The Orthodox Jewish community in Queens is reeling after a longtime kosher bakery owner and former volunteer medic was found murdered near a lakeside area in Flushing.

Authorities say 75 year old Albert “Avromi” Itzkowitz was discovered Monday evening near Kissena Lake after officers responded to the area shortly before 5 p.m. According to police, he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including injuries to his neck and back, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators have not yet determined when the shooting took place or how long the body had been near the water before it was located.

Itzkowitz was widely known in the local Jewish community. In addition to operating the once popular G&I Kosher Bakery in Flushing for many years, he had also volunteered with Hatzolah, the volunteer emergency response organization that serves Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

Albert Itzkowitz

Community members described the former bakery owner as a familiar face to generations of customers who frequented the Main Street establishment before it eventually closed.

Police have not released any information regarding possible suspects or a motive, and investigators continue working to piece together the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.

The case remains under active investigation by the NYPD.

TORONTO (VINnews) — Toronto Police have elevated the search for a missing 14-year-old girl known as Esther or Esti to Priority 1 status, dedicating all available resources as community volunteers join the effort to bring her home safely.

Esther was last seen late Friday evening, May 15, 2026, near Earl Bales Park in the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West area of North York. She is described as 5-foot-2 with a medium build and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a green long-sleeve shirt, gray sweatpants and no shoes.

The search has intensified with hundreds of volunteers from Toronto’s Jewish community, including Shomrim Safety Patrol, assisting police with door-to-door canvassing, flyer distribution and searches in the wooded park and surrounding areas. A command center has operated from the Petah Tikvah Synagogue parking lot at 20 Danby Rd.

In a statement Tuesday, officials noted the escalation: “The search for missing youth Esti has now been escalated to Priority 1. Bringing her home safely remains our top priority. We joined Esti’s family today as the search continues, and we are grateful to the Toronto Police and Inspector Peter Wallace for dedicating every available resource to this effort.”

Police and volunteers urge anyone with information to call 911 immediately or contact Shomrim Toronto at (647) 557-6735. Toronto Police can also be reached at 416-808-3200 .

The community has been asked to check security cameras, backyards and sheds in the area and to continue sharing Esther’s photo widely. Her family has made emotional appeals for her safe return.

VINnews will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Deep concern continues to spread among the talmidim and admirers of the tzaddik of Tiveriah, Rav Dov Kook, whose condition reportedly worsened suddenly on Tuesday morning after several days of cautious optimism.

Rav Dov Kook has been hospitalized in serious condition at Poriya Medical Center in Teveria since the end of last week and remains in need of rachamei Shamayim.

Family members and close associates had expressed guarded hope earlier this week after a slight improvement was recorded in the rav’s condition, including a successful attempt by doctors to reduce the level of sedation.

However, talmidim were informed Tuesday that Rav Dov’s condition had suddenly deteriorated, forcing the medical staff to return him to full sedation in an effort to stabilize him.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri visited the hospital Tuesday to fulfill the mitzvah of bikur cholim. During the visit, he met with the rav’s sons, Rav Shmuel and Rav Yisroel Meir Kook, as well as hospital director Prof. Noam Yehudai, ICU director Dr. Moshe Matan, MK Uriel Busso, Deputy Mayor Yossi Oknin, and city council member Yosef Chaim Bernes.

The visit came one day after Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein, father-in-law of Rav Dov Kook, broke down in tears at the conclusion of his shiur while pleading for tefillos on behalf of his son-in-law.

Rav Zilberstein emotionally declared, “He is a person that the generation stands upon.”

Rav Moshe Chaim Schneider, a close talmid of Rav Dov Kook and chairman of the Sifsei Kohen Institute, which disseminates the rav’s Torah teachings, issued a heartfelt call urging the tzibbur to intensify tefillos ahead of Shavuos.

“We are now approaching Shavuos, an especially auspicious time, when all of Klal Yisroel was healed at Har Sinai,” Rav Schneider said. “Precisely now, we must unite כאיש אחד בלב אחד for the recovery of our rebbe, who dedicated his entire life for the benefit of the tzibbur, worked tirelessly on behalf of the sick, and whose pure tefillos stood by countless Yidden in their times of distress.”

He continued, “The zechus of our rebbe, who serves as a support for thousands and through whose brachos countless people have experienced yeshuos, should stand for all of us. We beg the tzibbur: tear open the gates of Heaven and arouse abundant Heavenly mercy for the complete recovery of our master and rebbe.”

All are asked to daven for the complete recovery of Rav Dov ben Shoshana.

A massive atzeres tefillah is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening, ערב חג השבועות, at 6:00 p.m. on the soccer field facing Rav Dov Kook’s home in Teveria.

{Matzav.com}

A terrible tragedy struck the Los Angeles frum community on Tuesday when a 4-year-old girl was niftar after being unintentionally left for hours inside a hot vehicle following her morning ride to school in Valley Village, California.

According to sources, the young child was picked up in the morning as part of a carpool headed to Yeshiva K’tana of Los Angeles. For reasons that remain unclear, the girl never left the vehicle upon arriving at the school.

Authorities believe the driver, seemingly unaware that the child was still seated inside, parked the vehicle and left, not realizing the little girl remained trapped in the intense heat for hours.

The devastating discovery was made later in the day when the child’s mother arrived at the school expecting to pick up her daughter, only to be told that the girl had never entered the school building that morning.

Panic immediately spread as the horrifying realization set in, and emergency responders rushed to the scene in a desperate effort to save the child. Despite their efforts, the girl could not be revived.

The tragedy has sent shockwaves throughout the Jewish community, leaving families and neighbors shattered by the unimaginable loss.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is facing growing criticism within his own party over efforts to appoint his longtime personal attorney, Michael Ravilo, as Israel’s next state comptroller, with senior Likud figures warning the move could politically backfire just months before elections.

According to a report by Channel 12 News, several coalition members had sought to advance the candidacy of Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron, who in the past challenged Supreme Court President Yitzchak Amit. However, sources inside Likud claimed Netanyahu’s office applied heavy pressure surrounding the appointment process, leaving Elron without enough political backing.

The controversy has now drawn in opposition lawmakers as well. Although opposition parties reportedly had no initial intention of supporting Elron, they ultimately decided he was a suitable candidate for the position.

Senior Likud officials sharply criticized Netanyahu’s push for Ravilo, arguing that appointing the prime minister’s former personal lawyer to oversee state accountability would create serious public backlash.

“The insane pressure coming from Netanyahu’s office surrounding the appointment of attorney Ravilo as state comptroller is a strategic mistake that will come back to hit us like a boomerang,” a senior Likud official said. “It is not appropriate for someone who served as the prime minister’s personal attorney to be the person overseeing him. This is a secret-ballot vote, and this whole situation could blow up in our faces.”

The official added even harsher criticism, warning that the political damage could hurt Likud at the ballot box.

“Just months before elections, Netanyahu is doing everything possible to push voters away from Likud,” the official said.

The drones that targeted the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant all came from Iraq, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, an indication that Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran were likely behind the assault.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Tehran and its militia proxies have launched drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states since Israel and the United States began their war against Iran on Feb. 28. In the past, the militias have provided Iran with a way to deflect blame over such attacks.

There were no reported injuries or radioactive leaks at Barakah after the attack, which Emirati officials said hit a generator on the facility’s perimeter.

But at an emergency U.N. Security Council session Tuesday, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog described his agency’s “grave concerns” about the growing trend of targeting operating nuclear plants in the Iran war.

“In case of an attack on the Barakah nuclear power plant, a direct hit, could result in a very high rate of radioactivity to the environment,” said Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief.

The UAE, which has hosted air defenses and personnel from Israel, recently accused Iran of launching drone and missile attacks even after its ceasefire with the U.S. began April 8.

In Iraq, government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi, without mentioning the Emirati accusations, said that Baghdad “expresses its strong condemnation of the recent drone attacks targeting the UAE.”

“We also emphasize the importance of effective regional and international cooperation to prevent any escalation or harm to the stability of the region, or any targeting of the security and sovereignty of sisterly and friendly nations,” al-Awadi added.

There were three other drones that targeted the country over the last two days, the UAE added, without elaborating on their targets. Saudi Arabia, which had also condemned the nuclear plant attack, later said it had intercepted three drones that had entered the kingdom from Iraqi airspace.

The $20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant was built by the UAE with the help of South Korea and went online in 2020. It is the only nuclear power plant in the Arab world and can provide a quarter of the energy needs in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms.

Earlier Tuesday, a prominent Emirati diplomat elliptically criticized regional countries over the attacks his country has faced.

“The confusion of roles during this treacherous Iranian aggression is baffling, encompassing the Gulf Arab region’s surrounding states,” Anwer Gargash wrote on X. “The victim’s role has merged with that of the mediator, and vice versa, while the friend has turned into a mediator instead of being a steadfast ally and supporter.”

(AP)

We regret to inform you of the Petirah of R’ Muti Feldbrand Z”L of Lakewood, who was tragically Niftar today at the age of 46.

R’ Muti Z”L, a beloved resident of Lakewood’s Twin Oaks neighborhood and of Toms River, suddenly collapsed at his home today. He was transported to the hospital, but unfortunately resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful R”L.

He leaves behind his wife and children, including one who became a Kallah just yesterday.

UPDATE: The Levaya is scheduled to take place at 9:00 PM tonight at the Chapel, 613 Ramsey Avenue, Lakewood. Kevurah in Lakewood.

Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.

Several days after the elimination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials in the opening strikes of the war against Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly mused about “bringing someone from within” to take over Iran.

According to a New York Times report, Trump had someone specific in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying former Iranian president known for his hardline anti-Israel and anti-American views.

But the secret plan to trigger regime change after the assassinations of Iran’s top leaders, developed by Israel and the US, and discussed with Ahmadinejad himself, quickly went wrong, according to US officials briefed on the plan who spoke to the Times.

Ahmadinejad was wounded on the first day of the war in an Israeli Air Force strike on his heavily guarded home in Tehran that was intended to kill his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guards and free him from house arrest, US officials said.

The strike successfully eliminated his guards but almost killed Ahmadinejad himself. He survived the strike, but the near-miss left him disillusioned with the regime-change plan. He has not been seen publicly since the strike, and his condition and whereabouts are unknown.

During his presidency from 2005 to 2013, Ahmadinejad was known for his calls to “wipe Israel off the map,” and his denial of the Holocaust. He was a strong supporter of Iran’s nuclear program, a fierce critic of the United States, and associated with violent crackdowns inside Iran.

However, in more recent years, Ahmadinejad clashed with Khameini and other regime leaders, accusing them of corruption, while they in turn questioned his loyalty. Three times — in 2017, 2021, and 2024 — Ahmadinejad attempted to run again for president, but each time Iran’s Guardian Council, a body of hardline jurists, blocked his candidacy. His aides were arrested, and he was confined to his home after publicly accusing senior regime officials of systemic corruption. Although he was never an open regime opponent, the regime increasingly viewed him as a destabilizing figure.

In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, Ahmadinejad praised Trump and even urged renewed rapprochement between Iran and the United States. “Trump is a man of action,” he said. “He is a businessman and therefore capable of calculating cost-benefit and making a decision. We tell him: Let’s calculate the long-term cost-benefit of our two countries and not be shortsighted.”

According to the report, bringing Ahmadinejad to power was intended as one step in Israel’s broader multi‑phase war strategy, with the initial phase consisting of the U.S. and Israeli aerial assault targeting the top Iranian leadership alongside a planned Kurdish offensive that ultimately never materialized.

US officials spoke at the start of the war about plans developed with Israel to identify a pragmatist capable of taking control of the country. Officials insisted that intelligence indicated that figures within the regime would be willing to work with the US, even if those individuals could not be described as “moderates.”

Iranian authorities have long accused Ahmadinejad’s inner circle of maintaining overly close ties with the West, and even alleged that some associates were spying for Israel. Speculation intensified in recent years due to Ahmadinejad’s visits to countries seen as close to Israel. In 2018, his former chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, stood trial and was questioned over alleged ties to Israeli and British intelligence agencies.

Ahmadinejad returned from a trip to Hungary just days before the outbreak of the war with Iran. He had been invited by a university affiliated with then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Trump.

Following the strike on Ahmadinejad’s home, an article published in The Atlantic in March cited anonymous associates of Ahmadinejad as saying that the former president had effectively been freed from house arrest and described the strike as a “rescue operation.”

Later, a source close to Ahmadinejad confirmed to the Times that Ahmadinejad viewed the strike as an attempt to free him. The source said that the US saw Ahmadinejad as someone capable of leading Iran, and he may “play a very important role” in Iran in the near future.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Gold prices struggled to recover Tuesday, hovering near $4,590 an ounce after suffering their sharpest weekly decline in months, as the unresolved U.S.-Iran conflict continued reshaping global inflation expectations and driving investors to price in a possible Federal Reserve rate hike before year-end rather than the cuts markets once expected.

The reversal marks a dramatic shift for the precious-metals market.

Earlier this year, gold surged to record highs above $5,200 an ounce as investors anticipated multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts, weakening real yields, and escalating geopolitical instability. But the prolonged energy shock tied to the Iran conflict has effectively flipped that entire macroeconomic narrative.

According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, traders now assign roughly a 40% probability to a 25-basis-point Fed rate hike by December, with some institutional desks placing the implied odds even higher.

The result has been unusually painful for gold despite the war backdrop that would historically boost demand for safe-haven assets.

Spot gold has fallen roughly $685 an ounce since late February, dropping from around $5,275 on the eve of Operation Epic Fury to near $4,590 this week. Over the same period, Brent crude surged from roughly $72 per barrel to near $120 at peak panic levels before stabilizing above $110.

The two assets investors traditionally pair together during geopolitical crises — oil and gold — are now moving in opposite directions.

“A geopolitical shock that simultaneously creates a severe inflation shock changes the entire rate environment,” one senior metals strategist at a major Wall Street bank said Tuesday. “That’s what gold is fighting right now.”

The core problem for gold is interest rates.

Rising oil prices tied to the Strait of Hormuz disruption are feeding directly into inflation expectations, forcing markets to assume the Federal Reserve may need to tighten policy rather than ease it.

That shift has sent Treasury yields sharply higher.

The U.S. 30-year Treasury yield climbed this week to its highest level since 2007, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury reached its highest level since early 2025. Real yields — one of the most important drivers for gold prices — are rising because nominal rates are increasing faster than inflation expectations.

That dynamic directly pressures non-yielding assets like gold.

The inflation fears intensified after recent economic data showed a much hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index reading alongside stronger industrial production numbers, effectively destroying the “soft landing” narrative that had fueled much of gold’s earlier rally.

Wall Street banks are now recalibrating their outlooks.

J.P. Morgan, which had previously projected gold could reach $6,300 an ounce by year-end, recently lowered portions of its near-term outlook as higher energy prices altered Federal Reserve expectations.

Goldman Sachs continues forecasting gold eventually reaching roughly $5,400, largely due to sustained central-bank demand, but warned clients that prolonged Hormuz disruption creates meaningful downside pressure in the near term if interest rates continue climbing.

Other bullish long-term forecasts from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and BNP Paribas were all issued before oil prices surged above $100 and before markets began pricing in renewed monetary tightening.

The policy environment has become the exact opposite of what historically drives strong gold rallies.

Throughout most of 2025, gold benefited from expectations of lower rates, a softer dollar, slowing growth, and reserve diversification away from the U.S. currency system. The Iran conflict has reversed much of that equation.

Markets are now pricing almost no meaningful Fed cuts next year, while the U.S. dollar has strengthened as investors increasingly view the American economy — now a major oil producer itself — as more insulated from the energy shock than Europe or parts of Asia.

One major pillar supporting gold, however, remains intact: central-bank buying.

Global central banks continue accumulating gold reserves at historically elevated levels as countries seek diversification away from the dollar-dominated financial system. Surveys conducted by major investment banks show a large majority of central banks still expect gold prices to remain above $5,000 over the next 12 months.

That demand is helping establish a floor under the market even as hedge funds and institutional investors reduce positions tied to falling rate-cut expectations.

The broader strategic case for gold also remains largely unchanged.

For many long-term investors, gold increasingly functions less as a short-term inflation hedge and more as insurance against rising sovereign debt burdens, persistent fiscal deficits, and long-term currency debasement risks across developed economies.

But the near-term setup remains difficult.

Technical analysts say gold’s recent breakdown below key momentum levels leaves the market vulnerable to additional downside pressure if rates continue climbing and oil prices remain elevated. Several trading desks now view the $4,500 level as a major support zone, with further declines potentially opening a path toward the low $4,300 range.

The clearest upside catalyst would likely be a meaningful diplomatic breakthrough between Washington and Tehran.

Reports continue circulating that negotiators remain close to a framework agreement that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief and restrictions on Iranian uranium enrichment. Such a deal would likely reduce oil prices, ease inflation fears, lower Treasury yields, and revive expectations for eventual Fed easing — a combination that would immediately benefit gold.

Until then, markets remain trapped in the same macro trade dominating nearly every asset class tied to the conflict.

Oil higher. Yields higher. Dollar higher. Gold lower.

The metal that traditionally protects investors during war is now being overwhelmed by the inflation and interest-rate shock the war itself created.

— JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

Israeli officials currently expect Ben Gurion Airport to remain operational even if fighting with Iran resumes, marking a significant shift from previous rounds of conflict in which Israeli airspace was shut down immediately after hostilities began.

According to a report by Channel 14, the assessment is based on what Israeli officials describe as a dramatic decline in Iran’s missile-launch capabilities following earlier military operations.

During Operation Am K’Lavi, Iran reportedly opened the conflict with barrages of roughly 100 missiles. In the later Operation Shaagas HaAri, the opening salvos had already declined to only several dozen missiles.

Now, Israeli security assessments reportedly indicate that Iran is no longer capable of launching large-scale barrages and could likely fire only limited volleys consisting of several missiles at a time — perhaps 10 to 15 at most.

As a result, current planning calls for Ben Gurion Airport to continue functioning even during renewed hostilities, although officials stressed that the policy could be reevaluated continuously depending on developments on the ground.

Under the current outlook, Israeli airlines are expected to continue operating flights, though many foreign carriers that recently resumed service to Israel would likely suspend operations again if conflict breaks out.

{Matzav.com}

Iran’s reclusive new supreme leader is urging his country to wage a different kind of struggle for regional dominance: a baby boom.

In a written message released Tuesday, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told a group of pro-natalist activists that Iran’s path to “great power” status runs through the maternity ward, calling on citizens to embrace a “culture of childbearing” and reverse one of the steepest fertility declines in modern history.

“By earnestly pursuing the correct, necessary policy of population growth, the great Iranian nation will be able to play a major role and experience strategic leaps in the future,” Khamenei wrote in a post on X.

A longer version of the remarks, carried by state broadcaster IRIB, told activists, “It is hoped that your sincere efforts will lead to fruitful results, God willing.”

The message marks a notable shift in tone for the younger Khamenei, whose brief tenure has been defined almost entirely by martial rhetoric directed at Israel and the United States. He was appointed supreme leader in March, days after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the joint US-Israeli strike on February 28 that triggered the ongoing war with the Islamic Republic. Mojtaba Khamenei was himself wounded in the bombardment and has not appeared in public since. His communications have been limited to written statements attributed to his office.

The new directive lands against a demographic backdrop that has alarmed Iranian officials for nearly a decade. Iran’s fertility rate stood at roughly 6.5 children per woman in 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution. By 2024, the World Bank put it at 1.7. Some Iranian officials now place the figure even lower. The secretary of Iran’s National Population Headquarters said in December that fertility had fallen below 1.5, well under the 2.1 rate needed to maintain a stable population without immigration. Tehran province has reported rates as low as 1.3.

The country recorded just under 980,000 births in the Iranian calendar year ending March 20, the lowest annual total since 1955, according to figures from Iran’s Civil Registration Organization. The United Nations Population Division had not projected Iran to fall below the one-million-births threshold until 2050.

Iran’s population currently stands at roughly 92 million, making it the 17th most populous country in the world. That figure is less than half the population of neighboring Pakistan, which has continued to grow rapidly. Afghanistan, on Iran’s eastern border, also continues to register robust population growth.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly told President Donald Trump during recent talks in Beijing that Russian President Vladimir Putin may eventually view the war in Ukraine as a major strategic error.

The discussion, first revealed by the Financial Times, took place during extensive meetings between Trump and Xi last week that focused on the war in Ukraine, tensions involving the International Criminal Court, and the broader geopolitical rivalry involving the United States, Russia, and China.

According to the report, Xi conveyed to Trump that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine could ultimately become a costly miscalculation for the Kremlin.

The reported remarks drew attention because Xi has largely refrained from publicly criticizing Putin or signaling distance from Moscow throughout the war.

Putin is expected to travel to China later this week for meetings with Xi, highlighting the ongoing importance of the “no-limits” alliance announced by Beijing and Moscow shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.

Neither the White House nor Chinese officials publicly addressed the report. The White House declined comment, while the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to inquiries.

The Financial Times further reported that Trump proposed closer coordination between the United States, China, and Russia in opposition to the International Criminal Court, an institution that conservatives and many Trump allies have accused of overstepping its authority and undermining national sovereignty.

Officials in the Trump administration have repeatedly criticized the ICC for what they describe as politically motivated actions and judicial activism, particularly in cases involving American allies and U.S. personnel.

Xi’s comments reportedly came as Ukraine escalated its campaign of long-range drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, exposing weaknesses in Russia’s defensive systems and adding new economic strain on Moscow.

In recent months, Ukraine has increasingly relied on sophisticated drone operations and precision strikes aimed at Russian oil facilities, fuel storage sites, and military-industrial infrastructure.

Military analysts cited by The Economist said the conflict may be approaching an “inflection point,” noting that Russia has recently suffered net territorial setbacks after months of gradual advances.

Politico reported that Ukraine launched more than 1,300 drones over the weekend in one of the war’s largest coordinated strike campaigns, targeting sites near Moscow and causing major disruptions to civilian air travel across Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes showed that Russia is no longer capable of fully protecting its capital from retaliation.

The expanding reach of Ukraine’s drone warfare program has also heightened fears within Russia about economic instability and rising military losses.

Russia’s economy shrank during the first quarter of 2026, while revenues from energy exports — a crucial source of financing for the war effort — have reportedly dropped significantly.

Some defense analysts now believe Putin could face growing internal pressure as the war continues without a decisive victory.

Although the Kremlin has attempted to minimize the impact of the Ukrainian attacks, even several pro-Russian commentators have acknowledged that Moscow’s air defense systems are facing increasing pressure.

{Matzav.com}

The U.S. Navy seized an Iran-linked oil supertanker overnight in the Indian Ocean, escalating pressure on Tehran’s oil exports and adding fresh strain to global energy markets already dealing with rising fuel prices and shipping disruptions tied to the ongoing Iran conflict.

U.S. officials confirmed that American forces intercepted the massive crude tanker Skywave after the vessel departed the Strait of Malacca carrying what analysts believe was more than one million barrels of Iranian oil.

For consumers and businesses, the move matters because it threatens to tighten global oil supply even further at a time when gasoline, diesel and shipping costs are already climbing worldwide.

Oil prices rose again Tuesday following the seizure.

Brent crude traded near $110 per barrel, while U.S. crude prices also pushed higher as traders worried that additional supply disruptions could worsen the global energy crunch.

Gasoline prices in the United States have already surged sharply since the Iran conflict began earlier this year.

According to AAA:

• National average gasoline prices are now near $4.05 per gallon
• Prices were below $3 before the conflict escalated
• Diesel prices have also climbed significantly

The Skywave seizure marks the third major tanker interception since the United States launched its naval blockade targeting Iranian oil shipments last month.

Unlike earlier seizures near the Persian Gulf, this latest operation occurred much farther from the Middle East, signaling that U.S. enforcement efforts are expanding well beyond the immediate conflict zone.

Shipping analysts say the move sends a strong warning to operators participating in what is often called Iran’s “shadow fleet” — aging tankers that move sanctioned oil through complex ownership structures, false registrations and ship-to-ship transfers designed to avoid detection.

The vessel itself had previously been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department under another name before reportedly changing ownership and operating under a different flag.

The broader economic effects are already spreading globally.

The Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes — has seen a dramatic collapse in tanker traffic since the blockade intensified.

Industry estimates suggest normal vessel traffic through the strait has fallen sharply over the past several weeks as insurers, shipowners and traders attempt to avoid military escalation and soaring war-risk insurance costs.

Insurance premiums for ships traveling through the region have surged, while thousands of seafarers and hundreds of vessels remain stranded or rerouted across global shipping lanes.

The pressure is now reaching everyday supply chains.

Higher diesel costs are increasing:

• Trucking expenses
• Retail shipping costs
• Airline fuel costs
• Manufacturing transportation costs

That creates additional inflation pressure at a moment when central banks globally are already struggling to contain rising prices.

The International Energy Agency warned this week that global oil inventories are falling rapidly, raising concerns that even if diplomatic progress eventually occurs, energy markets may remain tight for months because of damaged infrastructure, delayed shipments and disrupted tanker traffic.

Iran has continued attempting to move oil exports despite the blockade.

Satellite tracking firms reported millions of barrels of crude still moving through unofficial channels using tactics such as:

• Disabling tracking systems
• False location signals
• Ship-to-ship transfers
• Reflagged vessels

The United States has simultaneously expanded sanctions against additional tankers and shipping companies as part of what officials are calling a broader economic pressure campaign against Tehran.

Diplomatic tensions remain high.

President Donald Trump has continued warning Iran against advancing its nuclear program, while Iranian officials have publicly rejected negotiations under military and economic pressure.

For financial markets, the latest tanker seizure reinforces fears that the global oil shock may last longer than investors originally expected.

Analysts at major banks including Goldman Sachs and ING now warn that every additional month of disruption in Middle Eastern oil flows could keep prices elevated well into next year.

For consumers, that means higher fuel costs may not disappear anytime soon.

And with global shipping now increasingly entangled in military escalation, the impact is extending far beyond the Middle East — directly into supply chains, inflation and household budgets around the world.

— JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

Chareidi filmmaker Tali Avrahami pushed back against calls to protest a women-only screening of her latest film in Herzliya, accusing critics of engaging in what she described as “anti-liberal bullying.”

The event, scheduled to take place Sunday evening at the Herzliya Cinematheque, will feature a screening of Avrahami’s new film for women only. Controversy erupted after activist Naor Narkis announced online that he and several others had purchased tickets and planned to attend in protest of what he called “gender separation.”

Narkis wrote that “it is impossible in the name of pluralism to allow a dark policy of gender separation.”

Responding to the criticism, Avrahami said the evening was intended as “a cultural event for women who want to enjoy themselves in an environment that is comfortable for them.” She added that intentionally coming to the event in order “to provoke or ruin an evening women were looking forward to” ultimately harms women themselves.

According to Avrahami, “If a woman wants to attend a women-only evening, that is her full right. True equality does not mean everyone has to live the exact same way.”

Despite the backlash and online calls to protest the screening, Avrahami said the event will go ahead as planned.

Imagine spending nearly 30 years building a company from a tiny yoga-wear shop in Vancouver into one of the most recognizable retail brands in America — only to have that same company publicly tell investors your ideas are “misguided,” your thinking is “outdated,” and your involvement is hurting the business.

That is exactly what just happened to Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon Athletica Inc.

In a sharply worded letter sent Monday ahead of the company’s June 25 shareholder meeting, Lululemon’s board accused Wilson of attacking the company for years, damaging the brand and creating distractions during one of the toughest periods in the company’s history. The board urged investors to reject the three directors Wilson wants to place on the board, warning that his return to influence could “derail” the company’s recovery efforts.

Wilson fired back hours later, saying the company’s leadership has lost touch with what made Lululemon special in the first place.

For millions of American consumers, this is more than a boardroom fight.

It is a fight over whether one of the biggest lifestyle brands of the past decade has lost the identity that made customers love it to begin with.

Why Customers Started Pulling Away

For years, Lululemon barely had competition.

If someone wanted premium yoga pants or upscale athleisure wear, they went to Lululemon. The brand became a status symbol — not just workout clothing, but part of a lifestyle.

Then the market changed.

Brands like Vuori, Alo Yoga, and On Holding exploded in popularity. Social media accelerated the shift. Suddenly consumers had options that felt newer, fresher and in some cases more fashionable.

Instead of owning the category, Lululemon became just one choice in a crowded closet.

That shift is now showing up in the numbers.

Lululemon’s U.S. store sales have been flat or declining for eight consecutive quarters. The stock has fallen more than 40% this year alone and has lost more than $50 billion in market value from its peak.

For shoppers, the feeling is simpler than the financials:

Many longtime customers no longer feel the same excitement walking into the store.

The Bigger Problem: The Product Stopped Feeling Special

Wilson’s core argument is not really about Wall Street.

It is about product.

Lululemon built its empire by creating items customers obsessed over. Products like the company’s famous Align leggings became cultural phenomena because they genuinely felt different from everything else on the market.

Recently, however, several new launches have struggled badly.

A major product line called “Breezethrough” was quietly pulled after customer complaints about fit. Another launch, “Get Low,” failed to gain traction. Online criticism about changing fabrics, inconsistent sizing and declining quality has spread across TikTok, Reddit and fashion forums.

For a company charging premium prices, perception matters enormously.

Customers will happily pay $128 for leggings if they feel exceptional.

They stop paying those prices the moment the product feels ordinary.

That is the danger Lululemon now faces.

Why Prices Are Becoming a Problem

Part of Lululemon’s success came from refusing to play the discount game.

The company rarely ran major sales because it wanted customers to believe the product justified the price.

That exclusivity became part of the brand’s identity.

But lately, shoppers have started seeing more markdowns and promotions as the company works to clear inventory and compete with newer rivals.

Wilson believes those discounts damage the brand because they train customers to wait for sales instead of paying full price.

Management argues the promotions are necessary in a slower consumer environment where shoppers are becoming more price sensitive.

Both sides may be right — and that is exactly the problem.

Because once a premium brand loses its “must-have” feeling, it becomes extremely difficult to get it back.

Consumers Are Feeling the Squeeze Too

Lululemon is also dealing with pressures consumers may not immediately see.

The company estimates tariffs and import costs will add roughly $220 million in net expenses during 2026, while labor, marketing and supply-chain costs continue rising.

Management has largely avoided aggressively raising prices further because shoppers are already pulling back across parts of the retail sector.

That means profits are getting squeezed from both directions:
higher costs on one side and weaker demand on the other.

For consumers, it reflects a broader shift happening throughout retail right now.

Even shoppers with money are becoming more selective. They still spend — but they increasingly want products that truly feel worth the premium.

That puts enormous pressure on brands like Lululemon that built their business on emotional loyalty rather than basic necessity.

Why Chip Wilson Is Fighting So Hard

Wilson still owns roughly 9% of Lululemon, making him one of the company’s largest shareholders.

He believes the board became too focused on efficiency, operations and financial targets while losing the creative energy and emotional connection that originally built the brand.

The directors he wants on the board come largely from branding, marketing and consumer-experience backgrounds rather than finance-heavy corporate résumés.

Lululemon’s current board disagrees completely.

The company says Wilson is trying to drag the business backward and argues its current leadership team — including incoming CEO Heidi O’Neill, a longtime Nike executive — is the right group to modernize the brand.

Meanwhile, activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management has quietly built a stake reportedly worth more than $1 billion, creating even more pressure inside the boardroom.

In other words, this is no longer just a founder fighting his old company.

It is now a full-scale battle over who gets to decide what Lululemon becomes next.

What It Means for Everyday Shoppers

For most customers, tomorrow’s visit to a Lululemon store may not look much different.

The leggings will still be folded neatly on the shelves.
The stores will still smell the same.
The mirrors, lighting and branding will still feel polished and familiar.

But underneath that polished surface, one of America’s most powerful retail brands is going through an identity crisis.

The founder believes the company forgot what made customers emotionally connected to the brand.

The board believes the founder himself is stuck in the past.

Consumers — and shareholders — will ultimately decide who is right.

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

A young boy riding an electric bicycle suffered serious injuries and was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center for treatment after crashing his bike in Lakewood.

The incident occurred while the child was riding the e-bike on a sidewalk. The boy was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, which may have helped prevent even more severe injuries. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

The incident comes as New Jersey prepares to implement new regulations on electric bicycles and scooters. Beginning in July, a new state law will require all electric bicycles in New Jersey to be licensed, registered, and insured. Supporters of the measure say the law is intended to improve accountability and safety as the popularity of e-bikes continues to grow statewide, causing a significant increase in serious injuries.

Under the bill, e-bike users 17 years of age or older would be required to register a low-speed electric bicycle and have a valid basic driver’s license issued by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission to operate a motorized bicycle. Insurance would also be required for motorized bicycles and electric motorized bicycles.

Additionally, minors under the age of 15 are prohibited from operating an e-bike or motorized bike. Anyone 15 or 16 would have to have a permit. Also included in the wide-ranging bill is a ban on riding e-bikes without reflectors between dusk and dawn.

One of America’s once-dominant beer brands is being discontinued after more than 175 years.

Schlitz Premium, a beer brand that traces its roots to Milwaukee in the 1840s and was once among the largest breweries in the country, is being put “on hiatus,” parent company Pabst Brewing Co. confirmed Friday after Wisconsin Brewing Company announced it would brew the brand’s final batch later this month.

“Unfortunately, we have seen continued increases in our costs to store and ship certain products and have had to make the tough choice to place Schlitz Premium on hiatus,” Zac Nadile, Pabst head of brand strategy, said in a statement to Milwaukee Magazine.

“Any brand or packaging configuration that is put on hiatus is still a cherished part of our history and hopefully our future. We continually look for opportunities to bring back beloved brands, and customer feedback is important in shaping those discussions.”

HEINEKEN TO CUT UP TO 6,000 JOBS GLOBALLY, LOWERS PROFIT GROWTH FORECAST AMID INDUSTRY STRUGGLES

The Schlitz brand became famous for its longtime slogan, “the beer that made Milwaukee famous,” and was once the nation’s largest brewery before Anheuser-Busch overtook it in the late 1950s.

The company was originally founded in 1849 after August Krug opened a tavern brewery in Milwaukee. Joseph Schlitz later took over the business after marrying Krug’s widow and helped transform it into one of the world’s largest beer brands.

Schlitz rose to prominence after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, when the brewery shipped beer to Chicago as residents struggled to access clean drinking water.

“It’s a nostalgia factor,” Joseph Conforti, general manager of Milwaukee Brat House, told ABC7 Chicago. “People from out of town are surprised that they still make it.”

HOW REAL AMERICAN BEER AIMS TO FULFILL LATE FOUNDER HULK HOGAN’S GOAL OF TOPPLING BUD LIGHT, RIVALS

Schlitz began losing popularity in the 1970s after cost-cutting recipe changes altered the beer’s flavor. The brand was later sold to Stroh Brewing in 1982 before Pabst acquired it in 1999.

Kirby Nelson, brewmaster at Wisconsin Brewing Company, said the company wanted to give the historic beer brand a proper farewell after learning production was ending.

“We decided that, Schlitz being what Schlitz was, it deserved a proper sendoff. One with dignity and respect,” Nelson said.

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Wisconsin Brewing Company said it plans to brew “the last Schlitz” at its Verona, Wisconsin, brewery on May 23, with a limited release scheduled for June 27. Milwaukee-area bars and breweries are also planning farewell events tied to the final batches.

Representatives for Schlitz and Pabst Brewing Co. did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

During a rare and fascinating discussion with members of Kollel Pnei Menachem, Rav Shaul Alter addressed a sensitive question touching on the relationship between a chossid and his rebbe, and whether learning differently from one’s rebbe reflects a lack of devotion or submission.

One of the avreichim asked whether a chossid who chooses a different style of learning than his rebbe is lacking in dedication to the rebbe or in his level of chassidus, particularly when he understands Torah differently from the approach taught by his rebbe.

Rav Shaul responded with unusual openness.

“Which rebbe today is directing people in methods of learning? Sanz? Boyan?” he asked. He explained that every person has his own personality, strengths, and connection to different styles of Torah study. According to Rav Shaul, a person must be honest with himself and find “his own understanding” within the vast sea of Torah.

The rosh yeshiva then illustrated the value of deep learning over speed by sharing a story about Rav Dovid Beharan. Rav Dovid’s chavrusa once noted that the Chofetz Chaim had written in one of his seforim — possibly Toras Habayis — a calculation estimating how many words of Torah a person can learn in one minute.

According to the calculation cited in the name of the Chofetz Chaim, a person can learn roughly 200 words per minute, and every word of Torah creates an angel.

The chavrusa questioned Rav Dovid about the fact that they had spent two full weeks learning a single Tosafos. Based on the Chofetz Chaim’s calculation, he argued, they had lost the opportunity to create a tremendous number of angels by not learning at a faster pace.

Rav Dovid replied with what Rav Shaul described as the essence of in-depth Torah study: “Yes, but from this Tosafos that we sat on for two weeks — a big angel comes out, not small angels.”

{Matzav.com}

More than 113,000 electric kettles sold at Costco and HomeGoods have been recalled after reports that the handles can detach and spill hot water, including one reported second-degree burn, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The recall, announced May 14, involves ZWILLING J. A. Henckels Aktiengesellschaft Enfinigy Kettle and Enfinigy Kettle Pro electric stainless-steel kettles after reports of the handles loosening and separating, posing a risk of serious injury due to a burn hazard.

About 113,440 kettles were recalled in the United States, according to the CPSC report. An additional 43,963 were sold in Canada and 48 were sold in Mexico.

BLACKSTONE SEASONING BLEND RECALLED OVER POSSIBLE SALMONELLA CONTAMINATION

The firm received 163 reports of kettle handles loosening or separating, including five incidents involving handle separation and one reported second-degree burn.

The affected kettles can be identified by model numbers 53101-200 and 53101-201 for the 1.5L ENFINIGY Electric Kettle, and 53101-500, 53101-501, 53101-502, 53101-503 and 53101-504 for the 1.5L ENFINIGY Electric Kettle Pro. 

The model numbers and “ZWILLING” branding can be found on the bottom of the kettle and the power base.

MORE THAN 125,000 CHILDREN’S TOWER STOOLS RECALLED NATIONWIDE DUE TO POSSIBLE DEADLY DEFECT

The electric stainless-steel kettles came in several colors, including black, silver, rose gold and white, according to the recall notice. ZWILLING branding appears on the kettle itself.

The kettles were sold at Costco, HomeGoods stores nationwide and online at zwilling.com from December 2019 through February 2026 for between $120 and $200.

Customers are urged to stop using the kettles immediately and to contact the brand in exchange for a full refund.

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Consumers in the U.S. should also visit the brand’s website for instructions before disposing of the recalled product, including unplugging the kettle, cutting the cord and uploading a photo of it.

A representative for Costco did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

US forces identified at least 10 mines planted by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, CBS News reported on Wednesday, citing US officials with knowledge of the matter. 

The mines were discovered following a recent US intelligence assessment. 

A previous CBS report from March said there were at least a dozen underwater mines in the Strait, according to US intelligence reports. 

Officials had said the mines were Maham 3 and Maham 7 Limpet mines, both manufactured in Iran, CBS reported. 

The Maham 3 is a “moored naval mine that uses magnetic and acoustic sensors to detect nearby vessels without physical contact,” explained the report. It analyzes movement to determine the best time to activate, holding the capacity to engage targets within 10 feet. 

The Maham 7, on the other hand, is known as a “sticking mine,” explained CBS. It is designed to rest on the seabed and relies on a combination of acoustic and three-axis magnetic sensors to detect nearby vessels. This mine targets medium-sized ships, landing craft, and smaller submarines.

The latest US assessments didn’t reveal the type of mines recently discovered, the report added. 

Safe route for commercial ships

The US Navy has spent weeks clearing mines from a route in the Strait of Hormuz meant for the safe passage of commercial ships. 

The US warned that transiting the normal route could be “extremely hazardous” due to mines laid by Tehran, added CBS.

Iran announced this week that it is working with Oman to create a joint “mechanism” to control traffic through the Strait, said the report. 

This post was originally published on here.

Asian stock markets fell sharply Wednesday as rising global bond yields rattled investors and increased fears that borrowing costs could stay high much longer than markets had hoped.

For everyday investors, the message from global markets is becoming increasingly clear:
higher interest rates are starting to pressure stocks around the world.

Japan led regional losses, with the Nikkei 225 dropping nearly 1% after government bond yields surged to their highest levels since the late 1990s. Markets in South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong and other major Asian economies also moved lower as investors reacted to the ongoing global bond selloff.

The pressure is coming primarily from government bond markets, where yields have climbed rapidly over the past several days.

In the United States:

• The 30-year Treasury yield briefly topped 5.19%
• The 10-year Treasury yield climbed near 4.7%

Those are some of the highest levels seen in nearly two decades.

In simple terms, rising bond yields mean borrowing money becomes more expensive throughout the economy.

That affects:

• Mortgage rates
• Business loans
• Credit cards
• Corporate borrowing
• Government financing costs

Higher yields also tend to hurt stocks because safer investments like bonds begin offering more attractive returns relative to equities.

The latest surge has been fueled largely by concerns that inflation may remain stubbornly high because of the ongoing Iran war and elevated oil prices.

Crude oil has stayed near $110 per barrel, increasing fears that energy costs could continue pushing inflation higher globally.

As a result, investors are rapidly abandoning expectations that central banks will cut interest rates anytime soon.

Some analysts are now even discussing the possibility that the Federal Reserve may eventually need to raise rates again if inflation pressures worsen.

That shift in expectations has triggered heavy selling across global bond markets.

Japan’s move is especially important because Japanese investors are among the largest holders of U.S. government debt.

As Japanese bond yields rise at home, investors may increasingly move money out of U.S. assets and back into Japan, potentially adding even more pressure to global financial markets.

Technology and AI-related stocks have also come under pressure, particularly in South Korea and Hong Kong.

South Korea’s market has been especially volatile in recent sessions as investors reassess valuations in semiconductor and AI companies after enormous rallies earlier this year.

Markets are now closely watching Nvidia earnings later Wednesday, which could heavily influence sentiment across global technology stocks.

China’s slowing economy is adding another layer of concern.

Recent Chinese economic data has disappointed investors, with weaker-than-expected retail sales and industrial output raising fears about slowing demand across Asia.

At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty remains elevated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing this week for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, while markets continue monitoring developments tied to the Iran conflict and broader global tensions.

Despite the selloff, some sectors have held up better than others.

Australia’s market, for example, has been somewhat supported by mining and commodity companies benefiting from higher raw material prices.

Still, analysts say the direction of global markets now depends heavily on one central issue:
whether bond yields continue rising.

If yields stabilize, stock markets could recover relatively quickly.

But if inflation stays elevated and central banks become even more aggressive, investors may face continued pressure across both stocks and bonds — an unusually difficult environment for traditional portfolios.

For now, markets around the world are adjusting to a reality investors had hoped to avoid:
higher interest rates may not be going away anytime soon.

— JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

The Turkish Global Sumud Flotilla has come to an end: all 430 activists aboard the vessels have been transferred to Israeli Navy ships and are now on their way to Israel.

Forces from the Israeli Navy and Shayetet 13 intercepted all 57 naval vessels participating in the flotilla.

“Another public relations flotilla has come to an end,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated.

“All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives. This flotilla has once again proved itself to be nothing more than a public relations stunt at the service of Hamas. Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not allow any violation of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”

Israel had feared that the flotilla would be more violent than previous ones, due to the presence of Turkish activists and the involvement of IHH — the group behind the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla, during which activists attacked Shayetet 13 soldiers with knives and clubs, seized a soldier’s weapon, and opened fire.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Crews are currently battling a fire burning underneath power lines in Manchester, apparently prompting widespread power outages affecting more than 5,000 customers in Lakewood and Jackson.

The outages in Lakewood are on the west side and in Jackson on the east side. Traffic lights are affected as well.

Officials believe the fire is the cause of the outages impacting large portions of both towns.

JCP&L has advised customers that the estimated time for power restoration is approximately 9:30 p.m.

Developing Story.

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The Senate on Tuesday advanced a resolution that would force President Trump to withdraw US forces from the war with Iran, marking the first time such a measure has cleared a procedural hurdle since fighting began in late February and signaling a meaningful, if still limited, erosion of Republican support for the conflict.

The 50-47 vote discharged the war powers resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, setting up a final floor vote on its passage. The timing of that vote was not immediately clear.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who lost his bid for a third term in Saturday’s Louisiana Republican primary after President Trump endorsed his opponent, provided the decisive vote. It was the first time Cassidy had supported any war powers measure related to the Iran conflict. He joined Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), all of whom had backed earlier iterations of the resolution.

Three Republicans, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, did not vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a consistent supporter of the war, was the only Democrat to oppose advancing the measure.
Tuesday’s vote was the eighth Senate attempt to constrain the president’s authority to wage war against Iran since the conflict began on February 28. The previous seven failed.

“My colleagues and I have been forcing votes to stop the war against Iran, and we’re making progress,” Kaine said on X following the vote. “My colleagues are hearing more and more from their constituents: end this costly and unnecessary war.”

The resolution, if ultimately enacted, would direct the president to “remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.” It is rooted in the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the post-Vietnam statute that requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces into hostilities and caps any unauthorized deployment at 60 days.

The 60-day window from the February 28 strikes passed in late April. The administration has argued that the ceasefire reached on April 7 effectively suspended the clock, and Trump informed congressional leaders in a May 1 letter that “hostilities” with Iran had “terminated.” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) echoed that position last week, arguing that the hostilities referenced in the resolution “do not exist today and have not existed for some time.”

Democrats and a growing number of Republicans have rejected that framing. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who led the previous attempt, told reporters before last week’s vote that the war was “at a different stage, and it may heat up again.” Murkowski crossed the aisle last week for the first time, citing the absence of clarity from the administration about the legal basis for ongoing US deployments and naval operations around Iran. The senator from Alaska has separately said she intends to introduce a formal authorization for the use of military force.

Cassidy’s vote on Tuesday reshaped the math in a way none of his colleagues’ had. Until Saturday, he had been weighing his vote with an eye toward a primary fight that ended in his elimination. Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow advanced to the runoff in his place. Cassidy, a physician and two-term senator who voted to convict Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial, is now serving out the final months of his Senate career with no further election to face. He has not publicly explained his shift, but the result freed him to vote without political cost in the same way his earlier convictions had cost him.

The resolution remains, as a practical matter, unlikely to become law. It would require passage by the Republican-controlled House and would face a near-certain presidential veto. An override would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers, a threshold not remotely in sight. But its supporters have framed the exercise as a tool for forcing Republicans to put a position on the record at a moment when public support for the war has eroded.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week found that roughly two-thirds of American voters do not believe Trump has adequately explained why the United States is at war with Iran. Gas prices have continued to climb ahead of the summer driving season, driven primarily by the continued partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Inflation data released earlier this spring registered the largest monthly spike in four years. Several Republican senators have privately expressed concern that the war’s economic toll could damage GOP prospects in the November midterms.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) urged Republicans to remain unified ahead of the vote, citing the president’s ongoing diplomatic travel and overlapping negotiations with China. “I think it would be best if everybody hung together and supported the president,” Thune said. “But we’ll see. People have their own minds about some of these issues.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged Republicans to “be honest with themselves” ahead of the vote. “Last week we got one more Republican to join with us,” he said. “Republicans, it’s time to break the cycle. Support our war powers resolution.”

Tuesday’s outcome reflects a slow but cumulative shift. Paul had been the lone Republican to vote with Democrats for the first five attempts. Collins joined late last month, just before the 60-day War Powers Act window expired. Murkowski crossed last week. Cassidy crossed on Tuesday.

The vote came hours after Vice President JD Vance, speaking from the White House briefing room, said the administration still preferred a diplomatic solution to the war but was “locked and loaded” to resume military operations if a deal could not be reached. The Trump administration has been engaged in intermittent face-to-face talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad since mid-April, with Pakistan serving as mediator. Negotiations have repeatedly stalled over the scope of Iran’s nuclear program, the disposition of its highly enriched uranium stockpile, and the formal reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

As YWN readers know, YWN has been at the forefront of exposing the depraved Lev Tahor cult for nearly 23 years.

In the early years, many accused YWN of attacking what they called “ehrliche Yidden.” But as time went on, the horrific reality of the cult became impossible to ignore.

Forced marriages involving girls as young as 12 years old. Widespread physical and emotional abuse. Allegations of systematic molestation carried out by cult founder Shlomo Helbrans, who later died under mysterious circumstances in Mexico — officially ruled a drowning, though speculation has persisted for years.

After his death, his son, Nachman Helbrans, took over and reportedly pushed the cult even deeper into extremism and violence while dragging hundreds of innocent children across multiple countries to evade authorities.

Over the years, YWN has personally heard countless firsthand testimonies describing unimaginable abuse inflicted upon children trapped inside the cult.

Thankfully, several senior cult leaders were eventually arrested and extradited to the United States, where they are now serving lengthy prison sentences.

But despite the arrests and international scrutiny, quiet rescue operations have continued behind the scenes.

Over the past several years, several tzaddikim and askanim from the New York area have quietly traveled to Guatemala and other countries, working hand-in-hand with U.S. authorities and local governments to rescue children from Lev Tahor. These Askanim have reportedly helped rescue nearly 300 souls from the cult in recent years.

Many of those rescued have since relocated, integrated into mainstream society, received therapy, and begun rebuilding shattered lives with the help of warm families and support systems arranged by volunteers.

This past week, another dramatic rescue operation unfolded — this time involving six children hidden away in Ecuador.

According to information confirmed to YWN through conversations with numerous individuals involved in the operation, along with officials from both the United States and Ecuadorian governments, the children had been living under horrifying conditions after their mother fled Guatemala roughly seven months ago.

The woman’s husband — a Lev Tahor member currently serving a lengthy prison sentence with approximately ten years remaining — allegedly continued exercising complete control over the family from behind bars.

According to sources familiar with the case, U.S. authorities had amassed substantial evidence and testimony and obtained legal authorization to remove six of the woman’s children, ranging in age from 4 to 12, from her custody.

However, before authorities could act, the family vanished.

For nearly seven months, officials reportedly had no idea where they were hiding.

Eventually, after what sources described as extraordinary investigative work, the family was located inside a secluded home in a tiny village in Ecuador.

According to officials, the mother had entered Ecuador using American passports and claimed refugee status, allowing her temporary entry into the country.

Once her location was confirmed, askanim coordinated with authorities in both the United States and Ecuador to organize a joint operation.

Ecuadorian officials reportedly wanted the woman deported for overstaying her visa, while U.S. authorities sought to place the children in safety.

The operation was carried out Thursday morning.

Thanks to a generous sponsor, Hatzalah Air dispatched an aircraft for what participants described as a literal mission of pikuach nefesh.

Authorities successfully took the children into custody despite the mother screaming and violently protesting throughout the operation.

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Sources who saw the children described shocking levels of malnourishment and neglect.

According to multiple individuals involved, the six children had allegedly been confined for months inside a tiny room and deprived of proper nutrition, surviving almost entirely on fruits and vegetables with little or no protein.

One source told YWN that the 12-year-old child weighed approximately the size of an average 6-year-old.

The children were escorted to the aircraft by Ecuadorian agents together with officials connected to the U.S. Embassy.

Two Ecuadorian officials reportedly remained onboard the flight to ensure the deportation process was completed without incident and that the mother would not return.

Upon landing in New York, authorities escorted the family from the airport while the children were transferred into the care of a warm and loving family.

Extensive therapy and rehabilitation efforts have already begun.

YWN has also personally spoken over the years with former Lev Tahor children who described horrifying abuse inside the cult.

One former child victim told YWN that a mother once placed children inside an oven “to scare them.”

Yet despite all this, some people continue sharing viral videos portraying Lev Tahor parents as victims whose children were “kidnapped.” Some people actually give these cultists money to help fund them! YWN urges anyone thinking of giving them money, should not provide them a penny of assistance.

Over the years, YWN has spoken to dozens of victims of the Lev Tahor cult who managed to escape. To say they were terribly abused sexually, suffering constant violent beatings, forced starvation and other horrific abuse, would be an understatement.The mothers have been told to shecht their children if authorities were to take them away.

Lev Tahor was founded and led by Shlomo Helbrans, from the 1980s until his drowning death in Mexico in 2017. The leadership then moved into the hands of his son Nachman Helbrans, along with Mayer Rosner, and Yankel and Yoel Weingarten – who were even more radical and aggressive than the late founder. (Interesting note that Helbrans daughter died two weeks after his drowning from an allergic reaction.)

A federal judge has sentenced Lev Tahor cult leaders Nachman Helbrans (a son of Shlomo) and Mayer Rosner to 144 months (12 years) in prison followed by 5 years of supervised released for the2018 Shabbos kidnapping of two childrenwho escaped the cult.

Back in November of 2021, Helbrans and Rosner were found guilty on all six charges they faced, including conspiracy to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and conspiracy to commit international parental kidnapping.

U.S. District Judge Nelson Roman handed down sentences of 14 years for Shmiel and Yakov Weingarten, and 12 years for Yoil Weingarten – another three cult leaders who assumed leadership after Helbrans senior drowned to death.

In 2014, YWN ran an article titled Cults and the War of the Jewish Magazines –  in response to Mishpacha and Ami magazines running articles on Lev Tahor. Mishpacha Magazine had run a fifteen page expose on the group, essentially describing Lev Tahor as a cult that has some serious issues involving medicating children, and behaviors that resemble child abuse. Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter of Ami Magazine claimed the exact opposite and ran the following sentence below their headline, The unjust persecution of a group of pious Jews, and the unsettling silence of the Jewish community.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Former hostage Romi Gonen revealed in an emotional interview with singer Ishay Ribo that his song “Tocho Ratzuf Ahava” became a source of comfort and strength for her during her time in captivity in Gaza.

The conversation took place on Gonen’s program, “The New Life of Romi Gonen,” which airs on the V1 app. During the interview, she described the powerful emotions she experienced when she finally heard the song after many months in captivity, saying it immediately brought thoughts of her mother to mind.

Gonen explained that throughout the long period she was held hostage, she constantly hoped the song would eventually come on the radio whenever captives were briefly allowed to listen.

“Something in me was always waiting to hear ‘Tocho Ratzuf Ahava’ whenever we listened to the radio,” Gonen told Ribo during their conversation in the studio.

She then recounted the moment the song finally aired, nearly a year after she had been taken captive.

“Then it came, almost a year later, during the week of October 7. By chance they brought us a radio, and suddenly I woke up when Emily shouted to me, ‘Lula, “Tocho Ratzuf Ahava” is on the radio.’”

According to Gonen, she immediately rushed over to listen, placing both headphones on her ears as the music momentarily transported her away from the suffering and fear around her.

She said the song instantly connected her to memories of her mother. “For one moment, just to be inside it, inside the situation, as if I’m not in Gaza and my mother is here with me – that’s her ringtone.”

Ribo appeared deeply emotional after hearing her story and shared what the song represented to him in the context of her ordeal. He said the lyrics reflect Divine compassion and explained how meaningful it was to hear that the music had offered her comfort during such darkness.

“It moves me very much,” Ribo responded. “The words speak about G-d’s infinite mercy toward us. And from your place – anyone who hasn’t experienced this cannot even imagine it, because we have no human ability to truly understand it – that you are there and these words give you strength. Yes, they remind you of your mother, but in essence you feel protected and strengthened by it.”

Ribo concluded by expressing amazement that a song could bring hope and emotional light during such unbearable circumstances.

“If you hadn’t told me this, I could never have imagined that a song like this, at such a difficult and dark moment, could bring light.”

In a rare and historic meeting Tuesday night in Yerushalayim, Slabodka Rosh Yeshiva Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch paid a special visit to the home of the Belzer Rebbe, marking the first public visit of its kind between the two gedolei Torah.

Rav Hirsch had arrived in Yerushalayim for a special chizuk visit ahead of Zeman Matan Toraseinu, visiting various Torah centers throughout the city. Late Tuesday night, the Rosh Yeshiva traveled to the Belzer Rebbe’s residence for what sources described as an extraordinary and elevated meeting between two of the leading figures of Yahadus HaChareidis.

Sources told Matzav.com that although the relationship between the Belzer Rebbe and Rav Hirsch has been close and ongoing for years, particularly since the Rosh Yeshiva assumed a central leadership role in the Litvishe world, their communication until now had largely taken place quietly through trusted intermediaries and private telephone conversations. This was the first publicized visit by the Rosh Yeshiva to the Rebbe’s home.

Over the past two years, the connection between the Belzer Rebbe and Rav Hirsch has frequently played a significant role behind the scenes regarding major issues affecting the Torah world and the broader chareidi public. On Tuesday night, however, the two gedolim sat together privately for an extended face-to-face discussion.

The uplifting conversation lasted approximately twenty minutes. Much of the discussion centered around the special segulah of the Shloshes Yemei Hagbalah, the days of preparation leading into Kabolas HaTorah on Shavuos.

The Belzer Rebbe reportedly expressed great interest in Rav Hirsch’s worldwide travels on behalf of strengthening Torah and supporting lomdei Torah across the golah. The Rebbe warmly thanked him on behalf of Klal Yisroel for his tireless efforts to bolster the Torah world.

During the conversation, the Rosh Yeshiva shared an emotional historical detail with the Rebbe, recounting that his grandfather had been a devoted Belzer chossid who regularly traveled to the Belzer Rebbes in Galicia. Rav Hirsch added that his grandfather was also named Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, and that he himself was named after him.

The Belzer Rebbe also spoke at length with the Rosh Yeshiva about his early years learning under his revered rebbi, Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, at the Lakewood yeshiva. The two gedolim additionally discussed the longstanding phenomenon in America of baalei batim and businessmen who dedicate themselves seriously to Torah learning and establish fixed daily sedorim despite their demanding work schedules.

Rav Hirsch described to the Rebbe the remarkable growth of Torah learning he has witnessed during his travels among Jewish communities throughout the world. He also elaborated on a major initiative he recently launched in Eretz Yisroel aimed at instilling greater cheishek haTorah and ameilus baTorah among working baalei batim, bringing an atmosphere of serious Torah learning into the lives of those engaged in parnassah.

Toward the conclusion of the meeting, the two discussed pressing issues currently facing the chareidi community. The gedolim reportedly spoke at length about the overall matzav of Yahadus HaChareidis in Eretz Yisroel and stressed that in these challenging times, Chassidim and Litvaks must remain united together “k’ish echad b’lev echad” in order to stand strong against the various decrees and threats facing the Torah world and faithful Judaism.

Before departing, Rav Hirsch offered heartfelt brachos to the Rebbe for a complete refuah and continued strength and longevity to lead his kehilla. The Rebbe warmly reciprocated, blessing the Rosh Yeshiva that he should continue leading Klal Yisroel with strength and good health until the coming of Goel Tzedek.

{Matzav.com}

The U.S. military lost 34 aircraft and sustained damage to eight more during Operation Epic Fury, according to a Congressional Research Service report that for the first time provides a government accounting of the full scale of American aerial attrition in the war.

The report identifies 42 manned and unmanned airframes hit during the conflict, with unmanned platforms accounting for 25 of the 34 destroyed. The Pentagon has not released its own comprehensive assessment of combat losses, and the CRS document cautions that the figures “may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors, which may include classification, ongoing combat activity and attribution.”

The single largest category of losses is the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, the medium-altitude long-endurance drone that has anchored U.S. surveillance and strike operations for nearly two decades. 24 were destroyed, more than half the total reported. The Reaper losses alone have driven the Air Force’s active inventory of the drone down to roughly 135 aircraft, well below its long-standing minimum operational floor of 189, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs told the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland last week.

The CRS document lists four F-15E Strike Eagles destroyed and one F-35A Lightning II damaged by Iranian ground fire, the first combat damage to the fifth-generation stealth fighter in its operational history. Two KC-135 Stratotanker aerial-refueling jets were destroyed and five more damaged, the heaviest combined toll among manned platforms with seven airframes hit. Also destroyed: two MC-130J Commando II special operations transports, one A-10 Thunderbolt II, and one Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton high-altitude maritime surveillance drone. One E-3 Sentry AWACS and one HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopter were damaged, the helicopter by small-arms fire during a rescue operation of a downed US airman.

A significant share of the manned-aircraft losses are concentrated around a single early-April incident. After Iranian air defenses shot down an F-15E Strike Eagle over Iranian territory on April 3, the United States mounted a large-scale combat search-and-rescue operation to recover its two airmen. President Trump told reporters the mission involved 68 fighters, 48 aerial tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and four bombers. During the operation, the two MC-130J transports became mired in soft sand inside Iran and were deliberately destroyed by U.S. commandos to prevent capture. An A-10 was shot down the same day, with the pilot ejecting and being recovered. Iranian state media has published imagery of the MC-130J wreckage that appears to show at least one Boeing M/AH-6 Little Bird helicopter among the debris; the CRS report does not address the rotorcraft.

A separate March 12 incident over friendly airspace destroyed one KC-135 in a crash in Iraq that killed all six aircrew. The second tanker involved made an emergency landing. The MQ-4C Triton, a $250 million Navy reconnaissance drone, fell from 52,000 feet to 9,500 feet in 15 minutes after a loss of communication and crashed into the Persian Gulf in what the CRS describes as a mishap rather than an enemy engagement.

The F-35A damage incident, first reported on March 19, marks the first combat damage to the platform anywhere in the world. Iranian state media circulated footage purporting to show an F-35 being struck by an unidentified anti-aircraft munition during operations over Iran. The aircraft was reportedly flown to an emergency landing rather than lost. The F-35A is the cornerstone of the U.S. and allied force structures across Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, and the incident has drawn intense scrutiny from partner nations expanding their fleets.

Replacement costs will reach into the billions. The CRS report, paired with current Air Force procurement budgets, suggests a total replacement bill in excess of $4 billion, with some defense-industry analyses placing the figure as high as $7 billion when support equipment and training are included.

Each Reaper now carries an estimated cost of $56 million in 2021 dollars or as much as $150 million for a current-configuration airframe with a full sensor package, according to U.S. Naval Air Systems Command and Air Force figures. General Atomics shuttered the MQ-9A production line in 2025 after the Air Force ceased new orders, and the company says parts remain on hand for only about five new airframes.

The combat losses have accelerated an Air Force effort to field a cheaper, more attritable successor; Brig. Gen. Trey Niemi, the program executive officer, signed off on a formal requirements document for the next-generation platform on May 11.

The four F-15E losses are similarly difficult to replace. The aircraft is out of production, with the Air Force budgeting roughly $125 million per F-15EX replacement, suggesting a $500 million replacement bill for the F-15E component alone. The A-10 has been out of production since 1984. The KC-135 fleet, also out of production, would be replaced by KC-46As at roughly $260 million per airframe, putting the tanker replacement cost at approximately $1.8 billion.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over allegations of immigration fraud, Vice President JD Vance disclosed Tuesday, giving federal weight to a set of claims that have followed the congresswoman for nearly a decade.

Vance confirmed the probe in response to a question at a White House briefing, taking care to frame the inquiry in measured terms while making clear the administration views the underlying allegations as credible.

“I don’t want to prejudge an investigation,” Vance said. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws.”

“So we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime, and that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now,” he added.

The vice president, who oversees the administration’s effort to combat federal benefit fraud, has previously gone further. In March, he told reporters that Omar “definitely committed immigration fraud,” referring to long-circulating allegations that the congresswoman’s brief second marriage was to her own brother. Omar’s chief of staff, Connor McNutt, called the assertion “a ridiculous lie” at the time.

The DOJ probe lands at a particularly difficult political moment for the four-term Minneapolis congresswoman, who is simultaneously navigating mounting questions about her possible ties to the Feeding Our Future scandal, the $250 million COVID-era child nutrition fraud scheme that has resulted in more than 70 convictions in her home state.

The immigration questions trace back to Omar’s 2002 Islamic marriage to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, with whom she had three children. The couple was not legally married in the United States until January 2018. In the interim, in February 2009, Omar entered a civil marriage in a Christian ceremony in Eden Prairie, Minn., with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen of Somali descent, according to a Hennepin County marriage certificate obtained by the New York Post. The couple divorced in December 2017.

Omar has rarely spoken publicly about the relationship and has consistently denied the central allegation, which surfaced first on the Somali-language discussion board SomaliSpot and was later reported by the conservative magazine City Journal and other outlets. She has described the marriage as brief and said the couple was frequently separated, with only a two-year stretch of cohabitation between 2009 and 2011. The couple has no known children together.

A Minneapolis-based Somali blogger and community organizer, Abdihakim Osman, told the Daily Mail in 2020 that Omar had introduced Elmi to members of the local Somali community as her brother visiting from London in the late 2000s, and that she had said at the time that he was seeking immigration documents. A photograph posted to Instagram by Elmi showed him holding Omar’s third child with a caption referring to “nieces,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The photo was subsequently deleted, as were the original SomaliSpot threads.

Omar has previously called the allegations “absolutely false” and the product of a years-long smear campaign rooted in racism and Islamophobia. She has not been charged with any crime.

The Tuesday disclosure represents the first public confirmation that the Justice Department has moved beyond political accusation to an active criminal inquiry. It was not immediately clear which US Attorney’s office is handling the case or how long the investigation has been underway.

The development comes against a wider backdrop of federal and state scrutiny of the congresswoman. The House Oversight Committee earlier this year referred its investigation into the financial disclosures of Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, to the House Ethics Committee, citing what it called the “apparent rapid growth” of two companies in which Mynett holds ownership stakes. According to a committee letter, those entities, eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital LLC, were valued at as much as $51,000 on Omar’s 2023 disclosures and as much as $30 million on her 2024 disclosures. Mynett has not publicly responded to the committee’s questions.

In Minnesota, the Republican-led House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee has spent the spring seeking documents and testimony from Omar relating to the Feeding Our Future scheme. A motion to subpoena her records failed on a tied vote in mid-May, with the committee’s five Republican members in favor and three Democrats opposed. The committee’s chair, Rep. Kristin Robbins, has said Omar’s office did not respond to multiple invitations to testify.

Federal court exhibits from the trial of Aimee Bock, the convicted founder of Feeding Our Future, identified Omar’s office six times, including in an email chain bearing the subject line “Help with USDA Food Program” and in references to a recovered text message thread between Bock and the congresswoman’s office. Bock was convicted in March 2025 of conspiracy, wire fraud, and bribery and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 31.

In an interview with the New York Post over the weekend from federal custody, Bock asserted that Omar had been aware of the scheme, while also accusing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison of having been aware of it. Bock acknowledged in the same interview that she had never personally spoken with Omar and had only dealt with members of the congresswoman’s staff. None of her allegations have been independently corroborated.

A separate strand of state Republican concern has focused on Omar’s authorship of the MEALS Act, which she shepherded into law in March 2020 as a provision of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Robbins and her colleagues argue that the legislation “took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program” and created the regulatory conditions under which Feeding Our Future operated.

Omar’s office has rejected that framing. Her former district director, Kendal Killian, wrote to the Minnesota committee earlier this month arguing that the relevant waiver authority was added to the bill by Senate Republicans and signed by President Trump, and was not part of Omar’s original legislative draft.

Omar has previously called the alleged misuse of school meal funds “reprehensible” and demanded answers from the US Department of Agriculture under the Biden administration. She has also pointed out that members of her own family, including her father and a stepmother, were named at various points in connection with smaller related fraud schemes and that she had reported the conduct to authorities.

Vance’s announcement Tuesday was the latest in a series of high-profile public interventions from the vice president on what the administration has labeled benefit fraud, an issue he has made central to his domestic portfolio alongside his role leading negotiations to end the war with Iran. In remarks earlier this spring, Vance described the federal response to pandemic-era fraud schemes as one of the administration’s defining domestic priorities and indicated that further criminal referrals would follow.

For now, the vice president declined to detail the scope of the Omar investigation or any anticipated timeline. “We’re going to take a look at it,” he said. “If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Trump on Tuesday offered reporters a firsthand look at the massive construction project underway at the White House, explaining that the highly discussed ballroom addition is only one part of a much larger underground military and security complex being built beneath the grounds.

Standing near the active construction site, Trump described the scale and sophistication of the project, encouraging reporters to appreciate the engineering involved.

“You might want to take a look at the complexity,” Trump said as he gestured toward the construction site on the premises.

According to Trump, the ballroom itself serves an additional purpose beyond hosting events. He said the structure is designed to shield a vast network of facilities currently under construction below ground level, including military and research infrastructure.

“These are all different rooms out here,” Trump said. “They’re building a hospital. They’re building a military hospital. They’re building all sorts of research facilities — also meeting rooms and rooms that go hand in hand for the military, using the ballroom, and the ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.”

Trump said excavation and development have already extended far beneath the White House grounds, reaching multiple underground levels.

“This is down because we’ve already done these floors, but these are already down two floors. That is down about six stories deep. That’s fixed up normally,” he said, walking through other features and complexities of this design.

The president also detailed advanced security measures integrated into the structure, including protection against drone and missile threats, as well as tactical positions for military personnel.

“It’s all knit together between the drone proofing [and] the missile proofing. We have had the drone capacity upstairs. We can have all sorts of military up, whether — I hate to use the word snipers, but we have great sniper capacity,” the president said, revealing that it is “built for our snipers, not the enemy snipers.”

Trump noted that the height and positioning of the project provide sweeping visibility across the nation’s capital.

“And because of the height, we get a very clear view of everything all over Washington,” Trump said.

The president’s remarks came shortly after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a Republican proposal allocating $1 billion toward the White House ballroom project failed to comply with Senate reconciliation rules. Republican lawmakers, however, have said they are working on revisions to keep the funding package alive.

The funding proposal is part of a broader reconciliation bill that also includes money for Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Because reconciliation bills require only a simple majority in the Senate, Republicans are seeking to advance the measure without Democratic support.

Democrats celebrated the parliamentarian’s ruling as a setback for the administration, though Republican lawmakers insisted a solution is already being prepared.

Reports have since emerged that Trump wants Senate Majority Leader John Thune to remove MacDonough from her position over the ruling.

Opponents of the project have criticized Trump’s vision for what he has repeatedly described as a secure and elegant ballroom complex. Over time, however, the proposal has evolved into a broader underground military and security facility.

Still, renovations and expansions at the White House are hardly unusual. Numerous presidents have altered or rebuilt portions of the executive mansion over the years, and historians note that very little of the original structure from the John Adams era remains intact today.

According to Breitbart News, “The only thing connecting the current structure to the barely ‘habitable’ building that Adams first entered is some of the sandstone exterior walls.”

Supporters of the project have pointed to recent security concerns as justification for the expanded construction effort, particularly following the attempted attack near the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton several weeks ago.

Following that incident, Trump argued on Truth Social that the attempted attack underscored the urgent need for a protected event facility inside the White House grounds.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump said on Truth Social after the foiled shooting attempt.

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” he added.

{Matzav.com}

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) Far be it from this author to weigh in on a debate between Rav Moshe Feinstein and the Satmar Rebbe, but there is one thought that could have been, perhaps, missed.

The two giants of Torah once debated about AI — not the current one but the other one. Rav Moshe held that it did not create mamzeirus, since Yirmiyahu HaNavi consulted with Ben Sira on spiritual matters notwithstanding that the midrash traces Ben Sira’s origin to an accidental embryo-genetic event in a bathhouse that, had it occurred in a different way, would have resulted in mamzeirus.

There is another proof, perhaps, that Rav Moshe zt”l could have cited — and it is hiding in plain sight, in the very Yom Kippur Mussaf that every shul davens. Min hashamayim, the writings of Ben Sira themselves entered the davening. The Ashkenazi piyut “Amitz Koach,” and in particular its famous refrain “Emes Mah Nehedar,” is built directly upon Ben Sira’s words in chapter 50 of Sefer Ben Sira.

A little background is in order. The Hebrew of Ben Sira chapter 50 has been preserved primarily in Manuscript B from the Cairo Geniza — a 12th-century manuscript that nonetheless reflects a much earlier Hebrew Vorlage — and partially in the Masada scroll, which dates to the 1st century BCE. Ben Sira opens this chapter to Shimon HaTzaddik with the words: “מה נהדר בהשגיחו מאהל, ובצאתו מבית הפרכת” — “How glorious (mah nehedar) was he when he looked forth from the Ohel, and when he came out from the Beis HaParoches.”

Now, those familiar with the Yom Kippur Mussaf will immediately recognize where this is going. The piyut opens with the words: “אמת מה נהדר היה כהן גדול בצאתו מבית קדשי הקדשים בשלום בלי פגע” — “In truth, mah nehedar was the Kohen Gadol in his coming out from the Beis Kodshei HaKodashim in peace, without mishap.”

 The keyword “mah nehedar” is taken straight from the Hebrew Ben Sira. The dependence does not stop at the opening line. The structural and imagery dependence is unmistakable throughout.

Ben Sira chapter 50, in the Hebrew, has the Kohen Gadol “ככוכב אור מבין עבים, וכירח מלא בימי מועד, וכשמש משרקת אל היכל מלך, וכקשת נראתה בענן, כנץ ענפי בימי מועד, וכשושן על יבלי מים” — like a star shining among the clouds, like the full moon on the festivals, like the sun reflecting on the King’s heichal, like the rainbow seen in the cloud, like blossoms on branches in spring, like a lily on streams of water. The piyut, for its part, has “k’ohel hanimtach b’darei maalah, k’vrakim hayotzim miziv hachayos, k’godel gedilim b’arba ketzavos, k’dmus hakeshes b’soch he’anan, k’hod asher hilbish Tzur litzurim, k’vered hanasun b’soch ginas chemed.”

The keshes b’anan — “the rainbow in the cloud” — is verbatim. The botanical comparisons differ in vocabulary but occupy the same slot in the structure. The moed/festival framing that Ben Sira uses to anchor his celestial imagery becomes generalized cosmic imagery in the piyut.

A theological point is worth noting before closing. Ben Sira composed this poem while the Bayis Sheni still stood. Shimon HaTzaddik II — son of Yochanan, the Kohen Gadol who served roughly 219–196 BCE, and whom Ben Sira knew personally — was alive in his memory. Ben Sira’s poem is, accordingly, a realistic description of an actual Kohen Gadol leaving the Heichal on Yom Kippur.

The piyut and placement, composed after the churban, transforms the same imagery into a tefillah – a reenactment and perhaps a substitute for the avodah we no longer have.

Which brings us back to the beginning of this article. If the tefilos of Klal Yisrael on the holiest day of the year draw on the words of Ben Sira — if min hashamayim it was decided that the keyword “mah nehedar” and the simile of “keshes b’anan” would enter our Yom Kippur Mussaf — then it would seem that Ben Sira’s wording was, indeed, received by Klal Yisroel. Which would seem to support Rav Moshe’s position. And whether or not this proof would have moved the Satmar Rebbe is, of course, a separate question — and one this author would not presume to answer.

The author can be reached  [email protected]

Media personality Tucker Carlson engaged in a heated interview with Channel 13 News journalist Udi Segal, sharply criticizing Israel’s leadership, opposing continued American support for Israel, and defending controversial comments he has made about the war in Gaza and the broader Middle East conflict.

During the interview, Segal confronted Carlson over the October 7 Hamas massacre, including the murders and kidnappings carried out by terrorists against Israeli civilians, among them women and infants. The discussion quickly escalated into a tense exchange over Israel’s military response and its right to defend itself.

Carlson directed much of his criticism at Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, accusing him of steering the country in a dangerous direction. He said Netanyahu is “leading Israel toward destruction” and called him “a very bad leader and a very unwise leader”, while also adding that he believes Netanyahu “is acting in what he thinks is his nation’s best interest. So I give him credit for that and always have.”

Carlson argued that the ongoing war has damaged ties between Washington and Jerusalem and said American involvement with Israel is harming the United States. He stated that “because of this war…America’s relationship with Israel, while it may be based on good intentions, is hurting the United States very badly” and urged an immediate halt to American assistance to Israel, saying: “I don’t think the United States owes Israel anything. I don’t think the United States should give Israel anything. I think we should stop all aid to Israel, all special deals for Israel.”

Turning to the conflict with Iran, Carlson criticized American participation in the confrontation and expressed disappointment with President Trump’s handling of the situation. According to Carlson, Trump “turned out to be far weaker than I understood” and had been pushed by Netanyahu “into a war that hurts the United States.”

Segal challenged Carlson over his comparison between Israel and the Iranian regime, noting the difference between a democratic country defending itself and a government known for executing dissidents and suppressing its population. Carlson responded by saying, “As an Israeli, you should pause before using the phrase ‘terror regime’, since you live in a country that just murdered thousands of children in Gaza.”

In other remarks during the interview, Carlson claimed that “Israel is not a democracy in any sense,” asserted that “Israel does not represent all Jews,” and accused the country of treating Arabs “like animals or subhumans.”

{Matzav.com}

The shekel is trading around ₪2.90 to the dollar, the lowest level since 1993. For an American family trying to buy in Jerusalem, Netanya, Beit Shemesh or Tel Aviv, this is major. A $1 million budget at ₪3.60 bought ₪3.6 million. At ₪2.90, it buys about ₪2.91 million. That is a loss of roughly ₪692,000 in buying power before the buyer even negotiates, hires a lawyer, pays tax or speaks to a mortgage broker.

That is what makes the Israeli housing market so strange right now. On paper, buyers finally have leverage. The latest CBS-based housing data showed apartment prices rising 0.3% month over month, but still down 1.2% year over year. New apartment prices rose slightly, but excluding subsidized government deals, new-home prices actually fell, and were down 3.8% annually. The national average apartment price stood around ₪2.33 million, while Tel Aviv averaged ₪4.59 million, Herzliya ₪3.85 million, Jerusalem ₪3.1 million, Be’er Sheva ₪1.24 million, Ashkelon ₪1.64 million and Haifa ₪1.8 million.

For dollar buyers, though, a modest Israeli price drop can be wiped out instantly by the exchange rate. A Jerusalem apartment priced at ₪5.1 million costs about $1.75 million at today’s Bank of Israel rate. At ₪3.60 to the dollar, that same apartment would have cost about $1.42 million. Same apartment. Same street. Same seller. A roughly $337,000 difference created by currency alone.

That explains why the American buyer story has changed. A new Finance Ministry analysis found that American passport holders still made up the largest group of foreign buyers in Israel, but their share fell to 49% of foreign purchases in the first quarter, down from about 60% a year earlier. Americans bought 238 apartments, slightly below the 248 they bought in the same period last year, while French purchases jumped from 84 to 130 and British purchases rose from 37 to 57. Government economists directly pointed to the dollar’s 13.6% depreciation against the shekel, compared with a much smaller 4% decline for the euro.

The American map is also revealing. More than half of American purchases were in Jerusalem, where the median foreign-buyer purchase price hit ₪5.1 million. About 60% of the apartments Americans bought in Jerusalem were new homes, with a median price of ₪5.95 million. Netanya overtook Beit Shemesh as the second-most active American-buyer market, while Tel Aviv ranked only fifth among Americans, behind Kiryat Gat.

That matters because this is not a broad “foreigners stopped buying Israel” story. It is more specific. Dollar-based buyers are being squeezed. Euro and pound buyers are seeing a different calculation. French buyers, for example, are buying more modestly priced homes, with an average purchase price of ₪2.8 million, and are spreading into Netanya, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. Americans are still buying, but they are concentrated in expensive markets where every currency move is amplified.

The shekel’s strength is not happening in a vacuum. The Bank of Israel says the shekel strengthened against the dollar, the euro and Israel’s broader trading partners in the first quarter, even as volatility rose during Operation Roaring Lion against Iran. Reuters reported that the shekel has been supported by a weaker global dollar, rising Israeli equities and large foreign investment into Israel. Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir said the central bank is not rushing to intervene, even while acknowledging that markets may be over-optimistic.

That creates a sharp divide. For Israelis earning shekels, the strong currency helps tame import prices and inflation. For exporters and foreign buyers, it hurts. For American Jews who kept money in dollars while planning an eventual Israel purchase, it can feel like the market moved against them even when apartment prices did not.

The irony is that this should be one of the better negotiating environments Israel has offered in years. Developers are sitting on heavy inventory. Ynet, citing Bank of Israel data, reported that contractors held a record 83,400 unsold new apartments at the end of 2025, while apartment purchases fell 12% from the previous year. The same report said 44% of projects financed by Israel’s five largest banks had construction progressing faster than sales, a sign of pressure beneath the surface.

That pressure is visible in the sales tactics. The 80/20 and 90/10 deals that became common in Israel let buyers pay only 10% or 20% upfront and the balance near delivery. Those offers helped developers keep sales moving during the slowdown, but they also created risk: some buyers may now struggle to close, especially if their dollars are worth less, their U.S. home sale is delayed, or their mortgage terms change before delivery.

Still, Israel is not a crash market. It is a compressed market. The country has too many unsold apartments in some places and not enough of the right apartments in others. A Shoresh Institution study cited by The Jerusalem Post found that from 1990 to 2023, household growth outpaced construction starts by about 121,000 apartments, and the gap reached about 272,000 when measured against completed apartments. The deeper problem is not just quantity, but mismatch: Israel keeps building large four- and five-room apartments while more Israelis live in smaller households and need smaller, more affordable units.

Rent tells the same story. Even as purchase prices soften, rents keep rising. Recent data showed rents up 2.6% for tenants renewing leases and 3.6% for new tenants, while residential construction input costs rose 3% over the year, driven partly by a 4.7% increase in labor costs. That combination makes sellers stubborn: if they can rent, wait and avoid cutting too deeply, many will.

Security has also changed the buyer checklist. In March, homes with safe rooms accounted for 65% of secondhand transactions, the highest level recorded since at least early 2024. Investor sales fell sharply, especially in Tel Aviv and Haifa, where many older apartments lack safe rooms. The message is clear: buyers are not only comparing price, view and neighborhood anymore. A mamad can now affect liquidity, resale value and family decision-making.

For Americans, the pressure is doubled by the U.S. side of the equation. Freddie Mac reported the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.36%, while Reuters said the U.S. housing market remains weighed down by elevated borrowing costs, tight entry-level inventory and high home prices. That matters because many Israel buyers do not arrive with idle cash sitting in a shekel account. They are selling a U.S. home, borrowing against assets, liquidating investments or timing a transfer. A slow U.S. sale plus a strong shekel can turn a planned Israel purchase into a moving target.

Tax status can make the gap even wider. Foreign residents are generally treated like Israeli investors for purchase tax, with rates of 8% up to ₪6,055,070 and 10% above that level. Israeli residents buying a sole residence start at lower brackets, and qualifying olim can receive special purchase-tax benefits under updated rules. For an American buyer on a multimillion-shekel purchase, tax planning is not a side issue. It can be a six-figure shekel decision.

MA’ALE ADUMIM, WEST BANK – OCTOBER 16: New houses are seen under construction October 16, 2003 in the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, West Bank. The first phase of the road map requires Israel to stop confiscating Palestinian land and to freeze all settlement activity. Ma’ale Adumim has grown from 23 families and a few tents and mobile homes in 1975 to nearly 30,000 residents, most of whom commute to work in nearby Jerusalem. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)

So what does this market actually mean?

It does not mean Americans should panic-buy because the shekel is strong. It also does not mean waiting automatically solves the problem. If the dollar rebounds, a buyer who waited may suddenly regain hundreds of thousands of shekels in purchasing power. If the shekel stays strong and Israeli rates fall, local buyers may return, developers may regain confidence and today’s negotiating window may narrow.

The smarter read is that Israeli real estate has split into two markets. In shekel terms, buyers can find softness, especially in parts of the new-build market and in areas where developers need cash flow. In dollar terms, Israel has become dramatically more expensive. That is why some Americans are pausing, some are lowering budgets, some are shifting from Jerusalem to Netanya or Beit Shemesh, and some are deciding that if they are buying Israel for life rather than speculation, the currency pain is the price of certainty.

The best-positioned buyer right now is not the loudest bidder. It is the one who thinks in shekels, negotiates like the market is soft, protects against currency risk, understands tax status before signing and refuses to confuse a lower sticker price with a cheaper deal.

Senior chareidi political figures on Tuesday dismissed claims from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office that he has assembled a Knesset majority to pass the controversial chareidi draft exemption bill, even as lawmakers prepared to begin the formal process of dissolving the government tomorrow.

A senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office told Israeli media late Tuesday that Netanyahu’s pressure campaign on holdouts within his own coalition had succeeded in flipping enough lawmakers to allow the bill to advance toward its final readings.

“We achieved the necessary majority and that is what is important,” the official said, adding that Netanyahu’s staff had relayed the message to chareidi party leaders.

Chareidi figures pushed back hard. A senior official in United Torah Judaism dismissed the claim as “nonsense,” while a spokesman for Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni said his office had received no such communication from the prime minister.

“He doesn’t need to give notice. He should just bring the bill to a vote,” the spokesman said.

The exchange comes one day before the Knesset is scheduled to hold a preliminary vote on legislation to dissolve parliament and trigger early elections, a process set in motion last week after Netanyahu informed UTJ representatives that his coalition lacked the votes to pass the draft exemption law in the current Knesset. The prime minister had reportedly asked the chareidi parties to wait until after the next election to revisit the bill, an offer they refused.

Rav Dov Landau, the leader of Degel HaTorah and head of the Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak, has instructed the faction’s lawmakers not to be “drawn into political games” and to vote in favor of dissolving the Knesset on Wednesday. Rav Landau reportedly called Netanyahu a “liar” in a closed meeting with his lawmakers last week and declared that “the concept of a [right-wing] bloc no longer exists as far as we are concerned.”

The standoff has set off an unusually open fight over the timing of the next election. Under Israeli law, the vote must in any case be held no later than October 27. But chareidi leaders are pushing for a September date, before the Yomim Noraim, calculating that turnout in their communities would be higher ahead of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Netanyahu’s office has reportedly pressed for an October date, which would give the coalition more weeks to advance pending legislation, including bills to split the attorney general’s role and overhaul Israel’s public broadcaster.

On Monday, the draft exemption bill was placed back on the Knesset’s parliamentary agenda, with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee set to resume preparatory discussions tomorrow ahead of the two final readings required for passage. A parallel discussion is scheduled on a bill to extend the length of mandatory service for regular IDF conscripts.

Chareidi sources told Israeli media that the renewed committee schedule was an attempt by Netanyahu’s office to buy time and delay elections into October. A senior Degel HaTorah figure told Kikar Hashabbat that the move was transparent. “What do you do when you want to buy time?” the source said. “They are now informing the chareidim that there is a breakthrough to achieve a majority, and they do not have a majority. They are telling [Knesset Defense Committee chairman] Boaz Bismuth to hold discussions in the committee, and according to the attorney general, at least two or three more discussions are needed before the law is read.”

The legislation, which Netanyahu’s coalition partners have demanded since the government was sworn in at the end of 2022, would ostensibly increase military conscription rates within the chareidi community while in practice preserving the decades-old exemption for full-time yeshiva students. Critics across the political spectrum, including senior military officials, have called it legally unsound and riddled with loopholes. The IDF has continued to warn of a worsening manpower shortage amid ongoing operations in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and the possibility of resumed military action against Iran.

The bill was shelved in March with the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic but was revived by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth in the weeks that followed.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of attempting to extend his political life at the expense of national security. “Prime Minister Netanyahu knows he is facing defeat in the elections and will do everything he can in order to gain a few more days in the Prime Minister’s Office,” Lapid wrote on X. He called the renewed push to pass the bill “another act of betrayal toward IDF soldiers and reserve service members.”

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, called the move “another desperate attempt” by the prime minister “to buy himself a few more weeks in power at the expense of the national interest of strengthening the IDF during a war.”

Whether Wednesday’s preliminary vote on dissolution actually proceeds remains an open question. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri had reportedly agreed to give Netanyahu another week to try to advance the conscription law, and that the dissolution bill could yet be pulled depending on movement on the draft legislation. Shas, while having resigned its ministerial portfolios last year over the issue, has continued to support the coalition in plenum votes.

What is clear, even in the absence of a final tally, is that the trust between Netanyahu and his chareidi coalition partners has frayed to a degree without obvious precedent in the prime minister’s long alliance with them.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Wow! Yesterday’s Bikur Cholim Health Screening was a smashing success. Hundreds of responsible members of our community turned out to do what they can to be on top of their health and try to catch a health issue before CH”V running into complications.

After seeing how many responsible people we have amongst us it got me wondering, what if we had such a screening for mental health issues as well?!

It’s pretty scary to think that we have men, women, and even children suffering in silence. They walk around with mental health struggles and push off getting help until in some cases it’s CH”V too late.

Many people have watched someone they know end up in a dark spot because the warning signs were ignored and never addressed. Some of the issues likely could have been detected and with the proper treatment they could have been helped before getting out of hand.

I don’t know what the proper setup or way of going about it would be but even just the awareness can probably be a big help for individuals and families. I can’t imagine I’m the only one thinking this and It’s something to consider. Maybe some of your readers agree and can think of an idea how to go about it.

Thank you for providing us with a kosher outlet with open dialogue that can potentially bring help to those that need it.

TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to us via  Whatsapp  or via email  [email protected]

Massive investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure is helping shape the next phase of the digital economy, according to one investment expert watching Wall Street’s AI race.

ProCap Financial Chairman and CEO Anthony Pompliano joined FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” to discuss the surge in AI investment, growing interest in digital assets and how his firm’s AI-powered financial platform is helping users navigate increasingly complex markets.

“The market is showing us that the AI trade is real,” Pompliano said. “One of the things is that the United States of America is laying the groundwork for the next century.”

Pompliano said artificial intelligence requires significant energy, data center capacity and computing power as companies work to expand the infrastructure behind the technology.

His comments come as major technology companies continue ramping up spending on AI chips, cloud infrastructure and energy-intensive data centers to meet demand tied to generative AI tools. Companies including Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have committed billions to expanding AI capacity as Wall Street races to capitalize on the technology boom.

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Pompliano also pointed to growing demand for personalized AI tools in finance, arguing that models with access to an individual’s portfolio data can provide more tailored guidance than general-purpose chatbots.

“One of the problems with the general purpose models like a ChatGPT or a Claude is that it doesn’t have the context of your personal financial information,” Pompliano said.

The discussion also touched on cryptocurrency markets, where Pompliano said institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to grow despite ongoing volatility.

KEVIN O’LEARY REVEALS THE ONLY TWO CRYPTOCURRENCIES HE SAYS ARE WORTH OWNING

Pompliano said adoption is increasingly being driven by large financial firms seeking risk-adjusted returns for clients.

“Wall Street’s getting in the game,” Pompliano said. “You’re starting to see these really big firms that are very smart, who are looking for risk-adjusted returns.”

The conversation underscores how AI investment and digital assets remain central to Wall Street’s evolving strategy as firms search for long-term growth opportunities.

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(AP) – The two-term state treasurer was uncontested in the GOP primary.

Garrity is running as a strong backer of Trump’s agenda as she attempts to be the first Republican to win the office in Pennsylvania since 2010.

Shapiro ran uncontested for the Democratic Party’s nomination to seek a second term.

Garrity lagged badly behind Shapiro in fundraising after winning two relatively low-profile races for treasurer.

Just before the Gaza Sumud Flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy Monday, activists were seen on video footage tossing their phones into the sea.

Flotilla activists have been known to throw their phones into the water before Israeli interception to prevent their devices from falling into the hands of the Israelis, giving them access to their flotilla video footage and other communications.

Critics ask what they have to hide. They also point out that smartphones and other electronic devices are extremely harmful to marine life.

Submersion in the water causes the devices to leach toxic chemicals, heavy metals and microplastics into the water, which accumulates in the food chain that is then consumed by the denizens of the sea.

Gaza flotilla activists are seen throwing their phones into the sea just before being intercepted. (From a post on X)

Each part of a smartphone presents unique hazards to aquatic habitats: The chemicals used to create images on the screen, called liquid crystal monomers, are persistent pollutants containing gene-altering toxins. Batteries and circuit boards leach heavy metals into the water that disrupt the reproductive cycle of marine animals and cause neurological damage. The plastic from phone cases dissolves into microplastics which are ingested by plankton, who transfer this dangerous junk to animals higher up on the food chain.

Critics are mystified by the silence of Greta Thunberg on these ecological crimes. Before becoming the face of the Gaza flotilla, Thunberg led the fight against climate change. Observers wonder why she doesn’t speak out against the pollution of the sea her colleagues have caused by tossing their phones, as well as food packets, overboard.

The Ocean County Health Department is reminding residents to take precautions against rabies as warmer weather leads to increased outdoor activity and more encounters with wildlife.

Health officials warned that while human rabies cases in the United States are rare — with only one to three reported annually — the disease is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. Officials noted that prompt medical treatment after exposure is highly effective in preventing infection, with approximately 60,000 Americans receiving post-exposure prophylaxis each year following possible exposure.

Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the central nervous system and is commonly spread through bites, scratches, or contact with saliva from an infected animal. Wildlife such as raccoons, bats, skunks, and foxes account for most rabies cases reported nationwide.

“Residents should appreciate wildlife from a safe distance and remain aware of unusual animal behavior,” said Daniel Regenye, Public Health Coordinator and Health Officer for the Ocean County Health Department. Officials cautioned that animals acting unusually friendly, aggressive, disoriented, or unafraid of people may be showing signs of rabies. Parents are also encouraged to remind children never to approach or touch wild animals.

Ocean County Deputy Commissioner Jennifier Bachionne said residents can greatly reduce the risk of rabies exposure by vaccinating pets, securing trash containers, protecting attics from bats, and avoiding contact with wild animals.

Officials say anyone bitten or scratched by an animal should immediately wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water, seek medical attention, contact local animal control authorities, and report the incident to the Ocean County Health Department.

The county’s animal facilities continue to offer free rabies vaccine clinics in Jackson and Manahawkin throughout the month.

A major uproar erupted Monday after Israeli Police Commissioner Danny Levy ordered officers to begin detaining yeshiva bochurim classified as “draft evaders” and transferring them to the military police.

The directive immediately sparked fierce backlash from Chareidi leaders — and criticism from within the police force itself, where officials warned the policy could quickly spiral out of control.

Under the new policy, any police officer who encounters a “draft evader” during a routine interaction must detain the individual, notify military police authorities, and wait up to 30 minutes for their arrival. If military police do not arrive within that timeframe, the detainee is to be released and issued a summons to report.

While police officials attempted to calm tensions by emphasizing the 30-minute limit, Chareidi leaders warned the move represents a dramatic shift in longstanding unofficial policy.

Senior Chareidi activists accused authorities of bowing to pressure from Israel’s Attorney General and warned the decision could ignite widespread unrest.

“Even within the police they understand there is no realistic way to arrest yeshiva bochurim without the situation becoming explosive within minutes,” one senior Chareidi source said.

According to reports, police officials privately warned that officers are now being pushed to the front lines of one of the most sensitive and volatile issues in Israeli society without the manpower or practical ability to handle the fallout.

Police sources reportedly fear violent confrontations with extremist groups, mass demonstrations, and major highway blockades that could require enormous security resources during an already tense security situation.

Officials also warned the directive could severely damage relations between the Chareidi community and law enforcement.

“One of the reasons police previously avoided transferring yeshiva bochurim to military police was the understanding that such a move would cause young Chareidim to fear any interaction with law enforcement,” a police source said.

“The concern is that a yeshiva bochur who needs police assistance as an ordinary citizen may now simply avoid going to a police station altogether. If a young Chareidi fears every interaction with a police officer could end with detention and transfer to military authorities, that becomes a much broader societal problem.”

Israeli Police later clarified that officers are only instructed to act during “random encounters” with “draft evaders” and reiterated that detainees must be released if military police fail to arrive within 30 minutes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A 75-page manifesto attributed to the two teenagers who killed three people in Monday’s attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego is being authenticated by federal investigators, who say the writings reflect a sprawling ideological hatred directed at Muslims, Jews, and others, and praise some of the most notorious mass killers of the past three decades.

Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, opened fire outside the mosque shortly before noon on Monday, killing security guard Amin Abdullah and two staff members. Both attackers died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a vehicle near the scene, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. The mosque, located in the Clairemont neighborhood and described as the largest in San Diego County, was holding classes for children at the time of the attack.

The document, which has circulated online since the shooting and was reviewed by multiple news organizations, includes lengthy sections apparently written by each of the gunmen. The writings refer extensively to accelerationism, a white-supremacist ideology that calls for violence to hasten the collapse of pluralistic society and the establishment of a white ethnostate, and they identify the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque massacre as the operational and ideological model for the attack. The manifesto is titled “The New Crusade” and bears the subhead “Sons of Tarrant,” a reference to Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant.

Three senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that investigators are working to verify the document’s authorship and provenance.

“We are dedicating every resource the FBI has to conduct a thorough analysis of that manifesto to try to learn what led to this, but I think also more importantly, how can we stop future attacks,” Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego field office, said at a Monday afternoon briefing. “They didn’t discriminate on who they hated. It covered a wide aspect of races and religions, more than just the Islamic people.”

The writings, the imagery left at the scene, and material recovered from the suspects’ online accounts share common features. A red fuel can found near the suspects’ vehicle bore the twin lightning-bolt symbol of the Nazi Waffen-SS. One of the shotguns recovered at the scene was photographed with hateful phrases scrawled on its stock. The Black Sun, an esoteric symbol with origins in Nazi Germany, and the insignia of Atomwaffen Division, a US-based neo-Nazi accelerationist network, appear repeatedly in the manifesto and across material reviewed by The California Post.

In a section identifying himself, Vazquez wrote that he aligned with “Third Positionism, specifically National Socialism and eco-fascism” and that his only meaningful religion was “the white race.” He described himself as an accelerationist who believed that “an all-out race war for the purpose of societal collapse is the only real way forward.” A separate section attributed to Clark, titled “Death to the World,” contained passages on what the author called “the Jewish question,” “Muslims,” and “the beauty of war.”

Clark described himself as “the average white man wanting to do the right thing” and said his motive was to “secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” a phrase known as the “14 Words” and one of the most recognizable slogans in modern white-supremacist propaganda.

Both authors expressed admiration for past killers. Clark cited Adolf Hitler as an ideological inspiration and named, among others, Christchurch attacker Brenton Tarrant, Poway Chabad gunman John Earnest, Pittsburgh synagogue gunman Robert Bowers, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. He also referenced Ted Kaczynski.

The writings include explicit operational discussion of livestreaming an attack, with Vazquez urging readers to “spread our message” and Clark advising future attackers to “try to get the latest version you can if you plan to stream your attack.” A livestream of part of the attack circulated briefly before being taken down by platforms.

The document ends with a question-and-answer section attributed to Clark in which he stated that he hated his victims, did not intend to survive, and was not affiliated with any formal political organization despite his expressed support for various extremist movements. He wrote that, had he survived, he would have allowed his attorneys to manage any subsequent legal proceedings. He also distanced himself from American mainstream politics, writing that “the modern left is retarded, and the modern right is foolish,” and stating that he did not align with either the Trump movement or the institutional right.

Investigators are also reviewing the suspects’ online footprint. A Steam gaming profile and a Venmo account, both using the username “SurfaceLevel,” have been linked to Clark, according to material reviewed by The California Post. The Steam profile contained imagery referencing fascist and Nazi material, including artwork combining the Black Sun symbol with portraits of Hitler, photographs of German soldiers in World War II formation, and a reference to José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Spanish Falange. The Post said it identified additional accounts associated with the second attacker containing related imagery and language consistent with the manifesto.

The two attackers appear to have met online, according to a briefing provided by federal officials to CBS News and others, and shared what the FBI described as a “broad hatred” of religions and races.

Clark attended James Madison High School virtually and had been a member of the school’s wrestling team during the 2024-2025 season. He was scheduled to graduate later this month, a district official said. Vazquez has been described in initial reporting as a resident of Chula Vista, where law enforcement officials were observed at a home believed to be linked to his family. Clark’s mother had contacted San Diego police hours before the attack, reporting that her son was missing, suicidal, and had taken her car and several firearms. She told officers that he and a companion had left dressed in camouflage. Officers had been in contact with the family that morning.

Wahl, the police chief, called the assault “every community’s worst nightmare” and said it was being investigated as a hate crime. He credited Abdullah, the security guard killed, with preventing what he described as a potentially far greater toll inside the mosque.

“At this point, I think it’s fair to say his actions were heroic,” Wahl said. “Undoubtedly, he saved lives today.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump is expected to travel to Rockland County later this week for an event alongside local officials and residents, according to sources.

News12 Hudson Valley senior reporter Tara Rosenblum reported that Trump is scheduled to appear in Rockland County on Friday, May 22 — the first day of Shavuos — for what is being described as an official White House function.

The event is expected to include Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, as well as constituents and community members from the region.

While the precise location and timing of the gathering have not yet been publicly announced, officials are said to be finalizing the details and logistics surrounding the president’s visit.

Lawler, one of the most closely watched Republican lawmakers in New York, has maintained a strong relationship with Trump while representing a politically competitive district that includes parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester counties.

A man was shot and killed early Monday morning after forcing his way into a Jewish home in Philadelphia in the early hours of Monday. The incident happened shortly after 1 a.m. on the 1600 block of Griffith Street in the Rhawnhurst section of the city. According to YWN sources, a male suspect forcibly entered the property, prompting a struggle inside the home. During that struggle, the suspect was shot.

Responding officers transported the man to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 1:39 a.m., according to police.

The suspect’s identity has not yet been released.

YWN sources say a frum woman was inside the home at the time with her two children. The woman, who babysits for many frum infants, screamed when the intruder came in. A neighbor who heard the woman screaming forced the door open with a crowbar and shot the intruder, killing him.

No injuries were reported among the woman, her children, or others inside the home.

No arrests have been announced as of Monday, and police said the investigation remains ongoing. The case is being handled as a homicide investigation, which is standard procedure in fatal shootings, while detectives work to determine the full circumstances surrounding the break-in and shooting.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the standoff with Iran could soon come to an end, expressing optimism that Tehran is eager to reach an agreement while again warning that the regime will never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.

Speaking during a Congressional picnic at the White House, Trump addressed the escalating tensions with Iran and suggested a resolution could come in the near future.

“I think we’re going to be finished with that very quickly,” Trump said.

“They want to make a deal so badly. They’re tired of this, and we’re going to be finished with that very quickly. Hopefully, we’re going to get it done in a very nice manner,” he added, while once again stressing that “they won’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump’s comments came one day after he disclosed on Truth Social that the United States had been preparing to strike Iran on Tuesday before the operation was delayed because of what he described as serious diplomatic discussions.

Speaking with reporters later Monday, Trump elaborated on the decision to postpone the military action.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I’ve put it off for a little while, hopefully, maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” Trump said.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump indicated that military action had come extremely close to being approved before he ultimately halted the plan.

“I was an hour away” from authorizing a strike on Iran, Trump reportedly said, before explaining why he decided against immediate action.

“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” he added. “I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon.”

Trump also accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons with dangerous intentions extending far beyond the region itself.

Trump said Iran wants a nuclear weapon “to blow up the Middle East and, frankly, to blow up the world. It’s not gonna happen.”

{Matzav.com}

MADRID (AP) — The son of Isak Andic, the billionaire founder of the Spanish fashion brand Mango, posted bail of 1 million euros ($1.15 million) on Tuesday following his arrest for alleged homicide in connection with a renewed investigation into the death of his father in 2024.

Andic, 71, was hiking with his son, Jonathan, in the mountains near Barcelona when he fell about 150 meters (about 500 feet) down a cliff and died in December 2024.

Jonathan Andic, 45, who is the vice chairman of Mango, one of Spain’s biggest retailers, was the only witness. Police opened an investigation but closed it a few weeks later. It was reopened in March 2025, and in October police confirmed the death was being investigated as a possible homicide.

Jonathan Andic was taken to a court in Martorell, a city in eastern Spain, where the case is being investigated. After answering questions from his lawyer, the judge set bail which was posted shortly afterward, court said.

Jonathan Andic is the eldest of Isak Andic’s three children and one of his father’s heirs. Isak Andic’s family moved from Turkey to Spain when he was young. He opened Mango’s first store in Barcelona in 1984 and over the following decades helped Mango grow into one of Europe’s leading fast fashion makers.

Mango has 2,900 stores in 120 markets around the world. The fashion group’s revenue hit a record high of nearly 3.8 billion euros (4.4 billion dollars) in 2025, an 11% increase from the previous year.

Rep. Thomas Massie, one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics in Congress, was defeated Tuesday in Kentucky’s Republican primary by Trump-endorsed candidate Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL.

Gallrein will now move on to the November midterm election after securing victory in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District in what became the most expensive House primary race in American history.

The race had been closely watched nationwide as a major measure of Trump’s continued dominance over the Republican Party more than a decade after first entering national politics.

Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly urged Republican voters to back Gallrein and sharply attacked Massie, referring to him as a “major sleazebag” and “the worst Republican congressman in history”.

Massie, who had represented the district since 2012, frequently clashed with Trump in recent years. He opposed Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending package last year, citing concerns over the growing national debt. He also voted against certain military actions backed by Trump, including operations targeting suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the ongoing conflict involving Iran.

The Kentucky congressman additionally joined Democrats and several Republicans in pushing the Justice Department to release all files connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

Addressing supporters after conceding defeat, Massie said he remained proud of the way his campaign had been conducted.

“we’ve been honourable the whole time,” he told supporters.

“It started nine months ago, and they didn’t even have a candidate, and they decided they wanted to take me out,” he added.

On the eve of the primary, Trump intensified his attacks on Massie in a series of social media posts, labeling him “an obstructionist and a fool”.

Gallrein also received campaign support from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who traveled to Kentucky and accused Massie of engaging in “constant obstruction”.

Massie responded by arguing that Hegseth’s appearance in the district actually reflected concern within the Gallrein campaign.

“You don’t send the Secretary of War to Kentucky during a war if you think your candidate is up 10 points. That’s what you do when you realise your whole campaign is imploding,” Massie told CBS News.

Massie defended much of his voting record alongside Trump but said his disagreements came on matters of principle.

“90% of the time,” Massie said he voted with Trump, though he argued that the president and his allies “want 100% compliance”.

“It’s only the 10% of the time they’re mad about – when I won’t vote for a war, when I won’t vote for warrantless spying and when I won’t vote to bankrupt the country,” he said.

“But in those instances, I’m doing what I told the people in Kentucky I would do.”

In another major Kentucky Republican contest, Rep. Andy Barr won the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is stepping down after serving more than four decades in the Senate.

Barr’s victory followed Trump’s endorsement and came after the president reportedly helped clear the field by offering an ambassadorship to Barr’s leading Republican rival.

Trump has continued to aggressively shape Republican primaries across the country through endorsements, including efforts targeting lawmakers who opposed him or supported his conviction during the 2021 impeachment proceedings.

In Texas, Trump has also backed Attorney General Ken Paxton over longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

“John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough,” Trump said Tuesday while explaining his endorsement of Paxton.

{Matzav.com}

Spirit Airlines’ sudden overnight collapse has left budget-conscious families stranded just weeks before the traditional launch of the summer travel season on Memorial Day.

Shortly after Spirit’s operational shutdown, a company lawyer apologized in bankruptcy court to Americans who are now priced out of air travel.

“We apologize most specifically to those Americans who may now be priced entirely out,” Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner said in bankruptcy court, The Associated Press and Fortune reported, before he thanked longtime passengers who “could not otherwise have afforded air travel.”

Huebner said earlier this month that the surge in jet fuel prices left the company with “no remaining way out” of bankruptcy and caused it to cease operations last weekend, while it seeks permission to sell assets on an ongoing basis and pay bonuses to remaining employees.

OPINION: WE WILL ALL PAY FOR THE DEMOCRATS’ ANTITRUST CRUSADE THAT KILLED SPIRIT AIRLINES

Spirit Airlines announced on May 2 that it would cease operations, effective immediately, after a bailout from President Donald Trump failed to materialize. The carrier had been seeking a $500 million lifeline from the federal government, but the deal could not be finalized in time due to financial complications, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Spirit’s ultimate demise and bankruptcy troubles had been years in the making, the airline faced additional pressure from rising jet fuel prices after conflict involving Iran disrupted Middle East oil shipments about 11 weeks ago. Budget airlines are especially vulnerable to rising costs because they cannot easily offset fuel spikes with premium cabins, corporate travel programs or loyalty rewards, driving ticket prices further out of reach for middle-class travelers.

When the oil market volatility began, the Association of Value Airlines — representing Spirit, Allegiant Air, Avelo Air, Frontier Airlines and Sun Country Airlines — reportedly asked the Trump administration for $2.5 billion in temporary aid.

The trade group representing American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and Alaska Airlines quickly rejected the idea, arguing it would create an unfair advantage.

“Government intervention on behalf of those airlines would punish other airlines that have engaged in self-help in order to deal with increased costs and reward airlines who haven’t made those tough decisions,” Airlines for America wrote in a press release statement. “And, in the long-term, sustaining businesses that cannot earn their cost of capital harms competition and consumers by making it more difficult for other airlines to compete.”

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“Not all airlines are struggling equally,” Barron’s associate editor Jack Hough said on Barron’s Roundtable last week. “Delta and United are the strongest. They could each generate maybe around $2 billion in free cash this year, but JetBlue and Frontier, they are burning cash right now as they have for years. And of course, Spirit Airlines has folded, so it takes away a lot of the price competition for major carriers.”

“I think it suggests that cheap flights are going to be harder to come by for a while,” Hough warned.

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

FOX Business’ Matthew Kazin, Eric Revell and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

President Trump publicly says he held off on a planned strike against Iran after Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE urged him to give negotiations more time. Axios reports he told the Pentagon to suspend the attack but stay ready for a “full, large scale assault” if no acceptable deal is reached.  

But the NYT reporting points to a second, more military reason: Pentagon officials were reportedly concerned that Tehran was adapting fast, studying U.S. fighter and bomber patterns, improving air defenses and getting better at detecting signs of a surprise attack. In other words, every pause gives the Iranian regime more time to learn the rhythm of American air operations.  

This comes after earlier NYT-based reporting that the U.S. and Israel were in intensive preparations for renewed strikes, including heavier bombing options and even possible special-operations scenarios targeting deeply buried nuclear material. Military officials warned that those ground options carried serious casualty risk.  

SHADMOT MEHOLA, ISRAEL – APRIL 3: An Israeli woman with a child looks at the tail section of a ballistic missile launched from Iran, in the Jewish settlement of Shadmot Mehola in the northern Jordan Valley on April 03, 2026 in Shadmot Mehola, Israel. Iran has continued firing waves of drones and missiles at Israel after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran early on February 28th. (Photo by Erik Marmor/Getty Images)

U.S. commanders publicly say Iran has been badly degraded, while intelligence assessments cited in reports suggest Tehran has restored access to much of its missile infrastructure, including sites near the Strait of Hormuz. The pause may buy diplomacy time, but it also gives the Iranian regime time to harden, move and adapt.

Kosher.com brought together food, inspiration, and community with a special pre-Shavuos event benefiting A Touch of Care, the Lakewood-based organization that supports families facing illness and crisis.

The women’s event featured an elegant dairy menu, a tea bar sponsored by Wissotzky, and an uplifting conversation with the inspiring giores Adina Shoshana, known online as @NowJewishNanny. During the event, Adina shared her personal inspiring story and the connection she feels to the story of Rus.

The women gathered for an evening that combined warmth, community, and meaningful inspiration ahead of Shavuos, while also supporting the important work of A Touch of Care, an organization that provides support to Jewish families who have received a diagnosis of Down syndrome, either during pregnancy or at birth.

You can read more about the event here: https://www.kosher.com/article/a-look-inside-our-special-pre-shavuos-event/

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Get Kosher.com’s New Shavuos Cookbook

Kosher.com is offering a free digital Shavuos cookbook packed with delicious dairy recipes and beautiful Yom Tov inspiration. Get it here: https://kosher.kit.com/c2862d8bd0

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) Did anyone notice this?  There is a pasuk in Sefer Yeshayahu (35:1) that for nearly twenty-seven centuries seemed to defy literal fulfillment: “Yesusum midbar v’tziyah, v’sageil aravah v’tifrach kachavatzeles” — “The wilderness and the parched land shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose.” The navi continues two pesukim later: “Ki nivk’u vamidbar mayim u’nechalim ba’aravah” — “For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.”

To the generations who read these words in galus, they were nechemta — consolation poetry, understood as metaphor. The aravah is, by definition, the place where water is not. The midbar is, by definition, the land that does not blossom. To promise that the desert would rejoice was understood as a promise that history itself would be overturned in yemos haMoshiach.

And yet, in our own days, beneath the Negev — that very aravah named explicitly by Yeshayahu — the literal pshat of the navi has begun to unfold.

The Mayim Nistarim Beneath the Aravah

In 1973, a frum geologist named Eliezer Issar drilled 2,300 feet into the sandstone beneath the Negev and struck water that erupted to the surface under its own pressure. No need to pump.  He had tapped the Nubian Aquifer — an underground reservoir holding an estimated 150,000 cubic kilometers of ancient waters, rainfall that fell during the last ice age and was sealed in stone before Avraham Avinu walked the earth.

There is a concept in the Gemorah (Megillah 13a) that Hakadosh Baruch Hu prepares the refuah before the makah. This also applies to the means of geulah long before geulah itself becomes visible.

Water that fell thousands of years ago, sealed beneath the very land that Yeshayahu would later name, waited in darkness for the precise generation that would need it. “Nivk’u vamidbar mayim” — the verb nivk’u, “burst forth,” is striking. The water bursts upward of its own pressure, exactly as the lashon of the pasuk describes.

The Two “Defects” That Were Brachos in Disguise

The water that burst forth had two characteristics that, initially, made it appear useless. It was hot — 99 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, heated by geothermal forces in the depths of the earth. And it was brackish — salty enough to destroy wheat and conventional produce.

The hot, salty water of the Negev could not grow wheat. But Hashem had created, in tropical river deltas across the world, fish – kosher ones — barramundi, tilapia, European seabass — whose entire biology was designed for warm, and yes -slightly saline water. These fish, dwelling in the river mouths of Australia and the Mediterranean, were waiting for the day they would be brought to the aravah and find that the “defective” water was, for them, gan eden.

Hashem prepared the fish for the water, and the water for the fish, thousands of years before either was needed.  And so they began farming fish in these pools that they had constructed from Eliezer Issar’s flow of water.

But, alas, yet another problem.  In the Negev, the fish produce ammonia as waste — a substance that, in concentration, poisons the very water they swim in. Conventional farming treats this as pollution to be filtered or discarded. Something that would cost enormous sums of money.

But let’s not forget that Gemorah about the yeshuah before the Makah.  An the bracha in Shmoneh Esreh – Attah chonain l’adam da’as.  Because a solution was readily at hand.

Ammonia is also nitrogen — the single nutrient that plants require most desperately, the nutrient for which the world burns two percent of its total energy supply manufacturing synthetically through the Haber-Bosch process.

And what poisons the fish feeds the tree.

Israeli engineers devised a solution where the water could flow from the fish tanks directly to the roots of olive trees and date palms — the precise two species named throughout Tanach as the signs of yishuv Eretz Yisrael. “Eretz zayis shemen u’dvash” (Devarim 8:8). The trees absorb the nitrogen, the soil filters the salt, and the water returns to the earth cleaner than when it emerged.

And the salt itself — the very mineral that was supposed to destroy the agriculture — turns out to be the brachah hidden within. Olive trees and date palms grow in the saline soils of Eretz Yisrael and tolerate salinity up to 5,000 parts per million. The Negev water sits at 3,000. Mild salt stress causes these trees to concentrate sugars and oils. The dates become sweeter. The olive oil becomes richer. “U’devash mi’tzur” — “and honey from the rock” (Devarim 32:13) — the sweetness drawn out specifically by the hardness of the conditions.

The holy prophet Yeshayahu (35:7) continues: “V’haya hasharav la’agam v’tzimaon l’mavu’ei mayim” — “And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” The navi names the precise transformation: the place defined by thirst becomes the source of water.

One million tropical fish now swim beneath the Negev. The pioneering work was launched in 1992 at Kibbutz Mash’abei Sadeh, which built a three-hectare reservoir and a series of covered rearing ponds. It became the only kibbutz in Israel to breed Australian barramundi alongside Nile tilapia and, later, yet another fish. The recycled brackish geothermal water from the fish ponds at Mash’abei Sadeh is used in its final stage to irrigate jojoba, olives, and melons — the closed loop that Yeshayahu describes in living agricultural form.

A second pillar of the industry is Re’em Farm in the western Negev, which uses the effluent from its fish rearing ponds to irrigate 120 hectares of olive trees, supplying the groves with water year-round — ten cubic meters per hour per day in winter and as much as one hundred in the summer. The integration is so seamless that the olive grove and the fish farm function as a single unit..

The largest barramundi operation in the world today is Aquatech Fisheries, operating its Negev Ecological Farm on a 35-dunam site in southern Israel. Aquatech uses local geothermal water, which enters its system at 37 degrees Celsius — the exacttemperature optimal for barramundi — and produces 2,000 tons of barramundi annually using a land-based Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS).

The water that exits the technological cycle is reused for irrigation of nearby olive groves, and the entire facility is powered by a photovoltaic solar array. Aquatech’s Israeli Barramundi brand is exported to France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — to the very European nations that, for two thousand years, watched the Land lie desolate as proof that the Jewish people had been abandoned. Now those nations purchase fish raised in water that erupted from beneath the desert.

Other significant players in the Israeli desert aquaculture industry include AquaMaof Aquaculture Technologies, whose RAS systems were developed in the Negev and are now exported to fish farms worldwide; Pure Blue Fish, which operates a zero-water-discharge RAS technology; and Phoenix Farm in the Negev, an indoor bio-secure facility breeding ornamental tropical fish for the global aquarium trade. Underpinning all of this is the academic engine of the industry: the Bengis Center for Desert Aquaculture (yes. Their patriarch was the brother of Rav Zelig Reuvain Bengis zt”l  – the Volozhin Talmid who became the Rav of the Eida Chareidis), the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, founded and led for decades by Professor Samuel Appelbaum, whose research established the scientific foundations on which the entire field now stands.

Together, these farms and institutions produce over 3,000 tons of fish annually from the Negev.

The Ramban on Vayikra (26:32) makes a remarkable statement. He says that one of the proofs that Eretz Yisrael belongs to Klal Yisrael, and that the promises of Tanach are true, is that the Land refuses to flourish for any nation other than its own. For nearly two millennia under Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mameluke, and Ottoman rule, the Negev remained barren. The navi promised it would blossom — but only when its people returned.

The Negev fish farms are not carbon neutral — they are carbon negative. They remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they produce. The geothermal heat that costs nothing replaces gas heating that would otherwise emit two hundred tons of carbon. The date palms and olive trees sequester additional carbon. The closed loop is, in modern terms, a literal multiplication of brachah from input to output.

The pasuk does not say if. It says ki — because. Because the waters have broken forth, because the streams have come. “The wilderness and the parched land shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose.”

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday night that the Israeli Navy had completed its takeover of the latest flotilla attempting to reach Gaza, with all activists aboard now in Israeli custody and being transported to Israel.

In a statement released by the ministry, officials said the operation had concluded successfully and that the passengers had been transferred off the flotilla vessels.

“Another PR flotilla has come to an end. All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives,” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Israeli officials dismissed the effort as a publicity campaign intended to benefit Hamas rather than a genuine humanitarian mission.

“This flotilla has once again proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt at the service of Hamas,” it added.

The ministry also emphasized that Israel intends to continue enforcing its maritime blockade of Gaza in accordance with international law.

“Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” the statement stressed.

Earlier Tuesday, the United States announced sanctions against four individuals connected to the flotilla operation. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the move was aimed at cutting off support networks tied to terrorism and advancing American diplomatic efforts in the region.

According to Pigott, the sanctions “disrupt terrorist financing and advance President Trump’s Middle East peace efforts.”

Among those detained aboard the flotilla was the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Connolly commented on the matter Monday, saying she was “very proud” of her sister.

A report aired Sunday on Israel’s N12 News claims the Prime Minister’s Office made the unusual decision to publicly confirm Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previously secret wartime visit to the United Arab Emirates out of concern that former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was also preparing to visit Abu Dhabi.

According to the report, Netanyahu’s office feared that if Bennett’s trip became public while Netanyahu’s own wartime meeting with Emirati leaders remained classified, it would create the impression that Bennett was welcomed openly by the UAE while Netanyahu was not.

Last Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu had traveled to the UAE during the opening days of Operation Roaring Lion and met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in what it described as a “historic breakthrough” in relations between the two countries.

The announcement quickly triggered an unusually sharp denial from the UAE Foreign Ministry, which said no such visit by Netanyahu or Israeli military officials had taken place and stressed that UAE-Israel relations under the Abraham Accords are conducted openly — “not based on secrecy or clandestine arrangements.”

N12 reported that Abu Dhabi had specifically requested that the meeting remain confidential and that the Israeli disclosure sparked significant diplomatic anger within the Emirati leadership.

According to two sources cited in the report, Bennett was expected to travel to the UAE for meetings with bin Zayed and other senior Emirati officials. Netanyahu, the report claims, did not want Bennett appearing publicly in Abu Dhabi while his own diplomatic engagement remained hidden from view.

The tensions come as concerns grow over the stability of the U.S.-brokered regional alliance against Iran amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Tehran.

“The stakes are high,” Middle East Institute analyst Natan Sachs told Fox News Digital.

“I imagine the Israelis are working overtime to mend relations with the UAE, but it is too early to tell,” he said.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry reiterated in its statement that any claims regarding undisclosed visits or arrangements are “baseless unless issued by the relevant official authorities in the UAE.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) – Conservative commentator Larry O’Connor sharply criticized Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on Tuesday over the congressman’s long-standing opposition to U.S. support for Israel, framing it as inconsistent with professed support for the Jewish people.

“I guess what Thomas Massie is saying here is ‘I’m anti-Zionist, but I’m not anti-Semitic.’ Ok, that’s fine. ‘I like Jewish people. They just can’t have their own country,’” O’Connor said, according to a post by Townhall.

Massie, who faces a competitive Republican primary Tuesday in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, has repeatedly criticized U.S. military aid to Israel and pro-Israel lobbying efforts. He has described the relationship as one-sided and opposed offensive weapons transfers amid Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and other Iranian-backed groups.

The race has drawn record spending, much of it from pro-Israel groups and donors seeking to defeat Massie, whom they view as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state’s right to defend itself.

O’Connor’s remarks highlight a common critique from pro-Israel conservatives: that distinguishing between anti-Zionism and antisemitism often masks opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish homeland. Zionism refers to the movement supporting a Jewish national homeland in Israel, established in 1948 after the Holocaust.

Massie has denied antisemitism charges, emphasizing his support for Israel’s defensive capabilities while opposing what he calls unconditional aid and foreign influence in U.S. elections. He has highlighted spending by groups like AIPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition in his race.

The exchange comes as Israel continues to face threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, with strong bipartisan support in Congress for the alliance viewed by many as vital to U.S. national security interests in the Middle East.

VINnews will continue to monitor developments in the Kentucky primary and reactions from the Jewish community.

As communities across Ocean County continue battling the opioid crisis, especially during the summer months, one township is taking additional steps to make overdose-reversal medication more accessible to the public – raising the question of whether Lakewood should consider doing the same.

Manchester Township announced this week that, in partnership with the Ocean County Health Department, it has installed a Narcan Deployment Kit outside Manchester Township Town Hall using National Opioid Settlement Funding.

The publicly accessible station, located in the Town Hall parking lot, provides residents with free Narcan – the medication used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses.

In addition, Manchester Township EMS plans to begin offering free Narcan training sessions starting in June, giving residents the opportunity to learn how to administer the life-saving medication in emergency situations.

Officials also reminded residents that the Manchester Township Police Department participates in the Project Medicine Drop Program, allowing expired or unused medications to be safely discarded at police headquarters.

With overdose deaths continuing to impact communities throughout New Jersey, the initiative is drawing attention as a possible model for other municipalities.

Should Lakewood consider implementing similar public-access Narcan stations and community training programs?

Two Chabad soldiers serving in the IDF for more than six months were subjected to disciplinary proceedings for not cutting their hair during Sefiras HaOmer.

According to a Channel 14 report, the two soldiers were detained by a military police officer, issued citations, and summoned to disciplinary hearings.

The soldiers said they tried to explain to the military police representative that their lack of haircuts did not stem from disrespect for orders but was due to a religious minhag that is an integral part of their emunah.

Both soldiers have valid army-issued beard exemptions, but did not receive official exemptions regarding haircuts. They stressed that no other disciplinary violations were issued against them.

One of the soldiers said, “I’m a Chabad chassid. I’m not allowed to get a haircut until Shavuos. If I could, I would have gotten one long ago.”

According to sources familiar with the matter, the incident joins a growing list of complaints from Chareidi and religious soldiers who claim their religious lifestyle and symbols have been infringed upon during military service.

Among the examples cited were previous incidents involving disciplinary action over religious symbols, including the “Moshiach” patch affair.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The U.S. military’s investigation into a strike that destroyed an Iranian girls’ school on the first day of the war is “complex” because the building sat on an active Iranian cruise missile site, the head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, testified before Congress on Tuesday.

The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern city of Minab killed 168 children, mostly girls between the ages of 7 and 12, along with teachers and parents, according to Iranian officials. Reuters first reported that an initial internal U.S. military assessment found that American forces were likely responsible for the destruction of the school, and the Pentagon has since elevated the probe.

Multiple independent investigations, including reviews by The New York Times, the Associated Press, Amnesty International and the open-source collective Bellingcat, have concluded that a U.S. Navy BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile struck the school in a salvo of three impacts in rapid succession, with the second strike hitting an interior prayer room where the principal had moved students after the first explosion. The preliminary U.S. inquiry, as reported by The Times, found that Central Command planners generated the target coordinates using outdated Defense Intelligence Agency data that still classified the school grounds as part of an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility.

President Trump initially attributed the strike to Iran, calling the Tomahawk a “generic” weapon and asserting falsely that Tehran also operated them. That account has been contradicted by the preliminary Pentagon findings, by munitions experts, by geolocated video evidence and by the Senate Minority Leader on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Adm. Cooper, appearing again before lawmakers Tuesday, also said Iran has hanged dozens of people since the April 7 ceasefire took effect and has targeted civilians in the Middle East thousands of times. He did not detail the specific incidents he was describing. Iranian authorities have carried out a wave of executions across the country since the start of the conflict, with rights groups documenting hangings of detainees accused of spying for Israel and of dissident activity.

The testimony built on Adm. Cooper’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 14, when he told lawmakers that Operation Epic Fury had set back Iran’s defense industrial base by 90 percent through more than 1,450 strikes on weapons-manufacturing facilities. He said it would take Iran “a generation” to rebuild its navy and years for its drone and missile production to recover, and that U.S. forces had destroyed 161 Iranian vessels across 16 classes of warship, eliminated more than 90 percent of Iran’s 8,000-mine inventory and rendered Iran’s air force incapable of flying a single sortie. Before the war, the Iranian air force flew between 30 and 100 sorties a day, he said. “Today that number is zero.”

“Iran has a significantly degraded threat, and they no longer threaten regional partners, or the United States, in ways that they were able to do before, across every domain,” Adm. Cooper told the Senate panel.

He declined this week, as he did on May 14, to directly address a series of reports by Reuters, the Washington Post, The New York Times and other news organizations that Iran, which stockpiled arms in underground facilities, has retained the bulk of its prewar missile and drone arsenal. A confidential CIA assessment reported by the Post estimated that Iran retained roughly three-quarters of its mobile launchers and 70 percent of its missile stockpile. A New York Times report this month cited U.S. intelligence agencies as believing Iran has held onto about 70 percent of its prewar missiles and a similar share of its launchers. Almost all of Iran’s underground storage facilities have reportedly been restored and reopened.

“The numbers I’ve seen in open source are not accurate,” Adm. Cooper told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, last week, declining to elaborate, citing classification. “It’s more than just the numbers. It’s the command and control that’s been shattered. It’s the significant degradation and capability. And it’s the lack of any ability to then produce any missiles or drones on the backend.”

The CENTCOM chief has also acknowledged that Iran retains what he described as “nuisance capability,” including fast-boat harassment, drones, rockets, mining activity, GPS interference, proxy attacks and isolated strikes on commercial shipping. He told Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan that Iran maintains “a very moderate if not small capability to continue strikes” in the region.

The Minab strike remains the only formal civilian-casualty investigation Central Command has opened, despite a New York Times report in April that identified 22 schools and 17 healthcare facilities as having been hit or damaged since the war began. Pressed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrat, last week on how many schools the United States had struck, Adm. Cooper responded that “there is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions” used against Iran, and that there was “no indication” any of the other reported incidents had occurred. He acknowledged when pressed that Central Command had not investigated them.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Fallen fathers promised their children the World Cup. Now 110 Israelis are heading to New York.

That is the emotional force behind Fulfilling Dreams’ World Cup 2026 campaign, a volunteer-powered project bringing war orphans, wounded soldiers and returned hostages from Israel to the New York-New Jersey area for the FIFA World Cup. The plan, a 110-person delegation, premium match seats, Broadway shows and a week of moments designed to give people who have carried the unbearable a chance to feel pure joy again. The campaign is listed on Charidy as “2026 World Cup, Fulfill their Dream.”

“Their father promised them the World Cup.”

The videos now being released show why this story lands so hard. Actor and comedian Shalom Michaelashvili surprises Rotem and Roi, the sons of Tal Eilon z”l, and tells them the dream is real, they are flying to America for the World Cup. Tal Eilon, 46, commanded Kfar Aza’s local security team and was killed defending the kibbutz from Hamas terrorists after rushing to protect his home and community. He left behind his wife, Mazi, and three children: Gali, Roi and Rotem.

Another clip opens in the quietest way possible: B’niya being woken up from sleep. Within moments, he is told he will train with Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. and fly to the World Cup. The power of the video is not only the surprise, but the disbelief on his face as the players he dreamed of meeting stand there in front of him.

Then comes the school-gate moment. A boy who had liked another child’s World Cup video had no idea the team was waiting outside his school to tell him he was next. His classmates explode with happiness around him. That reaction may be the most shareable part of the whole campaign: children celebrating another child’s joy without hesitation.

The final emotional anchor is Hagi Avni z”l of Kibbutz Be’eri, a father of five and member of the kibbutz security team who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists. Israeli records say Avni was retroactively recognized as a fallen soldier with the rank of sergeant major in the reserves; the IDF has also named him among the Be’eri defenders whose battle helped save lives during the attack. In the campaign video, the message is simple: their father promised them the World Cup, and now others are stepping in to keep that promise alive.

The World Cup setting makes this even bigger. New York-New Jersey Stadium is set to host eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches, including the final, with official hospitality offerings built around premium seating and match experiences. For most fans, that is a dream trip. For these children, soldiers and survivors, it is something deeper: a week where the world is not only asking them to be strong.

Hamas terrorists stole fathers, homes and childhoods. This project cannot undo that. But it can do something real. It can show up at a front door, a bedroom, a school gate or a soccer field and tell these children, your father’s promise still matters, your pain has not been forgotten, and your joy is worth fighting for.

Come be part of it and join us 👇

https://charidy.com/worldcup

Iranian state media reported Monday that Tehran has delivered a new 14-point proposal through Pakistani mediators aimed at advancing talks with the United States and bringing an end to the ongoing conflict.

According to Tasnim News Agency, a source close to Iran’s negotiating team confirmed that the proposal was formally transmitted for presentation to the Trump administration on Monday. The report said the framework focuses on ending the war and includes what it described as “confidence-building measures by the American side.”

A Pakistani source separately confirmed Monday morning that Islamabad had conveyed an updated Iranian proposal to Washington overnight as diplomatic contacts between Tehran and the United States continue through Pakistani mediation channels.

According to the sources, the proposal includes an official Iranian commitment not to produce nuclear weapons. However, the reported framework does not address Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium — a central issue in President Donald Trump’s demands for a broader agreement — nor does it tackle escalating tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.

Tasnim’s report also made no mention of any Iranian concessions involving uranium enrichment or dismantling nuclear infrastructure.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

NEW YORK – Some on social media are pointing to contrasting images from Jewish and Muslim community events involving NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, arguing the optics reflect different levels of engagement with the two groups.

U.S. Army vet Kathleen Wood wrote in a post that photographs from a Jewish event held Monday night showed attendees separated by barriers and ropes, while images from a Muslim gathering showed Mamdani seated on the floor among attendees in what she described as a “warm, intimate, and personal” setting.

“Optics are a form of language and communication,” Wood wrote. “One community gets closeness … while the other gets distance.”

The images sparked online debate over the symbolism conveyed through political appearances and public interactions with different communities.

In the pictures below, you will notice that at the Jewish event @NYCMayor stands on a stage behind barriers while his Jewish guests are kept behind ropes like museum spectators.

Note the drastic change at the Muslim event. @ZohranKMamdani sits on the floor, eye level, warm,… pic.twitter.com/w1rOFh6yhE

— Kathleen Wood (@KathleenWoodnys) May 19, 2026

Jonathan Pollard delivered a blistering critique of both Israeli and American leadership during an extensive interview with Arutz Sheva and podcaster Martin “the Bulldog” Buksdorf, addressing issues ranging from Israel’s military policy and dependence on the United States to growing antisemitism abroad and the long-term future of the Jewish state.

Throughout the interview, Pollard repeatedly argued that Israel must free itself from overreliance on Washington and adopt a far more independent military and political posture.

“We are an American auxiliary. We are not an independent,” Pollard said, as he pushed for what he described as an “Israel first doctrine” built around military independence and sovereign strategic decision-making.

Pollard sharply criticized Israeli governments for what he described as excessive submission to American influence, claiming leaders in Yerushalayim too often shape policy around pressure from Washington. Referring to President Donald Trump, Pollard remarked, “He does not respect weakness,” while arguing that Israeli officials too frequently yield to U.S. demands.

During the conversation, Pollard also discussed his recent decision not to enter Israeli politics after briefly announcing plans to seek a seat in the Knesset. According to Pollard, the announcement triggered fierce backlash and threats from across the political spectrum.

“I got overwhelmed with death threats,” Pollard said, adding that many critics on the political left objected to his belief that Israeli hostages should be brought home “by strength, not by concession.”

Addressing criticism from supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pollard stressed that he has repeatedly expressed appreciation to Netanyahu for helping secure his release from prison, while emphasizing that many others also played vital roles.

“There were a host of people who played very important roles in securing my release,” he said, specifically mentioning his late wife Esther, Ron Dermer, Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson, and Rabbi Pesach Lerner.

A major portion of the interview focused on regional security threats facing Israel. Pollard warned that Iran, Turkey, and extremist organizations operating inside Syria represent growing dangers, and argued that Israel must prepare itself for future large-scale military confrontations.

Pollard also voiced alarm over increasing antisemitism throughout Western countries, saying many Jews living abroad still fail to grasp the seriousness of the threat. He described aliyah as both unavoidable and essential in light of growing hostility toward Jewish communities overseas.

“The only safe place for a Jew is right here in the Holy Land,” Pollard said, while faulting Israeli leaders for not adequately preparing for major future waves of Jewish immigration.

The interview additionally featured criticism of Israel’s bureaucracy and military procurement systems. Pollard argued that excessive hesitation, delays, and institutional caution have prevented Israel from implementing technologies and policies that he believes are critical for confronting modern security threats.

Toward the conclusion of the discussion, Pollard explained why he ultimately chose to remain outside the political system, saying it allows him to speak openly without party constraints.

“When you have this thing called party discipline, you can’t speak your mind,” he said. “Now it’s much more liberating to be able to sit as I am now… and discuss options, to discuss what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong.”

A 56-year-old Westchester County woman fell to her death down an uncovered Con Edison manhole outside the Cartier store in Midtown Manhattan on Monday night, in a freak accident that has prompted an investigation by the utility into how the hole was left exposed on one of the busiest stretches of Fifth Avenue.

Donika Gocaj, of Briarcliff Manor, stepped out of her parked Mercedes-Benz SUV at around 11:20 p.m. near the corner of East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, beside the Cartier and Nike stores, and tumbled roughly 10 feet into the open utility hole, police said. First responders arrived to find her unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of the shaft.

Emergency crews pulled Ms. Gocaj from the hole and rushed her to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead from her injuries.

Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was uncovered. The utility did not immediately disclose whether crews had been working at the site earlier in the evening or whether the cover had been displaced through some other means.

Family members told Eyewitness News they were searching for answers in the hours after the accident. Ms. Gocaj was a mother and grandmother whose son was married in Cancún, Mexico, last July. Her daughter is a co-founder of SISTERWOULD, a hair-care company designed for visually impaired users; the firm’s website describes its founders as “daughters of visually impaired mothers.”

The intersection where Ms. Gocaj died is among the most heavily trafficked retail corridors in New York City, anchored by Cartier, Nike and other flagship stores and lined with pedestrians and high-end vehicles through the late evening hours. The Midtown South Precinct has not announced any criminality in connection with the fall, and the death was being treated as an accident pending the medical examiner’s review.

Open or improperly secured manholes have killed pedestrians in New York before, though such fatalities are rare. The city and Con Edison have both faced lawsuits in past incidents involving missing or dislodged covers, and Department of Transportation rules require utility crews to barricade and supervise any open shaft on a public street.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday announced that China has committed to purchasing at least $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually in 2026, 2027 and 2028, restoring market access for American beef producers shut out for most of the past year — a major boost for U.S. ranchers at a time when the domestic cattle supply has fallen to its lowest level since 1951 and beef prices remain near record highs.

According to the official White House fact sheet released after Trump’s summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, China will renew expired export listings for more than 400 U.S. beef facilities and work with American regulators to lift suspensions on dozens more. The agreement restores access to one of the world’s most lucrative premium beef markets after Chinese restrictions caused U.S. beef exports to the country to collapse over the past year.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday the agreement is designed to reopen critical export channels for American ranchers and processors that had effectively lost access to China’s consumer market. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the arrangement “a historic win for American cattle producers.”

The timing is significant because the U.S. beef industry is facing one of the tightest supply environments in modern history.

The U.S. cattle herd stood at 86.2 million head as of January 2026, according to USDA data — the smallest national herd since 1951. Ground beef prices climbed to roughly $6.69 per pound late last year, up nearly 20% from a year earlier and more than 70% above pre-pandemic levels. USDA forecasts wholesale beef prices will continue rising throughout 2026 as supply constraints persist.

At the same time, the United States remains cut off from millions of potential imported feeder cattle after the U.S.-Mexico border closed to live cattle shipments because of the spread of New World screwworm, a parasitic livestock threat that sharply disrupted North American cattle flows.

At first glance, exporting more beef overseas during a domestic shortage may appear contradictory.

In reality, industry economics work very differently.

Why This Is Good News for American Ranchers

China’s reopening does not suddenly create entirely new beef demand. Instead, it restores access to a market American producers already previously served before Chinese restrictions caused exports to collapse.

U.S. beef exports to China peaked at approximately $2.14 billion in 2022 before plunging below $500 million in 2025 after facility licenses expired and trade tensions escalated.

The cattle were still being raised. The beef was still being processed.

But without access to China, many high-value cuts were forced into lower-margin domestic or alternative export channels.

That matters because Chinese consumers often pay premium prices for cuts many American consumers rarely buy at scale, including short ribs, tongue, tendon and organ meats. Those products generate substantially higher margins in Asian markets than they typically do inside the United States.

For ranchers, access to those premium export channels can significantly improve profitability across the entire animal.

The Real Cause of High Beef Prices

The current beef shortage is not being caused by exports.

The core problem is simple: America does not currently have enough cattle.

Years of drought, elevated feed costs, labor shortages, rising borrowing costs and rancher liquidation dramatically reduced herd sizes nationwide. Rebuilding cattle inventories is a slow biological process that can take years because ranchers must retain breeding stock rather than immediately selling animals into the food supply.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has warned meaningful herd expansion likely will not occur until at least 2028.

Meanwhile, the closure of the Mexican cattle border eliminated a major supplemental supply source exactly when the domestic herd was already historically tight.

Restricting exports would not solve those structural supply problems.

In fact, industry economists argue it could make them worse.

Why Exports Can Actually Help Lower Prices Later

The economics are counterintuitive but important.

If ranchers cannot generate strong profits during high-price cycles, many reduce herd expansion plans or sell breeding cattle instead of investing in future production. That shrinks long-term supply even further and prolongs elevated beef prices.

Premium export markets like China help put more revenue back into the hands of cattle producers whose financial stability ultimately determines whether the U.S. herd expands again.

In other words, profitable ranchers are more likely to rebuild herds.

And larger herds eventually increase beef supply and moderate prices over time.

The Trump administration has simultaneously attempted to address domestic supply pressure through other channels, including expanding beef-import quotas from countries such as Argentina and launching antitrust investigations into the major meatpacking companies — including Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef — which together dominate most U.S. beef processing capacity.

Federal officials argue those measures target supply bottlenecks and market concentration without sacrificing export revenue for American ranchers.

What Happens Next

The agreement with China also creates ongoing trade mechanisms intended to reduce future agricultural disputes.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both countries agreed to establish new U.S.-China trade and investment boards aimed at maintaining regular economic dialogue and resolving market-access issues more quickly.

Greer said Sunday the administration remains prepared to impose additional tariffs or penalties if China fails to meet its beef purchase commitments.

For now, the agreement represents the clearest sign yet that one of the most damaging parts of the recent U.S.-China trade breakdown for American cattle producers may finally be reversing.

For American consumers, however, relief at the grocery store is likely to take far longer.

The underlying cattle shortage remains severe, herd rebuilding is measured in years rather than months, and beef prices are expected to remain elevated throughout much of 2026 regardless of export policy.

© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. This article is original reporting by JBizNews Desk. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.

While several leading Jewish organizations are planning to boycott New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Jewish Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion over his anti-Israel rhetoric, Satmar askan Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman confirmed he will attend the gathering, the NY Post reports.

At least three prominent Jewish figures and organizations have decided to skip the event, arguing that Mamdani’s statements regarding Israel and Zionism are incompatible with a celebration of Jewish heritage.

In a statement, the UJA-Federation of New York, which describes itself as the world’s largest local philanthropy, announced it would not participate.

“We will not be attending the Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” the organization said.

Mark Treyger, whose organization oversees the annual Israel Day Parade, also said he would not attend the mayor’s event.

“It’s a really telling and concerning sign of where things stand in New York City right now,” Treyger, a former Brooklyn councilman, told The NY Post on Sunday.

Treyger accused Mamdani of further escalating tensions Friday after releasing a social media statement criticizing the founding of Israel shortly before many Jewish New Yorkers began observing Shabbos.

Mamdani, who has long been outspoken in his criticism of Israel, marked “Nakba Day” — commemorated by Palestinians as the “catastrophe” surrounding Israel’s establishment on May 14, 1948 — with a Friday evening social media post featuring a professionally produced interview with city resident and “Nakba survivor” Inea Bushnaq.

“The mayor issued a social media production which omitted significant parts of history. It only inflamed tensions further,” Treyger said.

He added that the post came immediately after anti-Israel demonstrations outside a prominent Park Avenue synagogue in Manhattan and outside Young Israel Senior Services in Midwood, Brooklyn.

Treyger also pointed to Friday’s arrest of a suspected terrorist allegedly linked to Iran’s military who authorities say was planning an attack targeting a synagogue in New York City.

“We’re looking for leadership that New Yorkers deserve to lower the temperature and bring people together — now more than ever,” Treyger said.

Joseph Potasnik likewise announced he would not attend the Gracie Mansion event.

“Jewish heritage should include recognition of the state of Israel,” Potasnik said. “Jewish history didn’t end in 1946 … We will be marching in the Israel Day Parade to express our support for Israel.”

Last week, former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind publicly urged Jewish leaders to boycott the event as tensions between Mamdani and segments of the Jewish community continue growing.

Despite the backlash, Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman, head of Satmar’s United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, confirmed that he intends to participate.

“I am going. It’s right and appropriate,” Niederman.

Niederman previously met with Mamdani at City Hall in March.

Mamdani’s office defended the mayor’s relationship with Jewish communities across the city, insisting he has made outreach and security a major priority since entering office.

“Since taking office, Mayor Mamdani has made it a priority to consistently show up for and build relationships across New York City’s Jewish communities — celebrating holidays and engaging with Jewish life across neighborhoods and traditions while taking steps to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani spokesman Sam Raskin said.

“Monday’s Shavuot celebration at Gracie Mansion is one of many ways the mayor is engaging with Jewish New Yorkers, and he looks forward to welcoming the full breadth of the Jewish community, across the political and religious spectrum, on Monday.”

City Hall said approximately 150 attendees representing a broad range of New York’s Jewish community are expected to participate in Monday’s celebration.

Mamdani’s administration also pointed to its budget proposal allocating $26 million toward hate-crime prevention programs — an increase of more than 800 percent — which officials say fulfills a campaign pledge to combat antisemitism.

At the same time, the mayor recently confirmed he will not attend this year’s Israel Day Parade.

Mamdani supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Critics have also accused him of associating with individuals they consider antisemitic.

{Matzav.com}

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony at the OJ Simpson murder trial, has died.

Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson’s home but his credibility came under withering attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias.

Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs over the previous 10 years, but a recording made by an aspiring screenwriter showed he had done so repeatedly.

Lynn Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, said that Fuhrman died May 12. The county does not release the cause of death as a rule.

Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal. He subsequently moved to Idaho with his wife Caroline and their young daughter and son.

In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury and pleaded no contest. He later became a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings.