city.

During the program, the rosh yeshiva, Rav Yaakov Shapira, presented Netanyahu with a special tribute marking 50 years since Operation Entebbe.

The presentation honored the heroism and sacrifice of Netanyahu’s brother, Yoni Netanyahu, who commanded the rescue operation that freed hostages held in Uganda.

As part of the tribute, the Prime Minister received a framed photograph of Yoni Netanyahu bearing the posuk: “Lo, a people that rises like a lioness, leaps up like a lion.”

The portrait was personally signed by Rav Shapira as a gesture of appreciation for Yoni Netanyahu’s role in safeguarding the people of Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that Tehran has “no trust” in the United States and is willing to negotiate only if Washington is serious, casting fresh doubt on stalled talks aimed at ending the more than 11-week-old war.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to reporters in New Delhi during a visit to attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting, said “contradictory messages” from Washington have left Tehran uncertain about American intentions. He added that the mediation process led by Pakistan has not failed but is in “difficulty.”

Araghchi said Iran is trying to maintain the fragile ceasefire to give diplomacy a chance, but is also prepared to return to fighting.

The remarks came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said his patience with Iran was running thin. During his three-day visit to Beijing, Trump told reporters he had agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that has been largely blocked since the war began February 28.

On the strait, Araghchi said all vessels can pass through except those at war with Tehran, and that ships wishing to transit must coordinate with the Iranian navy. He described the situation as “very complicated.”

About 20% of the world’s seaborne oil supply moved through the Strait of Hormuz before the war began, and its closure has triggered a global energy crisis. Iran sealed off the waterway after the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on February 28 that killed former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S. has since imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports.

Negotiations have moved in fits and starts. Earlier this month, U.S. and Iranian officials were reported to be closing in on a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding that would declare an end to the war and launch 30 days of detailed negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the strait and sanctions relief. But Trump rejected Iran’s counterproposal Sunday as “totally unacceptable,” and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Tehran would “never bow.”

Among the sticking points are the duration of a moratorium on uranium enrichment – Washington has pushed for 20 years while Tehran has offered five – and the fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran has reportedly agreed to suspend enrichment for a limited period but has rejected dismantling its nuclear facilities. Tehran has also demanded the U.S. end its blockade of Iranian ports as a condition for fully opening the strait, along with war reparations, an end to sanctions, and the release of frozen Iranian assets.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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BEIJING (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up critical talks on Friday, claiming important progress in stabilizing U.S.-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran, Taiwan and more.

Following the trip, Trump said he had not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward. Speaking to reporters as he flew back on Air Force One, Trump said he’d not decided on the sale, but he added, “I will make a determination.”

Trump’s Republican administration has authorized the sale but it has yet to move forward. China opposes the deal and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in China-U.S. relations.

Trump said Xi told him that he was opposed to Taiwan’s independence. “I heard him out,” Trump said. “I didn’t make a comment.”

Trump also said he raised a potential three-way nuclear deal among the U.S., Russia and China. He wants each of the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal. China has previously been cool to entering such a pact.

Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads. But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea.

“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.

The Pentagon estimates China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.

Xi welcomed Trump at his official residence, Zhongnanhai, on Friday for their final engagement of the summit before the U.S. leader’s return to Washington. The leaders took a short walk through the grounds that feature ancient trees and Chinese roses, and they strolled through a covered passageway with green columns and archways painted with birds and traditional Chinese mountain scenes.

Over tea and lunch, Trump and Xi — with top aides and translators in tow — huddled for nearly three hours of talks before the U.S. leader completed his three-day visit to China.

“It’s been really a great couple of days,” Trump told reporters.

Xi, for his part, called it a “milestone” visit. “We have established a new bilateral relationship, or rather a constructive, strategic, stable relationship,” he said.

But the optimistic outlook collides with some difficult truths about the thorniest issues between the two superpowers.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. entreaties to get more involved in solving the conflict in Iran, even though Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help. In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department has accused Chinese firms of providing satellite imagery to the Iranian government and the Treasury Department has moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil.

And the White House believes China can still do more to stem the flow of Chinese-made precursor chemicals into Mexico used to make illicit fentanyl that has wreaked havoc on many U.S. communities.

Xi, meanwhile, warned Trump during private talks that their differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, if handled poorly, could hurtle the world’s dominant powers toward “clashes and even conflicts,” according to Chinese government officials.

Trump appeared impressed by the bucolic grounds, remarking the roses were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Xi promised to send him some rose seeds.

The compound is wrapped around two artificial lakes that had been built for the pleasure of emperors. Zhongnanhai is often compared to the White House, the Kremlin or South Korea’s Blue House. But unlike the other presidential residences, Zhongnanhai does not serve as the main venue for diplomatic visits. The invitation appeared to be an attempt by Xi to extend a personal touch to a U.S. leader who appreciates big gestures.

“I think he’s a warm person, actually. But he’s all business,” Trump said of Xi in the Fox News interview. “There’s no games.”

The Chinese government also bid farewell to Trump with great pomp.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw a smiling Trump off at the airport. And schoolchildren dressed in Air Force One’s light blue and white colors waved American and Chinese flags in a coordinated movement as the U.S. president arrived to board the plane.

Taiwan remains the most important issue for China
Xi’s sharp language on Taiwan loomed large over the visit, with Chinese government officials amplifying that differences on the self-ruled island pose the biggest risk to U.S.-Chinese relations.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News that U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” and cautioned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to try to take Taiwan by force. He also framed Xi’s comments as standard practice.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” said Rubio, who was among senior aides to join Trump for the talks.

China in recent weeks has sought to put more focus on its view that Taiwan sits at the “core” of its interests and is key to ensuring a stable relationship with the U.S. Trump at moments has shown ambivalence toward Taiwan, raising speculation that he could be open to loosening ties with Taipei.

Trump has demanded Taiwan increase defense spending, and in December, the White House announced an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, the largest ever to the island democracy.

But the U.S. has yet to begin fulfilling the arms sales, and Trump had said he expected to discuss the matter with Xi in Beijing. He’s also groused that Taiwan “stole” America’s semiconductor business and called on Taiwan to pay the U.S. for protection.

China wants the Strait of Hormuz opened
The leaders agreed that the Strait of Hormuz — effectively closed since the start of the Iran conflict — needs to be reopened to support global energy demands About 20% of the world’s oil flowed through the strait before the war started on Feb. 28.

“We feel very similar about (how) we want it to end,” the president said with Xi at this side. “We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.”

White House officials say Xi was also opposed to any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

Trump earlier this week had downplayed the importance of talks with Xi on the 11-week-old Iran war that has led to surging energy prices and threatens to plunge the global economy into recession if the conflict does not conclude soon.

Will Trump announce any major business deals?
The White House, ahead of the visit, insisted that Trump wouldn’t be making the trip without an eye toward securing results before he leaves, suggesting there could be announcements coming on trade.

Trump says some “fantastic trade deals” had been struck during the visit, but did not offer further details

The U.S. side had been hoping to nail down Chinese commitments to buy U.S. soybeans and beef. Trump told Fox News that Xi had indicated a commitment for China to buy 200 Boeing jets from the U.S.

President Trump on Thursday pushed back against suggestions that Chinese President Xi Jinping views the United States as a declining power, arguing that any such remarks were directed at the Biden administration rather than America under his leadership.

In a lengthy Truth Social post published during his visit to Beijing, Trump said Xi’s comments referred to what he described as the damage done to the country during Joe Biden’s presidency.

“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”

It was not immediately clear which specific remarks Trump was referencing. Public summaries of the summit and media reports did not show Xi directly calling the United States a nation in decline, although Chinese officials and commentators have increasingly promoted rhetoric emphasizing “the rise of the East and decline of the West.” Newsmax reported that it contacted the White House seeking clarification.

Trump continued his post by contrasting what he described as America’s current resurgence with the conditions he said existed before his return to office.

Trump continued: “President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration, which includes all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, the military decimation of Iran. (to be continued!)

“Strongest military on earth by far, economic powerhouse again, with a record 18 trillion dollars being invested into the United States by others, best U.S. job market in history, with more people working in the United States right now than ever before, ending country destroying DEI, and so many other things that it would be impossible to readily list.

“In fact, President Xi congratulated me on so many tremendous successes in such a short period of time. Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi! But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”

Trump’s comments came as Chinese political figures, academics, and state-linked media outlets continue to argue that internal division and political instability have weakened the United States — themes that have become increasingly common in Chinese rhetoric during Trump’s political rise and return to the White House.

{Matzav.com}

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  It was with great interest that this author read the recent remarks of HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu shlita, Chief Rabbi of Tzfas and member of the Mo’etzes HaRabbanus HaRashis, calling upon the Prime Minister and government ministers to advance the establishment of a beis knesses on Har HaBayis. The yearning expressed in those remarks — that after two millennia of galus the time has come to reassert a Jewish presence on the holiest place on earth — is a yearning that beats in the heart of every ma’amin.

It is precisely because the matter is so weighty, however, that the proposal must be examined with care. With the utmost respect for HaRav Eliyahu shlita and for the memory of his father, the late Rishon LeTzion HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, it is respectfully submitted that the call to establish a beis knesses on Har HaBayis at this time is both unwise and halachically problematic. Two considerations support that conclusion.

The First Consideration: Lifnei Iver Under All Three Approaches

In the sugyos that deal with Lifnei Iver there is a well-known apparent contradiction. The Gemara in Nedarim 62a relates that Rav Ashi had an avah, a forest, which he sold to an avodah zarah fire-temple, and when asked about Lifnei Iver he responded that most of the wood would be used for ordinary heating rather than for avodah zarah. The Ran explains that this is permitted because of the principle of tliya — that whenever it is possible to assume a permitted purpose, even where that possibility is statistically or factually dubious, we do so. The Ran’s view is cited by the TaZ in Yoreh Deah 151, and the Chasam Sofer in his teshuvah (YD #9) develops the concept at length.

On the other hand, the Gemara in Bava Metzia 75b indicates that it is a violation of Lifnei Iver to lend money without witnesses, and a similar indication appears in Bava Metzia 5b — suggesting that wherever a strong likelihood of violation exists, Lifnei Iver applies.

Three approaches have been advanced to resolve the contradiction:  That of the Tosfos Anshei Shaim, that of the Tzitz Eliezer,

and that of lbc”l Rav Dovid Feinstein zt”l.   

The first, the approach of the Hagahos Tosfos Anshei Shem in Mishnayos Shevi’is 5:7 and of the TaZ in YD 151, is that whenever there is a greater probability of violation than of non-violation, we do not assume a permitted purpose and Lifnei Iver applies. This is also the approach taken by HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein shlita.

The second approach, found in the Tzitz Eliezer (vol. IV, 5:3), is that the Talmudic cases that forbid where the violation is more likely are speaking of a rabbinic Lifnei Iver only.

The third approach is that of HaRav Dovid Feinstein zt”l, recorded in this author’s sefer on Lifnei Iver, “Misguiding the Perplexed,” p. 97: that wherever the action being performed will directly lead to a violation on the part of the recipient, and without it the recipient would not have had the desire or opportunity to transgress, Lifnei Iver applies — and this is also offered as a possibility by the Tzitz Eliezer.

Under each of these three approaches, the establishment of a beis knesses on Har HaBayis would constitute a biblical violation of Lifnei Iver.

HaRav Eliyahu shlita invokes the pesak of his father, HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, who ruled that a beis knesses may be established in areas permitted for ascent according to halacha. With deep reverence for that pesak, the difficulty is not with the halachic siting of the structure itself but with its inevitable consequences. A beis knesses on Har HaBayis, by its very nature as a destination of national and religious significance, would draw enormous numbers of Jews — including the overwhelming majority who lack the halachic training, the proper preparation of tevilah, and the precise knowledge of the boundaries necessary to confine themselves to the permitted areas. The kares-bearing prohibitions of entering the makom haMikdash and the azaros b’tumah — the gravest prohibitions in this entire parashah — would not be a remote possibility but a statistical near-certainty.

Under the approach of the Hagahos Tosfos Anshei Shem and the TaZ, where the question is whether violation is more likely than non-violation, the answer here is unmistakable: the probability of widespread violation by the masses who would come is overwhelming.

Under the approach of HaRav Dovid Feinstein zt”l, the connection is even more direct — the very existence of a beis knesses on the Har is precisely what would draw Jews to a place where, absent that beis knesses, the vast majority would never venture. Even under the most lenient of the three approaches, which classifies certain cases of doubt as rabbinic, this is not a case of doubt; this is a case of foreseeable and predictable mass violation.

It must also be said that the pesak of HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, permitting a beis knesses in halachically permitted areas, was issued as a theoretical halachic determination about siting. It is a separate question — and one that the call before us does not adequately address — whether the practical establishment of such a beis knesses today, given who would come, in what state of preparation, and to what areas they would inevitably wander, passes the test of Lifnei Iver under any of the three approaches above. It does not.

The Second Consideration: Pikuach Nefesh and the Value of Jewish Life

Independent of the Lifnei Iver analysis stands a second, equally weighty consideration: the foreseeable cost in Jewish lives.

The history of the past several decades has made it tragically clear that even the most modest changes to the status quo on Har HaBayis — a visit by a public figure, an expanded hour of access, a rumor of altered arrangements — have repeatedly served as the trigger for waves of violence in which Jews have been murdered, rachmana litzlan. The establishment of an actual beis knesses on the Har would not be a modest change. It would be perceived throughout the Muslim world as a transformation of the most volatile site in the Middle East, and the security implications, by the consistent assessment of every relevant Israeli professional body, would include mass casualties — in Yerushalayim, throughout Eretz Yisrael, and very likely against Jewish communities abroad.

The Torah’s directives on this point are numerous and explicit. The verse in Parashas Ki Seitzei discussing hashavas aveidah is extended by the Gemara in Sanhedrin 73a to the obligation to save another’s life — v’hasheivoso lo. There is the negative mitzvah of lo sa’amod al dam rei’echa, not standing idly by your brother’s blood (Vayikra 19:16, Shulchan Aruch C.M. 426:1). The She’iltos, based on the Gemara in Bava Metzia, derives from v’chai achicha imach a full obligation to save others, which the Netziv rules applies even where some personal risk is involved. The Ramban in Toras HaAdam understands v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha as a directive to save our peers from danger. And overarching all of these is the mitzvas asei of v’nishmartem me’od l’nafshoseichem — the fundamental Torah obligation to guard Jewish life.

We must also make sure that we not allow misinformation, wishful thinking, or political pressure to shape decisions on which Jewish lives depend. When a proposed action carries with it the predictable consequence of Jewish blood being spilled — not as a remote contingency but as the considered assessment of those charged with protecting the tzibbur — these mitzvos do not stand silent. Chamira sakanta me’isura. Jewish life is precious beyond measure, and a kehillah that yearns for the Beis HaMikdash must yearn for it in a way that does not, chas v’shalom, hasten the death of Jews.

Concluding Thoughts

None of the above diminishes the longing for the binyan Beis HaMikdash that animates the words of HaRav Eliyahu shlita. That longing is the longing of Klal Yisrael, and it is the longing of every one of us who davens three times a day for its restoration. The question is whether the proposed step would bring that day closer or push it further away — and whether, in the interim, it would draw thousands into kares-bearing violations and cost Jewish lives.

For the reasons set forth above, the call to establish a beis knesses on Har HaBayis at this time is both unwise as a matter of hashkafah and policy, and halachically problematic under each of the recognized approaches to Lifnei Iver. The Beis HaMikdash will be rebuilt. May we be zocheh to see it bimheirah b’yameinu. Until then, the path forward must honor both the kedushah of the makom and the kedushah of every Jewish neshamah.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

COPENHAGEN (VINnews) – Danish police on Wednesday cleared an illegal blockade of shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk’s headquarters in Copenhagen, detaining about 20 activists who tried to disrupt operations over the company’s alleged links to Israel.

Around 100 protesters, mainly from the Danish environmental group Den Grønne Ungdomsbevægelse (Green Youth Movement) and allied with pro-Palestinian networks under the “Mask Off Maersk” campaign, blocked access to the building, according to reports. Police deployed officers, batons and K-9 units after the activists refused orders to disperse from private property.

The anti Israel trash accused Maersk of transporting weapons components and military equipment to Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Maersk has denied shipping weapons to conflict zones and says it adheres to international regulations.

Copenhagen Police charged the 20 detained activists primarily with trespassing and failure to obey dispersal orders. No serious injuries were reported. Video footage showed officers physically removing protesters who remained in place.

The action drew praise from pro-Israel observers for the swift response by Danish authorities against what they described as pro-Hamas and anti-Israel radicals attempting to disrupt critical infrastructure. Similar protests have targeted Maersk in other European locations over the company’s global shipping operations.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Russian missile attack on a Kyiv apartment building the previous day killed 24 people, including what local officials said were three teenagers.

Emergency workers finished digging through the building’s rubble after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X.

The cruise missile hit the nine-story corner block during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia’s biggest barrage of the country since its all-out invasion.

The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital, where 48 people were wounded, including two children, Zelenskyy said.

Russia hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks in the days following a May 9-11 ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe. Fighting went on over those 72 hours, although reportedly on a lesser scale.

This week’s attacks ran counter to recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war, now in its fifth year, is close to ending.

Zelenskyy said Thursday that Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday. In all, some 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings, he said.

Previously, the biggest Russian drone attack was from the evening of March 23 to the evening of March 24 when Moscow’s forces fired nearly 1,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine.

Ukraine has also built up significant long-range capabilities, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that air defenses downed 355 drones overnight in one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks of the war.

Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the attacks.

Also, a Ukrainian drone attack on Ryazan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, killed four people, including a child, Ryazan Gov. Pavel Malkov said.

After the attack, massive plumes of black smoke spewed from a fire at a local oil refinery. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities in an effort to deny vital export revenue for Moscow and rattle the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment about the Ryazan strike.

The Ukrainian capital observed an official day of mourning Friday in remembrance of those killed Thursday, and Zelenskyy visited the site.

The cruise missile that hit the apartment building was built in the second quarter of this year, Zelenskyy said, apparently after Ukrainian experts analyzed the wreckage.

“This means Russia is still importing the components, resources and equipment necessary for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions,” Zelenskyy said in another post on X late Thursday.

“Stopping Russia’s sanctions evasion schemes must be a genuine priority for all our partners,” he said.

Russia and Ukraine have continued to occasionally swap prisoners of war, and 205 from each country returned home Friday.

Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap. Some of the Ukrainians released had been held in Russian captivity since 2022, he said, and had fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping broker it.

LONDON (VINnews) – King Charles III visited Golders Green on Thursday to express solidarity with the area’s Jewish community following a stabbing attack last month that injured two Jewish men.

The monarch met with the victims of the April 29 incident — Shloime Rand, 34, and 76-year-old Moshe Shine, also known as Norman Shine or Moshe Ben Baila — at a Jewish Care charity center in the north London neighborhood, which is home to a large Jewish population.

He also spoke with members of the community, leaders including Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, and volunteers from the Jewish security group Shomrim, who responded to the attack in Highfield Avenue.

The unannounced visit came amid heightened concerns over rising antisemitism in Britain. Crowds lined the streets, cheering and calling out “Long live the King” as Charles greeted residents.

Buckingham Palace described the visit as a chance for the King to reaffirm his steadfast support for the Jewish community. During his time at the center, Charles expressed concern about antisemitic incidents and offered words of comfort to those affected.

The April 29 stabbings have been classified by police as a terror incident. Both victims were treated at the scene for stab wounds.

Golders Green and surrounding areas in the London Borough of Barnet have seen a spate of antisemitic attacks in recent weeks.

Bullying can have a deep and lasting impact, and it deserves to be taken seriously in every setting where it shows up. For the person experiencing it, it can feel isolating, confusing, and intensely painful, even when others around them don’t fully understand the weight of it. While it’s essential to work on stopping bullying wherever possible, there’s another piece that sometimes gets less attention. Alongside prevention and intervention, there is also the question of what helps someone stay emotionally and psychologically steady when difficult social experiences do happen.

The resilience approach is basically about this idea: instead of only focusing on removing every possible bad interaction, we also focus on building a young person who can go through difficult social moments without it becoming a core belief about themselves. Not “be tough and ignore it,” more like “this hurts, and I’m still me.”

A big piece of this is self-concept. Kids who believe, at a deep level, that they have worth that is not up for public vote tend to weather social stress better. Kids who feel like their value is decided by whoever is loudest in the hallway are much more vulnerable. So part of resilience work is helping them have a sense of identity that isn’t dependent on being liked by the exact right group at all times, which is a very unstable system anyway.

Then there’s emotions. Bullying tends to produce a cocktail of shame, anger, fear, and that special feeling of “I want to disappear into a hoodie forever.” If a young person has some basic skills for noticing what they feel, naming it, and not immediately turning it into “this means something is wrong with me,” they tend to recover faster. The goal is not to make them unbothered robots. It is more like helping them realize emotions are loud but not always wise narrators.

Another part is thinking with flexibility. Bullying has a way of shrinking the brain’s narrative to a few very dramatic conclusions like “everyone hates me” or “this is how it will always be.” Resilience involves gently expanding that story back out. For example, “this group is acting like this right now” is very different from “this is the truth of my entire existence.” Same situation, very different internal impact.

Relationships matter a lot here too. Having even one adult or safe person who doesn’t minimize things, doesn’t panic, and doesn’t immediately jump to “just ignore them” can make a huge difference. It’s surprisingly powerful to have someone say, “yeah, that sounds really awful, I’m here with you,” instead of launching into a 12-step plan before the child has even finished talking.

And there’s help-seeking. A lot of kids don’t report bullying because they think it will make things worse, or they worry they’ll be seen as weak, or they’ve tried before and it went nowhere. So resilience also means normalizing the idea that getting support is not an admission of defeat. It is more like using tools. Nobody praises a carpenter for refusing to use a hammer.

Important point though, because this gets misunderstood: resilience does not mean “just put up with it.” It does not mean adults shrug and say “build character.” That would be lazy, not resilient. The best approach is both stopping harmful behavior where possible and strengthening the person so that if something slips through, it doesn’t define them or follow them around for years like an unwanted theme song.

In the end, you can’t guarantee a world with zero unkindness. But you can help build people who are not easily broken by it, who can recover, and who don’t start believing the worst things said about them are automatically true. And that is a pretty solid backup system for real life.

Chayi Hanfling is a licensed clinical social worker who is experienced and passionate in helping individuals, families, and couples. She specializes in couples counseling, EFT, women’s health, anxiety management, OCD, trauma, and other mental health challenges. She can be reached at https://chaicounseling.org or [email protected]

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded compensation fund for political allies, ABC News reported Thursday night.

The fund would be administered by a commission empowered to pay out claims from anyone alleging they were harmed by the Biden administration’s alleged “weaponization” of the legal system — including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot, virtually all of whom Trump pardoned upon returning to office.

Trump filed the IRS suit after Charles Littlejohn, a former agency contractor, leaked his tax returns to the New York Times and other outlets in 2019 and 2020. The leaked returns showed Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. Littlejohn was sentenced in 2024 to the maximum five-year prison term after pleading guilty to unauthorized disclosure of tax returns. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric filed separate suits stemming from the same leaks.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Justice Department had been holding internal settlement discussions. According to ABC News, the $1.7 billion fund is now the central condition for Trump to withdraw his legal actions against the federal government. The arrangement is not yet final.

Under the expected terms, Trump himself would be barred from directly receiving payments, though entities associated with him would not be explicitly prohibited from filing additional claims.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The pageantry of President Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping was undercut Thursday by a series of physical confrontations behind the scenes, as Chinese officials clashed repeatedly with American journalists, Secret Service agents, and White House staff throughout the day.

In the first incident, an aggressive Chinese press pack charged into Trump’s morning bilateral meeting with Xi, knocking down and trampling a White House advance team member. The aide was bruised and shaken but not seriously injured. Her colleagues loudly protested the behavior.

The second confrontation came at the Temple of Heaven, where Chinese officials refused to admit a Secret Service agent accompanying the presidential press pool because he was carrying a firearm, which is standard practice for the agency. A standoff ensued, with the American delegation refusing to proceed without the agent and Chinese officials refusing to allow his weapon inside. After 30 minutes of arguments, a second agent who had already been cleared was brought in to escort reporters inside while the first stayed behind.

A third flashpoint erupted when Trump’s departure from the temple was held up after Chinese officials refused to allow American reporters to rejoin the presidential motorcade, prompting another round of loud confrontations. With Trump already waiting in the motorcade, a White House staffer finally announced “we are going”, the cue for the American contingent to push past Chinese officials and run for the cars. A fresh group of Chinese officials gave chase across the temple grounds with arms outstretched, but the Americans pressed through and reached the convoy.

Throughout the day, American journalists were also subjected to tight restrictions that included limited bathroom access and the confiscation of water bottles, with no alternative hydration provided despite temperatures topping 80 degrees in the Chinese capital.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

LISTEN:

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New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  The shiniest block of cheese in the sample box looked almost wet under the light. The head of the cheese company had brought a small assortment of his products to the OU offices, hoping for certification on some of them. He saw Rabbi Avraham Gordimer reach toward the glossy one and stopped him.

“Rabbi, you don’t want to touch that one,” he said. “That cheese is coated with lard.”

The Gemara in Avodah Zarah 35b discusses the prohibition of non-kosher cheese. The gezeirah is two thousand years old. The product on the desk was being sold in American supermarkets last year.

Kosher cheese is one of the most labor-intensive certified products in the world. The reasons go back to the Mishnah in Avodah Zarah 29b, run through a centuries-old machlokes between the Rema and the Shach, and end with a mashgiach climbing a ladder at 2 in the morning in a Wisconsin factory to pour rennet into a vat the size of a small swimming pool. This is what is behind the price tag.

The Sticker Shock

At kosher supermarkets across the greater metropolitan area, eight ounces of aged Romano runs about $9.99. Pecorino can hit $31.99 a pound. Six ounces of kosher pepper jack is $5.99. And Cholov Yisrael cheeses can cost two to three times what mainstream cheese costs.

What’s pshat?

The OU’s own answer to the obvious question is short: sending rabbinic field representatives to distant factories to supervise hard-cheese production for days on end is expensive. Almost every domestic and European hard-cheese plant is non-kosher when it is not running a special kosher run. Those costs land on the consumer.

But the cost analysis is the second answer, not the first. The first answer is halachic.

Cheese Is Not Just Kosher Milk

Most people assume kosher cheese is simple and straightforward: take kosher milk, turn it into cheese.

It is anything but.

Cheese has its own separate category in Yoreh Deah, with its own gezeirah and its own rules. Yoreh Deah 115:2 codifies the prohibition of gevinas akum: cheese made without on-site Jewish supervision is non-kosher, full stop. Even if the milk was chalav Yisrael and even if every ingredient is verified kosher. They are two unrelated prohibitions and two unrelated supervisions. A person who drinks chalav stam still must eat only gevinas Yisrael.

The Gemara in Avodah Zarah 35a-b offers a number of reasons for the gezeirah. The reason accepted by the Rif, the Rambam (Hilchos Maachalos Asuros 3:13), and the Mechaber in Yoreh Deah 115:2 is the position of Shmuel. Rennet, the enzyme that coagulates milk into cheese, was traditionally obtained from the fourth stomach of a calf. If that calf was not properly shechted, the rennet itself was neveilah. Adding it to a vat of milk turned the entire vat into a non-kosher product. The Mishnah Berurah and other commentators note that the gezeirah was made even though the issue would only arise occasionally.

The lard concern from the Gemara is a separate reason. It is the one that walked into Rabbi Gordimer’s office.

The Machlokes That Drives the Price

Yoreh Deah 115:2 is where the price of kosher cheese is set. The Rema on the spot writes that the gezeirah is satisfied when a Yisrael is present and supervising the cheesemaking, verifying that the rennet used is kosher. Watching is sufficient.

The Shach, in s”k 20 on the same se’if, disagrees sharply.

He builds his position on the wording of the Mishnah itself: when the Mishnah discusses chalav akum it includes the qualification that a Yisrael may watch without it being prohibited, but when it discusses gevinas akum, no such qualification appears. From this the Shach concludes that mere observation does not work. A Yisrael must himself dose the rennet into the milk, or own the milk or the cheese outright. Watching alone leaves the product gevinas akum.

The Bi’ur HaGra (115:14) and Pischei Teshuvah (115:6) both side with the Shach. The Aruch HaShulchan (115:19) also leans this way. The Shach compares cheesemaking to pas akum and bishul akum, both of which are remedied through a Jew performing the act, not through observation.

Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igros Moshe YD 3:13 rules like the Rema mei’ikar ha’din, but writes that one should ideally satisfy the Shach as well. Most major American agencies — OU, OK, Star-K, cRc — follow the Shach as standard practice.

This is the chumra that costs money. A mashgiach watching is one job. A mashgiach pouring is a different job, one that cannot scale, cannot be remoted, and cannot be automated without the special closed-rennetting systems that some plants have built at considerable expense.

In some modern factories the mashgiach activates an electronic rennet feed for every vat, controlled by a switch he alone operates. This satisfies the Shach, since the Yisrael is functionally performing the act. But programming and coordinating such a system requires extra engineering work, and most kosher cheese in the world is still made the older way: a mashgiach with a pail, a ladder, and a vat of milk.

Microbial Rennet and Gezeirah Lo Plug

Almost all rennet used in OU-certified cheese today is microbial. The enzyme chymosin is produced by genetically modified microorganisms grown in fermentation tanks. There is no calf anywhere in the system. By Shmuel’s logic, the entire original concern should have evaporated.

Tosfos in Avodah Zarah 35a addressed a version of this question almost a thousand years ago. The chachamim of Narbonne held that in their region, where vegetable rennet was the norm rather than animal rennet, the gezeirah did not apply. The Rambam disagreed. The Mechaber in Yoreh Deah 115:2 ruled with the Rambam and added explicitly that even cheese known to be made without animal rennet — even if the manufacturer is known to use only herbs — remains gevinas akum. The Rema agreed.

Most rishonim, as Tosfos himself records, treat gevinas akum as a davar she’b’minyan: a rabbinic decree that retains its force even when the underlying reason no longer applies, until and unless a larger beis din rescinds it. No such beis din has ever convened. The decree stands.

Rav Moshe Feinstein addressed the modern version of the question explicitly. Even if a non-Jewish manufacturer were fully ne’eman to confirm that only microbial rennet was used, Rav Moshe wrote, the cheese would still be no better than the cheese of Narbonne. Microbial rennet does not solve the halachic problem.

Every wheel of kosher mozzarella, including one made in a facility that has not seen animal rennet in fifty years, still requires a mashgiach.

The Mashgichim Who Live at the Factory

Cheese factories are not generally located near Jewish communities. Most are tucked away in remote stretches of the Midwest or overseas. The kosher market is small relative to the overall cheese market. Most factories therefore run kosher production in short campaigns. A team of mashgichim travels in, koshers the equipment if needed, supervises a few days of kosher cheesemaking, and goes home. They might return once a month.

But some factories make kosher cheese full-time. These have a dedicated mashgiach apartment or house on or near the property. A rotating team lives there. Two mashgichim on site at all times. One sleeps, the other supervises. Shifts run around the clock.

They live there year-round and Yom Tov too. Some factories keep a sukkah ready for the chag and a shofar on hand for Rosh Hashanah. The cheese line runs 24/7, and a mashgiach is there for every vat.

A Mashgiach Story From Northern Denmark

Mashgichim deal with all the regular headaches of constant travel: finding kosher food, locating minyanim, figuring out zmanim in unfamiliar places. Rabbi Gordimer shared a story from his early years at the OU in a recent interview on Youtube released by the OU.

He was sent to inspect four cheese plants in Denmark. One was in the far north. The trip fell in June, near the longest day of the year. He came off an overseas flight exhausted, checked into a hotel, and tried to sleep. There were no zmanim apps. He calculated by hand. Alos hashachar was around 11:30 at night. Netz hachama was around 3 in the morning. He set an old alarm clock, got maybe two hours of sleep, and went out for shacharis before sunrise.

“Not recommended,” he said. “But I had to do it.”

Mashgichim talk about plant odor sometimes. Hot vats of mozzarella whey cooker water put off a smell. Long shifts on overnight production runs are difficult work. Most of the public image of a mashgiach involves clean white coats and clipboards. The reality involves a lot of ladders, a lot of valves, and a lot of fatigue.

How American Kosher Cheese Came to Be

Before 1923, there was no organized kosher certification system in America. There were individual rabbis giving individual hechsherim, often in contested and overlapping arrangements. New York State had passed laws in 1915, strengthened in 1920, against fraudulent kosher representation. The constitutionality of those laws was defended all the way to the United States Supreme Court by attorney Samuel Hofstadter, later a judge, on behalf of New York State. But there was no national agency.

In 1923, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America established what would become OU Kosher. The first director was Abraham Goldstein, a chemist by training, which gave him an unusual grasp of the food additives entering the modern industrial supply chain. The first OU-certified product was Heinz vegetarian beans.

By the mid-1930s, about two dozen companies, including a few national brands, carried OU certification.

Dairy followed. A 1932 letter from the OU Women’s Branch announced that Borden cream cheese was now kosher for Passover, and pledged that the Women’s Branch would do everything in its power to make Borden’s kosher cream cheese popular among Orthodox consumers. Cream cheese is acid-set, which made it the easier first conquest.

Hard cheese (warning: pun forthcoming) was harder. For decades, kosher hard cheese in America came from a small number of facilities, often with mashgichim sent in for short campaigns. The economics were brutal. The Shach’s standard made automation impossible. Many projects simply did not survive.

Two things changed the landscape.

The first was the migration of major brands into kosher production. In 2015, a major mainstream string-cheese producer began producing OU-certified kosher string cheese, undercutting the smaller kosher specialists significantly on price. Wisconsin’s Lake Country Dairy now produces millions of pounds of kosher Italian-style Parmesan, Asiago, Romano, and mascarpone each year. Economies of scale at the largest companies mean kosher prices can sometimes approach non-kosher prices.

The second was the artisanal kosher cheese movement.

Producers partner with traditional cheesemakers in places like Sardinia, where a mashgiach sleeps in the barn for a full week during the kosher run. The kosher market now has Pecorino Romano aged eighteen months, blue cheese, Manchego, brie, camembert. Cheeses that did not exist on the kosher shelf a generation ago.

The OU’s arc, from a Borden cream cheese promotion letter to a mashgiach in a Sardinian barn, mirrors the larger story of how American kashrus turned a chaotic and contested practice into an industrial supervision system that now spans the globe.

How Cheese Is Actually Made

Two basic categories.

Acid-set cheese is the older, simpler kind. Bacteria in the milk convert the lactose into lactic acid; the acid causes the casein to curdle into something like cottage cheese. Cream cheese, farmer cheese, and ricotta are all acid-set. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igros Moshe YD 2:48 famously analyzed the cottage cheese question and inclined toward Rav Henkin’s position that acid-set cheese is not subject to the gezeirah of gevinas akum altogether, since the original concern was animal rennet. Rav Moshe stopped short of a clear heter, writing that the leniency should not be publicized. The Chochmas Adam (53:38) and the Aruch HaShulchan (YD 115:16) take the stricter view that all cheeses are subject to the gezeirah. Most American agencies, including the OU, follow Rav Henkin and certify acid-set cheese with yotzei v’nichnas spot-check supervision rather than mashgiach temidi.

Rennet-set cheese is what most people think of when they think of cheese: cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, swiss, parmesan, munster, romano. This is the cheese fully subject to the strict halachos of gevinas akum, including the Shach’s requirement of nesi’ah.

To make rennet-set cheese, the factory starts with milk delivered in tanker trucks. The trucks pick up raw milk from many farms — sometimes a dozen on a single route — and unload at the plant’s silos.

From there the milk is pumped into huge round vats called double-O vats. The vats are large enough that workers climb a ladder to look inside. Culture, which is bacterial culture or acid, is added first. Then the rennet. Rennet is extraordinarily potent. A tiny amount sets tens of thousands of pounds of milk.

Within minutes the milk curdles. Small gelatinous pellets form. These are the curds. The leftover liquid is whey. Roughly 90 percent of the vat becomes whey, 10 percent becomes curd. The curds are stirred, cut, drained, molded, and aged.

This author used to do a mini-type of cheese production in his 11th grade Kashrus class.  Recently, it was requested again.

The Italian Cheese Twist

Mozzarella and provolone go through an additional step called pasta filata. After the curds form, they are placed in a cooker filled with hot water at about 160 to 175 degrees. Mechanical augers stretch and pull the curd in the hot water. That stretching aligns the protein matrix and gives the cheese the elastic texture that pulls into long strings on a pizza slice.

Roughly a third of all cheese produced in America is mozzarella. Most of it is on its way to pizza shops.

And the Cheddar Twist

Cheddar gets its character from a different process — not pasta filata but cheddaring.

The cheese began in the 12th century in the village of Cheddar in Somerset, in southwestern England. Today only one traditional dairy remains in the village itself, and most of the world’s cheddar is industrial. The name is not protected, which is why supermarket cheddars in different countries taste so different from each other.

Traditional cheddar starts with raw milk from grass-fed cows. A single Somerset pasture might carry 18 varieties of grasses and herbs, maturing at different times of year and contributing different flavor notes to the cheese. The milk is heated, acidified with a yogurt culture, and set with rennet. As the chymosin in the rennet cleaves the kappa-casein, the proteins unravel and link together, and the milk forms a gel of curd.

So far this is the same process as any other rennet-set cheese. What makes a cheddar a cheddar is what happens next.

After the curd is cut and most of the whey drained off, the cheesemaker takes slabs of curd and stacks them. Then he restacks them slightly higher. Then higher again. The weight of the stack presses moisture out of the slabs below. Each restacking also stretches the curd, aligning the protein matrix into a tight, layered sheet. By the end, what was pillowy curd has become a dense, slightly rubbery material with most of the residual moisture squeezed out.

That is cheddaring. It produces the compact, slightly crumbly texture that gets sharper and drier as the cheese ages. Factory cheddar made with standardized milk approximates the result. The traditional version varies from day to day depending on what the cows ate.

The wheel is then pressed into a round mold and aged on shelves in conditions designed to mimic the cool English caves where cheddar was originally aged. Twelve to eighteen months is standard for a serious cheddar. Some carry far longer.

That aging is what eventually pulls cheddar into the discussion of waiting after cheese before meat. The drying that gives the cheese its character is what makes it brittle, and the brittleness is what lodges between the teeth.

The Mashgiach Climbs the Ladder

In traditional kosher cheese plants, the mashgiach’s job is physical. He carries a pail of rennet diluted with water. He checks that the rennet came from a sealed container with a proper hashgacha. He climbs the small ladder to the top of the double-O vat. He pours the rennet directly into the milk and watches it enter the vat.

That fulfills the Shach. The Yisrael has performed the nesi’ah.

A new vat starts every 30 to 45 minutes. Some plants begin at midnight or 2 in the morning and run for many hours. Fifteen or twenty vats a shift is normal. The mashgiach is there for each one. After the run ends, the plant goes down for an hour or two of cleaning and sterilization, then the next run starts.

What About Kashering the Equipment?

Many factories make both kosher and non-kosher cheese. Does the equipment need to be koshered before each kosher run?

Most of the time, no. Most cheeses are made well below yad soledet bo. Cheddar is made in the upper 90s. Mozzarella around 104. None of these come close to the threshold at which non-kosher taste transfers into the metal. So koshering the vats is usually not necessary.

Some cheeses are made at higher temperatures, and in those cases the mashgiach kashers the vats. That is a long process, water-intensive, but it gets done.

Brine tanks are a separate problem. Many cheeses — swiss, feta, mozzarella — are salted by being submerged in brine tanks, sometimes for days. Plants typically use the same brine for months at a time, since brine actually becomes more valuable as it absorbs cheese flavor. The tanks are often made of fiberglass, which cannot be kashered. A kosher production at such a plant means bringing in fresh brine and dedicated molds. The expense lands on the cheese.

The Whey Question

Whey is what is left after the curds are removed. Since whey is the part of the milk that never became cheese, its halachic status is different. According to most opinions, whey does not require mashgiach temidi. Kosher ingredients and kosher equipment are sufficient. Whey can be certified at a plant that makes non-kosher cheese.

Two things complicate this. If the cheese vat is above yad soledet bo, the taste of the non-kosher cheese transfers into the whey, and the whey is now non-kosher. The more common problem is mozzarella. The hot water in the mozzarella cooker absorbs significant fat and salt from the cheese. Non-kosher plants sometimes funnel that cooker water back into the whey tank because it has commercial value. Once that happens the whey is non-kosher.

Certifying whey at a non-kosher cheese facility requires a hard pipe drain that sends the cooker water to the ground rather than into the whey. Without that, no certification.

Mah Rabu Maasecha

Milk should not behave the way it behaves.

Most biological fluids loaded with protein and minerals will coagulate readily under stress, including heat. Milk can be boiled for hours without curdling. Pour a glass and the protein does not settle to the bottom even after a long time. Something is holding it in suspension against forces that would otherwise pull it apart.

The main protein in milk is casein. Casein is arranged into spherical bundles called micelles, roughly 200 nanometers across. The outer surface of each micelle is coated with a variant of the protein called kappa-casein, whose chains extend outward from the surface like fine hairs about seven nanometers long. Under an electron microscope the surface looks furry. The technical term in the dairy literature is the hairy layer.

Two forces keep the micelles apart. The hairs themselves create steric repulsion — they physically push against the hairs of any neighboring micelle. They also carry a negative electric charge, which adds electrostatic repulsion on top of the steric one. Two systems, working together, keep the milk in even suspension.

That protective coating is meant to come off. It comes off in response to rennet.

Rennet — chymosin, in its biochemical name — acts as a very specific molecular scissors. Out of the kappa-casein chain, which contains hundreds of amino acid bonds, chymosin recognizes and cuts at one position: between the phenylalanine at position 105 and the methionine at position 106. Phe-Met 105-106. Nowhere else on the protein.

Cut that single bond and the protective hairs separate from the micelle. Steric repulsion is gone. The negatively charged piece drifts off into the whey. The micelles, now bare, do what they otherwise wanted to do all along: they aggregate. The whole vat changes state. What was milk becomes curd within minutes.

So cheese, in a sense, is not milk transformed. It is milk un-switched.

Hashem built a switch into the protein at position 105-106 and gave the calf a stomach lined with the precise enzyme that recognizes that one specific bond. The substrate and the enzyme fit each other. Two pieces of the same system designed to meet. Chazal made a gezeirah on this enzyme because of where it might have come from. Modern biochemistry has shown what the enzyme is actually doing in the milk.

Mah rabu maasecha Hashem.

Waiting After Cheese Before Eating Meat

Everyone knows about waiting after meat before dairy. Fewer people know that there are rules about waiting after certain cheeses before meat.

Before any dairy is followed by meat, a person washes his hands, rinses his mouth with a liquid, and either brushes his teeth or eats a pareve food that cleans the mouth (Shulchan Aruch YD 89:2).

Aged cheeses go further. The Rema in Yoreh Deah 89:2 writes that the minhag is not to eat meat, even poultry, after hard cheese, and that one should wait the same time period one waits after meat before dairy. Three hours, six hours, depending on minhag. The Mishnah Berurah confirms that this has become the accepted practice for Ashkenazic Jewry.

Two reasons appear in the rishonim. Rashi (on Chullin 105a) explains that meat — and, by analogy, hard cheese — releases fat that adheres to the mouth and produces a lingering taste. Mashichas ta’am. The Rambam in Hilchos Maachalos Asuros 9:28 explains the waiting after meat as being about basar bein hashinayim, pieces caught between the teeth. The Pri Chadash (89:2) applies the same reasoning to aged cheese: hard cheese, like meat, can park itself in the teeth and remain there for a while. The TaZ (89:4) cites Rashi’s mashichas ta’am reason. Most poskim consider both reasons to be operative.

Which cheeses qualify?

The Shach (89:15) and TaZ (89:4) say that hard cheese for this purpose means cheese aged approximately six months. The TaZ adds Swiss cheese to the list even without six months of aging — the holes from worms (in the original European production) were taken as a sign of pungency on their own. The Aruch HaShulchan (89:11) extends the rule to “Swiss and Hollander cheese, which have a lot of fat and their taste endures for a long time.”

Practically, this means aged cheddar, parmesan (which is aged at least 10 months by law), aged Romano, aged Asiago, aged Gouda, and any cheese with a notably pungent taste. Limburger qualifies even fresh, on pungency alone. Rav Belsky used six months as a general threshold.

Fettuccine Alfredo and the Cooked-In Cheese Question

The waiting rule sounds clean until one runs into Fettuccine Alfredo.

The dish was invented in Rome in 1914. A restaurant owner named Alfredo di Lellio had an expecting wife who could not hold down food. He invented a pasta dish he hoped she would tolerate: fettuccine tossed with butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. She kept it down. He added it to his menu. In 1927 the Hollywood actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford honeymooned in Rome, ate at the restaurant, and brought the dish home. It became world-famous.

And it raised a real halachic question. The dish is loaded with Parmesan, a hard cheese that under ordinary circumstances would trigger the six-hour wait. On a pizza, the Parmesan triggers the wait. Should it trigger the wait in a cooked pasta sauce as well?

Eight years before the dish was invented, in 1906, an av beis din named Rabbi Yehudah Leibish Landau in Sadigora published a commentary on the kashrus section of Yoreh Deah called Yad Yehudah. In 89:30 he writes that the stringency of waiting after hard cheese does not apply when the cheese has been melted into a tavshil shel gevina — a pareve dish into which the cheese has been melted indiscernibly. His reasoning follows the Pri Chadash. If the issue is brittle pieces lodging in the teeth, then cheese melted into a sauce no longer has the texture that creates the problem. The reason is gone; the chumra goes with it.

Most American va’adei kashrus follow the Yad Yehudah for cooked cheese dishes. Fettuccine Alfredo, baked ziti, broccoli kugel — these generally do not carry warning labels for six-hour cheese.

But the question is not closed. Rav Shraga Feivel Cohen zt”l, one of the leading American poskim of the past generation and the mechaber of Badei HaShulchan, who was niftar in November 2022, raised a substantive challenge in his treatment of Hilchos Basar VeChalav (perek 89, page 64 of the Biurim).

The Yad Yehudah’s heter depends on accepting the Pri Chadash’s reason for the chumra — pieces in the teeth. But Rashi and the TaZ explain it differently. They hold the issue is mashichas ta’am, lingering fatty taste. Cooking softens texture. It does not necessarily eliminate the taste. Rav Cohen concluded with tzarich iyun.

The OU’s own published position adopts a sharper reading of the Yad Yehudah. They limit his heter to cases where the cheese is melted into a dish and is no longer b’eyn — not visibly discernible. Pizza, where the cheese sits on top in clearly visible globs, would not qualify under the OU’s reading. Other poskim, including the Badei HaShulchan itself (89:3 in the Biurim, on the relevant phrase), read the Yad Yehudah more broadly and apply the heter to any melted aged cheese. The Mesorah Journal volume 20, page 92, surveys the debate at length.

A separate svara has been suggested: that mixing the Parmesan with butter, cream, and the rest of the sauce dilutes the cheese’s halachic identity. When this rationale was presented to Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l, he reportedly rejected it. Mixing hard cheese with other dairy ingredients does not mitigate its halachic status.

If Rav Elyashiv’s position is taken seriously, the implications reach further than pasta. Standard American processed cheese — the orange slices people picture when they hear the word “cheese” — contains real cheddar in its formulation. The orange color is not just food coloring on a generic dairy base. There is actual cheddar in the mix. If mixing does not mitigate, a long list of common kosher dairy products comes under scrutiny.

In practice, many a Vaad  Harabbonim follow the Yad Yehudah, particularly when the cooking and mixing factors are both present. As in every area of halacha, one’s own rav should be consulted on specific cases.

The Parmesan Shaker

What about the parmesan shaker on the table at the kosher pizza store?

Rav Belsky zt”l drew a distinction. Real grated parmesan — made by shredding actual aged parmesan into small pieces — is still aged cheese. The pieces are smaller, but they are the same brittle dried-out aged cheese that lodges in the teeth. A person must wait after it.

Many cheese powders used today in flavored snacks and shakers are not natural cheese in the same sense. They are made by melting cheese, blending it with a majority of water and other additives, and then spray-drying the mixture into a powder. The aged texture is gone. The fat content is diluted. Rav Belsky ruled that for these spray-dried cheese powders there is no need to wait. The strict waiting requirement was a chiddush of the poskim, and a chiddush is not extended to cases the original ruling did not clearly include.

So a flavored snack dusted with cheddar powder is in a different category than a chunk of aged cheddar.  The article was written in honor of the shalom zachar of the author’s new grandson (with the hope that the editor will not remove the dedication).

Halacha L’maaseh: Waiting After Cheese

Wait the full meat-to-milk interval (3 or 6 hours per minhag) after:

• Aged cheddar (aged 6 months or more)

• Parmesan (all parmesan is aged at least 10 months by law)

• Real shredded or grated parmesan

• Aged Romano, aged Asiago, aged Pecorino, aged Gouda

• Swiss cheese (TaZ 89:4)

• Limburger (pungency qualifies it even when fresh)

• Any cheese with a notably pungent taste

No waiting required after:

• Spray-dried cheese powder in flavored snacks (chips, crackers, popcorn seasonings)

• Powdered cheese in shaker form that is reconstituted from melted cheese plus water and additives

• Mild cheddar (aged less than 6 months)

• Soft cheeses: mozzarella, cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, farmer cheese

Common practice based on the Yad Yehudah, though Badei HaShulchan raises tzarich iyun:

• Hard cheese melted into a cooked dish (Fettuccine Alfredo, baked ziti, lasagna, broccoli kugel)

• The OU’s position limits this leniency to cases where the cheese is no longer visibly discernible in the dish.

In all cases, a person must still wash hands, rinse the mouth, and either brush teeth or eat a pareve food before transitioning from dairy to meat. The above reflects the rulings of Rav Belsky zt”l as taught at the OU. A person’s own rav should be consulted for specific cases.

The Bottom Line

The kosher cheese in the shopping cart is the visible end of a long chain. A mashgiach on a ladder. A machlokes between the Rema and the Shach. A Mishnah in Avodah Zarah. And, written into the protein chain at position 105-106, a switch that flips on contact with one specific enzyme. The OU video can be seen here.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Tefila4Life-Shiur-1084-From-Him-Vayevarech-Dovid.mp3

The IDF on Friday morning announced the death of Staff Sgt. Negev Dagan HY’D, 20, a soldier in the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, who was killed overnight during operational activity in southern Lebanon.

According to the military, Dagan, a resident of the southern community of Dekel, was killed after Hezbollah terrorists launched mortar fire toward Israeli forces operating in the area.

The incident marks another deadly attack along Israel’s northern front, where IDF troops continue carrying out operations against Hezbollah infrastructure and terror activity in southern Lebanon amid ongoing tensions and repeated cross-border attacks.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  A Nazi guard shot the Klausenberger Rebbe zt”l in the arm. They were in Auschwitz. It did not take ruach hakodesh for the Rebbe to know that the camp infirmary was a death sentence dressed up as medicine. Everyone pretty much knew that walking through that door meant never walking out.

So the Rebbe healed himself.

He plucked a leaf from a nearby tree and pressed it against the wound. He broke off a branch, tied it around his arm, and walked away. Three days later the wound was closed.

Standing there in the filth of Auschwitz, blood drying on his sleeve, the Rebbe made a vow. If he lived through this, he would build a hospital in Eretz Yisrael. Every patient would be treated with dignity. Every doctor and nurse would believe in a Creator. Healing a Jew, they would understand, is among the greatest mitzvos in the Torah.

Thirty-two years later. Union City, New Jersey. A modest yeshiva building. It is the spring of 1976, just after Purim, and the Rebbe is hosting a Shalom Zachar.

Not for his son. Not for a grandson. And not for any child of any chassid.

That week, the maternity ward at Laniado Hospital in Netanya had opened its doors. A boy had been born — the first child to enter the world in the Rebbe’s hospital. Someone in Netanya picked up a phone. They held the receiver up in the nursery so the Rebbe in New Jersey could hear the baby cry.

That cry tore through him.

The Nazis were gone. Klal Yisroel had survived. A new Jewish child had drawn his first breath in a hospital built on a vow made in Auschwitz.

How could the Rebbe not make a Shalom Zachar?

AFTER MAARIV THIS SHABBOS

Across the world this Shabbos, gabbaim will announce a Shalom Zachar at the home of a new father. The week was long. The couch looks inviting. Going out into the cold to nibble arbis at a stranger’s table is not what tired feet want.

But the emotion the Klausenberger felt that night a half century ago. in 1976 is the emotion behind every Shalom Zachar. A Jewish child is here. The chain held. Klal Yizroel continues

WHY KNOW THE REASONS

The Rambam writes that understanding the reasons behind mitzvos matters (Hilchos Me’ilah 8:8, and again in Moreh Nevuchim 3:31). The Zohar (Yisro 93b) says the same. So does Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei HaAvodah #54. The principle holds for minhagim as well. Three classical reasons are given for the Shalom Zachar. A fourth will be proposed here.

REASON ONE: GRATITUDE

The Terumas HaDeshen (Siman 269) calls it a seudas hoda’ah — a meal of thanks. Thanks for the safe passage of the child through the dangers of birth. He reads this into the Tosfos in Bava Kamma 80a (d“h Yeshua HaBen) citing Rabbeinu Tam.

A NEW ANGLE ON GRATITUDE

The Klausenberger’s Shalom Zachar in Union City opens a wider window. Perhaps the baby in the cradle stands for something larger than himself. Perhaps he stands for Klal Yisroel.

That infant survived the Rindfleisch massacres. He survived the Crusades. He survived Chmielnicki’s Tach VeTat. He survived the Russian pogroms. He survived Auschwitz. He survived October 7th. Every Jewish baby born today is a survivor of every catastrophe that came before him.

Hakaras hatov for that survival is not a small thing. It shapes a person. A Jew who feels gratitude — to Hashem and to the people around him — becomes a different kind of oveid Hashem than a Jew who does not.

REASON TWO: THE LOST TORAH

The TaZ cites the Drisha — Rav Yehoshua Falk (1555–1614), one of the towering Polish poskim of his generation. The Drisha builds on the Gemara in Niddah 30b. A child in the womb learns the entire Torah from a malach. At the moment of birth the malach strikes the baby on the mouth and the Torah is forgotten. The Shalom Zachar, says the Drisha, mourns that loss.

The implication is sharp. Torah is not a feature of Jewish life; Torah is life itself. “Ki heim chayeinu v’orech yameinu,” the Maariv quietly insists every night. The Drisha hears those words in the cry of a newborn.

REASON THREE: SHABBOS

The TaZ offers his own reason, rooted in the Midrash (VaYikra Rabba 27. The Midrash explains why a bris waits until the eighth day: a king’s subjects must first present themselves before the matronisa — the queen — before approaching the king himself.

Shabbos is that matronisa.

The TaZ extends the idea. The Shalom Zachar is held on Shabbos. Why? Because Shabbos is the gateway through which the new Jew enters.

The line is often quoted: more than the Jew has kept Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jew. Ahad Ha’am wrote it, and he was no shomer Shabbos, which makes the line stranger and somehow truer. Every Shalom Zachar is a small reminder of what Shabbos is doing for the people sitting around the table.

REASON FOUR: JEWISH CONTINUITY

Here is a reason not found explicitly in the early sources but written into the Klausenberger’s actions in Union City.

The Terumas HaDeshen says the meal thanks Hashem for saving the child from the dangers of birth. But perhaps we can stretch that thought outward.

Every Jewish birth is salvation from a danger larger than the labor room. The danger is historical. The danger is theological. Pharaoh tried to end this baby. Haman tried. Hadrian tried. Chmielnicki tried. Hitler tried. Hamas tried. Boruch hashem, none of them succeeded.

The Chasam Sofer read “od Yosef chai” as a statement about Jewish endurance against every odd. The Satmar Rav, walking through the smoking ruins of postwar Europe, said the rebuilding of frum life was the answer no historian could have predicted. Rav Hutner, in his letters, called the post-Churban generation a generation of revival written into the bones of broken survivors.

A Shalom Zachar is, on this reading, a quiet declaration.

THE OBVIOUS QUESTION: WHY NOT FOR GIRLS

Rav Yechezkel Landau of Prague pressed the question in his Dagul Mervavah on Yoreh Deah. If the Shalom Zachar thanks Hashem for the safe birth of a child, a daughter’s arrival is no less worthy of thanks. Where is her seudah?

The answer may be hiding in plain sight. Maseches Smachos (Aivel Rabbasi 2:3) refers to a meal called Shavuah HaBas — the parallel to the Shavuah HaBen mentioned in Bava Kamma. The kiddush thrown in shul when a girl is born may be the surviving form of that ancient seudah.

Some report that Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l advised single women still waiting for their shidduch to sponsor a kiddush in shul, framing it as a fulfillment of the Shavuah HaBas. Others dispute that this was actually his position. Either way, the textual basis for celebrating a daughter’s arrival publicly is older than most assume.

WHY THE NAME SHALOM ZACHAR

The Yaavetz in Migdol Oz writes that the name itself encodes the Drisha’s reason. Zachar means to remember. The seudah remembers the Torah the baby learned in the womb and lost on his way into the world. Shalom carries its own freight — the Mishnah in Uktzin closes by calling shalom the vessel that holds all blessing.

IS IT A SEUDAS MITZVAH

The Terumas HaDeshen rules yes, and brings a proof. The Gemara in Bava Kamma records that Rav attended a Yeshua HaBen — the older name for this gathering. The Gemara in Chullin 95b tells us Rav never ate at a seudas reshus. By elimination, the seudah he attended must have been a seudas mitzvah.

The Chavos Yair (Siman 70) is not convinced. Maybe Rav only stopped in. Maybe he did not eat. The question is left open. Most poskim follow the Terumas HaDeshen.

WHEN THE BRIS IS DELAYED

Sometimes a baby is jaundiced. Sometimes there is another medical reason to push off the bris. When the bris will not happen within the week, when does the Shalom Zachar take place? The Yaavetz and the Chochmas Adam (149:24) hold the seudah moves — it is held on the Shabbos before the eventual bris. The Zocher HaBris disagrees and says it is always on the Shabbos following the birth, full stop. The language of the Rama leans this way. Common practice today follows the birth, not the bris.

BORN ON FRIDAY NIGHT

A baby born after candle-lighting on Friday creates a logistics problem. The Pri Megadim (MZ YD 444:9) rules to hold the Shalom Zachar as close to the birth as possible — that Shabbos. The Chayei Adam rules the opposite: hold it as close to the bris as possible. Ask a rav.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS WORTH KNOWING

What gets served. Arbis — chickpeas — are the iconic Shalom Zachar food. The Maharil already mentions them. The simple reason: chickpeas are a mourner’s food, and the seudah carries an element of mourning for the lost Torah. Other foods follow no fixed law; cake, fruit, herring, and kugel are normal.

Twins, both boys. Most poskim hold one Shalom Zachar suffices. Two seudos are not required and not customary.

Caesarean birth. A Shalom Zachar is held as usual. The mitzvah is the birth of the child, not the manner of delivery.

During the Nine Days, Sefirah, or while in aveilus. A Shalom Zachar is a seudas mitzvah and overrides these restrictions. Music and frivolity are scaled back; the seudah itself proceeds.

Divrei Torah. The minhag is to learn or speak something. The Niddah 30b sugya is the most traditional choice — a small return of what the baby just lost.

BACK TO UNION CITY

Picture the Rebbe in 1976 holding that phone to his ear. A baby he had never met, born in a hospital he built on a vow made under a Nazi guard’s rifle, was crying into the receiver. The Rebbe wept. Then he sat down and made a seudah.

The walk down the block on Friday night is short. The reason to go is not.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Yosef Chaim Lieberman zt”l of Lakewood, formerly of Boro Park, who was niftar at the age of 98.

A remarkable survivor of the Churban Europe and a living link to the great dor of prewar Torah Jewry, Rav Yosef Chaim endured hunger, concentration camps, and unimaginable upheaval as a young child in Antwerp during the Holocaust, while clinging fiercely to Torah umitzvos under the harshest conditions.

Even as refugee children escaping war-torn Europe, the Lieberman siblings became known for their uncompromising insistence on kashrus and maintaining Yiddishkeit wherever they went.

After surviving the war years in Europe, Rav Yosef Chaim arrived in America as part of the famed Kindertransport aboard the Nyassa. He learned in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l, spending Yomim Tovim in the rosh yeshiva‘s home and maintaining a close lifelong kesher to the yeshiva.

He later learned for seven years in Lakewood under Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, with whom he shared a uniquely close kesher, and became close friends and chavrusos with Rav Dov Schwartzman zt”l for many years. His older brother was the noted talmid chochom Rav Dovid Moshe Lieberman zt”l, prominent rov in Antwerp.

Already as a bochur, Rav Yosef Chaim received semichah from Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l — something Rav Moshe rarely granted to younger talmidim.

For close to fifty years, Rav Yosef Chaim resided in Boro Park, where he was among the founding members of the Lakewood Minyan.

For the last twenty years, he lived in Lakewood, where he became a fixture at Bais Medrash Kol Shimshon, spending his days immersed in learning with remarkable hasmadah and consistency well into his later years.

Rav Yosef Chaim was zocheh to raise a family of eleven children, all bnei and bnos Torah, continuing the legacy of Torah and emunah that defined his life.

Yehi zichro baruch.

ANN ARBOR  (VINnews) – Elie Kligman, a catcher for the University of Michigan baseball team, has made history as the first Orthodox Jew to compete in NCAA Division I baseball.

Kligman, a graduate student from Las Vegas, Nevada, balances elite athletics with strict religious observance. From sundown Friday until nightfall Saturday, he is unavailable to play or practice due to his observance of Shabbos.

His teammates and coaches have fully embraced his commitment, viewing it as an inspiration rather than an obstacle.

“Thank G-d we have him,” one team member said, reflecting the program’s supportive stance toward Kligman’s dedication to his faith.

Kligman, listed at 6-foot, 202 pounds, bats switch and throws right-handed. He joined the Wolverines this season after previous stops at Sacramento State and other programs, continuing a trailblazing path that includes being drafted in the 20th round by the Washington Nationals in 2021.

Michigan Baseball highlighted his arrival, stating he is “making history.” The program and broader Jewish community have celebrated the milestone, with leaders like Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League offering congratulations for breaking barriers and paving the way for future Orthodox Jewish athletes.

Kligman’s journey highlights the challenges and triumphs of maintaining religious principles at the highest levels of college sports. His story has resonated widely, demonstrating how faith and athletics can coexist with mutual respect and accommodation.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Pro-Israel demonstrators gathered Thursday outside the Manhattan offices of The New York Times to protest a recent opinion piece alleging abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities.

"Fire Kristof!" – Pro-Israel protesters gathered outside of the New York Times accusing the paper of "Blood Libel" and demanding the firing of journalist Nicholas Kristof

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 | Licensing [email protected] pic.twitter.com/ggFH6huMmk

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 14, 2026

The rally drew hundreds of participants carrying Israeli flags and signs criticizing the newspaper’s coverage of Israel and the ongoing war with Hamas. Protesters chanted slogans accusing the publication of spreading false or misleading claims about Israel.

The demonstration was organized by several Jewish and pro-Israel activist groups.

The protest followed publication of a column by Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof discussing allegations of mistreatment and sexual abuse involving Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Israeli officials and supporters of Israel sharply rejected the allegations and accused the newspaper of promoting biased reporting.

Some protesters said they believed media organizations have devoted insufficient attention to documented atrocities committed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The demonstration reflected continuing tensions surrounding media coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and divisions over how the war is portrayed internationally.

MELVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A large sinkhole that suddenly opened on the Long Island Expressway Thursday afternoon caused major traffic disruptions in Suffolk County and left one vehicle partially trapped in the damaged roadway, authorities said.

The collapse occurred on the westbound side of the highway near Exit 49 in Melville shortly after 1 p.m., according to police. Officials said the hole stretched several feet across and deep enough to partially swallow the front end of a passing vehicle.

No injuries were reported.

Emergency crews shut down multiple lanes while transportation workers began repairs and inspected the roadway for additional damage. Traffic remained backed up for miles during the evening commute as drivers were diverted through limited open lanes.

State transportation officials urged motorists to avoid the area if possible while repairs continued overnight.

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A CIA whistleblower told senators that internal intelligence assessments pointing to a lab leak as the most likely origin of COVID-19 were repeatedly sidelined by the Biden administration, raising new questions about how the government handled early conclusions about the pandemic.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, James Erdman III — a veteran CIA officer with more than 20 years of experience — alleged that key findings from agency scientists were excluded from official reports and never shared with Congress.

Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul said Erdman came forward despite significant personal risk, emphasizing the importance of transparency.

“According to his testimony, CIA scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19,” Paul said in his opening statement. “Yet those conclusions never shaped the official narrative, never made the intelligence report. Congress was never told.”

Paul further claimed that the timing of a later CIA assessment raised concerns about political motivations.

“It was not until after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue an assessment, not because of new intelligence, but so officials could walk out of the door claiming there was nothing left to find,” he said. “That is not analysis. That is a cleanup operation.”

Erdman appeared publicly despite objections from the CIA, which criticized the hearing as politically driven. Agency spokeswoman Liz Lyons said lawmakers acted improperly in compelling the testimony.

“The witness testifying today is not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul,” Lyons said.

Erdman’s attorney, Carol Thompson, said her client had concerns about possible retaliation but declined to elaborate further.

During the hearing, Erdman also pointed to the role of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci in shaping internal discussions about the virus’s origins.

“It was significantly influenced by Anthony Fauci, injecting himself into the IC [intelligence community],” Erdman said when asked whether the CIA minimized the possibility of a lab leak.

His testimony prompted calls from several Republican lawmakers for criminal action against Fauci.

“We just heard testimony that he intervened behind the scenes to try and get our own intelligence agency, CIA, FBI to change their assessment of the lab leak,” Sen. Josh Hawley said. “Why? Because he helped fund the Wuhan lab. He supported and funded gain-of-function research, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he worked to cover it up from the American people.”

“I hope he’s indicted,” Hawley added.

The hearing came shortly after the statute of limitations for certain potential charges related to Fauci’s prior testimony expired, though Paul signaled he intends to continue pursuing the matter.

“I’ve sent several criminal referrals on Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department,” Paul said. “And I hope they will be pursued at this time.”

Paul has long argued that Fauci misled Congress regarding research connected to Wuhan, an allegation Fauci has denied.

Former President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci near the end of his term, though President Donald Trump has said the pardon is invalid due to how it was signed. That claim has not yet been tested in court.

Separately, a former Fauci adviser, Dr. David Morens, was recently indicted by a federal grand jury on allegations tied to concealing information about the origins of the pandemic.

Tensions also flared between Republican senators and the CIA during the hearing, particularly over the agency’s characterization of the proceedings.

“This proceeding amounts to nothing more than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing,” Lyons said in a statement.

Sen. Ron Johnson sharply rejected that assessment.

“This is not political theater,” Johnson said. “I have years and years and years of built-up frustration of agencies like the CIA, Department of Justice, the FBI, HHS snubbing our oversight, giving us the big middle finger.”

Paul also defended holding the hearing in public, arguing transparency is essential.

“Closed-door testimony doesn’t provide oversight. Public testimony provides oversight,” he said.

Democratic members of the committee did not attend the hearing, drawing criticism from Republicans who said the absence undermined the seriousness of the issue.

“Nothing shocks me anymore with our colleagues from the other side of the aisle, but I’m shocked that not one of them showed up here,” Johnson said.

“This is serious oversight work,” he added. “This is what the American people need to see. And I just wish our Democrat colleagues had any level of curiosity about what’s happening inside the deep state.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno argued that Democrats avoided the hearing to sidestep accountability for pandemic-era decisions.

“This isn’t about politics, but somehow it’s become about politics because the Democrats don’t even want to hear the conversation about what obviously was a grave error that this country made during COVID,” Moreno said. “There’s never been a situation, certainly not in my lifetime, where you had decisions made that affected generations of Americans, kids that were absolutely deprived of their childhood, businesses that were destroyed, families that were torn apart, memories that you’ll never get back, trillions of dollars of economic loss.”

Erdman also accused the CIA of obstructing the investigation into COVID-19’s origins and retaliating against those involved.

“The CIA did not comply with lawful oversight during the DIG’s investigation,” he testified. “The CIA refused to provide information necessary to understand why analytic standards at the CIA were violated.”

He further alleged that agency officials monitored communications involving investigators and whistleblowers.

“These were Americans being spied upon illegally while executing duties directed by the president and under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence,” Erdman said.

According to his testimony, at least one contractor who cooperated with the investigation was dismissed.

Thompson said she hopes the public testimony will encourage others to come forward.

“There has been obstruction by those intelligence agencies, precluding those individuals from being able to conduct the investigation,” she said.

Hawley echoed those concerns, warning about broader implications.

“We have basically a systematic effort to violate the laws of Congress, to lie to the American people, to mislead the American people. And it’s still going on,” he said. “If you’ve got people who will just not follow the laws of Congress and lie openly to the American people, I don’t know how you can hope to preserve our country.”

{Matzav.com}

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said that marijuana use may be more widespread among lawmakers than publicly acknowledged, as she also renewed calls for broader legalization nationwide.

Speaking to TMZ in Washington, D.C., Omar — who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus — addressed ongoing discussions surrounding medical and recreational marijuana research. When asked whether it was surprising that no members of Congress openly identify as regular marijuana users, she suggested that advocacy and personal use are not necessarily connected.

“I will say –– advocacy for legalizing doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a user, so everybody can be an advocate to legalizing it because we understand that it is not OK for us to spend the billions of dollars we do now in incarcerating people for smoking a joint,” she said.

Pressed further on whether lawmakers themselves use cannabis, Omar laughed and indicated she believes such behavior is not uncommon on Capitol Hill.

“I think there are a lot of people who smoke cannabis in Congress,” she said, flashing a peace sign before ending the exchange.

Omar also argued that federal law should catch up with state-level changes, noting that many states have already legalized marijuana in some form. She pointed to President Donald Trump’s role in shifting Republican attitudes on drug policy and encouraging more dialogue within the party.

“I think any step forward is a good step, but we need to go farther than where we are yet,” she said. “We need to continue building the coalition, we need to continue to have people speak to the president. He has the power, Congress has the power, and it’s time for us to come together and get this done.”

Recent actions by the Trump administration reflect a broader shift in federal policy toward marijuana and psychedelic drugs. Last month, Trump signed an executive order easing restrictions on research into psychedelic substances, particularly for treating conditions such as depression and substance abuse.

The order also instructed the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate its review process, leading to approvals for certain psychedelic-based treatments. Several Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Morgan Luttrell of Texas and Jack Bergman of Michigan, have advocated for making such treatments available to veterans.

Shortly afterward, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche directed that state-approved medical marijuana be reclassified as less dangerous, aligning with what officials described as the president’s “promise to expand Americans’ access to medical treatment options.”

The move reduced regulatory burdens on medical marijuana and introduced tax benefits for licensed providers.

“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche said in his announcement at the time, posted to the social platform X.

While these developments have not significantly altered the legal status of recreational marijuana at the federal level, they represent a notable departure from the strict enforcement approach that defined the decades-long “war on drugs” launched during the Nixon administration.

{Matzav.com}