MIAMI (VINnews)-Hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin has updated his ambitious plans for a supertall headquarters tower in Brickell, further expanding his bet on Miami as a financial hub.

The revisions to the project at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive include converting the proposed mixed-use supertall into a larger all-office building by removing the hotel component, according to filings and statements from Citadel. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel and Citadel Securities, announced the changes in early May amid tensions with New York City leadership, stating the need to “double down on our bet in Miami.”

Recent updates also add a 300-unit apartment building and a 1,420-space parking garage to the development, alongside another office building owned by Griffin. He has acquired all units in the 22-story Solaris condominium across the street, with plans to demolish it for future expansion.

The 54-story tower, designed by Foster + Partners, is expected to total about 1.7 million square feet of office space. Citadel and its sister company plan to occupy roughly one-third of it. The overall project is estimated at $2.5 billion.

Site work is underway, with vertical construction anticipated later this year. The development continues to include public waterfront access and aims to reshape Miami’s skyline while supporting the city’s growing status as a finance center.

Griffin relocated Citadel’s headquarters to Miami in 2022.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews)-Sam Salz, who walked on to the Texas A&M University football team with no prior experience and became the first Orthodox Jew to play at the Division I level, recounted his remarkable path during the Jewish American Heritage Month Congressional Breakfast.

Salz delivered the personal story at the event, highlighting the challenges of thriving in the high-pressure world of major college football while remaining steadfast in his Orthodox Jewish faith. His account underscored themes of resilience, determination and the ability to balance competing worlds without compromising core values.

In his remarks, Salz described the intense demands of a Division I roster and the additional hurdles of maintaining religious observance, such as dietary laws, prayer times and Shabbat considerations amid rigorous team schedules. Despite entering the program without football experience, his commitment propelled him forward, turning initial obstacles into opportunities for growth.

“You gain insight into the personal pride that keeps him moving forward,” event attendees noted of his presentation. Salz’s experience illustrates that dedication to one’s roots need not hinder athletic or professional ambitions.

The profile resonates with athletes seeking motivation and those drawn to stories of cultural and religious perseverance in unexpected arenas. Salz’s breakthrough as the first Orthodox Jew in Division I football stands as a milestone, offering inspiration across the Jewish community and beyond.

His message at the congressional event reinforced a broader celebration of Jewish American contributions, showcasing how individual perseverance can bridge diverse identities and environments.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the world. One big reason is cholesterol – a waxy substance in the blood that is very similar to plaque on your teeth – but is really plaque in your arteries.

Too much of the wrong kind builds up inside the arteries, slowly narrowing them. Often there are no warning signs at all, until the day there is a heart attack or a strokem r”l.

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have just put out new rules for doctors on how to handle cholesterol. Here is what is new.

1. Start checking earlier.
In the past, cholesterol testing usually began in middle age. The new guidance says to start sooner, especially for people whose families have a history of heart disease. Children with a rare inherited condition that causes very high cholesterol should be checked as early as age nine.

2. A new one-time blood test.
There is a part of the blood called Lp(a). The amount a person has is mostly set by their genes and stays about the same for life. A high level raises the risk of heart disease – by roughly forty percent at one level, and about double at a higher one. Because it does not change, a person only needs this test once. It used to be ignored. Now it is recommended for everyone.

3. A smarter risk calculator.
Doctors use a calculator to estimate a person’s chance of a heart attack or stroke. The old one looked ten years ahead and started at age forty. The new tool, called PREVENT, looks both ten years and thirty years ahead, starts at age thirty, and adds in blood sugar and kidney health. The old calculator was built from about twenty-six thousand people. The new one was built from 6.6 million.

4. Lower targets.
The goal numbers for “bad” cholesterol (LDL) are now lower. For a healthy person, below 100 is the aim. For someone at medium risk, below 70. For someone at high risk, below 55. Lower is better when it comes to preventing heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.

5.More ways to treat it.
Statins are still the main medicine. But for people who need more, there are now newer options – including pills and injections – that can be added to bring the numbers down further.

6. In Our Own Power.

One more thing the experts stressed: most heart disease – some eighty to ninety percent – is tied to things a person can change. Eating well, staying active, not smoking, sleeping enough, and keeping a healthy weight are still the foundation. The medicines build on top of that, not instead of it.
The big shift is simple: catch problems earlier, look further into the future, and aim lower. (As always, what any one person should do is a question for their own doctor.)

The Six Mitzvos of Guarding One’s Health

Why does any of this matter to halachic Yidden? Because guarding one’s health is not just common sense – it is a mitzvah. In fact, our Poskim point to as many as six of them.
1. There is the mitzvah of “veNishmartem me’od b’nafshosaichem” (Devarim 4:9) – the mitzvah of protecting our health and well-being.
2. Few have heard of the second mitzvah. The verse later on (Devarim 4:15), “Rak hishamer lecha,” is understood by most Poskim to comprise an actual second mitzvah (see Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, Shaar HaTeshuvos #25) – to take special care.
3. There is a third mitzvah, “V’Chai Bahem – and you shall live by them” (VaYikra 18:5).
4. There is a fourth mitzvah found in the verse in Parshas Ki Saytzei (Devarim 22:2), which discusses the mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah, returning a lost object, with the words “vahasheivoso lo – and you shall return it to him.” The Gemara in Sanhedrin (73a) includes within these words the obligation of returning “his own life to him as well.” In other words, this verse is the source for the mitzvah of saving someone’s life. This is the general mitzvah the Shulchan Aruch refers to in Orach Chaim 325.
5. “Lo Saamod al dam rayecha” – there is a fifth, a negative mitzvah, of not standing idly by your brother’s blood. This is mentioned in Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 426:1) and in the Rambam. It includes yourself, and your spouse and children too, by leaving them without you, chalilah.
6. And finally, there is a sixth mitzvah – “Lo suchal l’hisaleim,” a negative commandment associated with the positive commandment of Hashavas Aveidah, in the verse in Devarim (22:3): “You cannot shut your eyes to it.” This verse comes directly after the mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah. The Netziv (HeEmek She’eilah) refers to this mitzvah as well.

So in conclusion – Don’t overdo the cholent or the kugels.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Rep. Ilhan Omar criticized comedian Jerry Seinfeld after a video of his exchange with a pro-Palestinian activist outside Madison Square Garden went viral on social media.

The video, recorded after the New York Knicks’ playoff victory Wednesday night, shows a streamer asking Seinfeld to say “Free Palestine.” Seinfeld responded, “It doesn’t exist,” before walking away.

Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, later commented on the exchange during an interview with TMZ, calling Seinfeld’s remarks “disgusting” and “disturbing” while reiterating her criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Seinfeld, who is Jewish, has been a vocal supporter of Israel and has frequently spoken out against antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The brief encounter quickly spread online, drawing reactions from both supporters and critics and highlighting the continued divisions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The straightforward truth-telling quickly went viral, earning praise from those who reject the fictional narrative of a “Palestine” that never existed as a sovereign Arab state. In contrast, Omar — who has repeatedly trafficked in antisemitic tropes and defended anti-Israel extremism — rushed to condemn Seinfeld in the strongest terms.

Speaking to TMZ, the Minnesota Democrat launched into a familiar tirade, calling Seinfeld a “horrific human being” and smearing Israel’s defensive actions against Hamas as “genocide.” Omar described his comments as “very disgusting, very disturbing, and very genocidal,” while accusing him of prioritizing Jewish lives over others.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge refused on Friday to stop the White House from staging a UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling allows organizers to use the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday’s planned UFC mixed martial arts event.

Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don’t have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in suing to challenge an event that’s been in the works for months.

“In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.

Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s “UFC Freedom 250” event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called The Claw.

The plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic harms,” the judge noted, are temporary since The Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official’s clear representation,” the judge wrote.

The White House called the lawsuit is a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that’s no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.

Trump’s administration can’t issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a press conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars.

“The President’s administration is granting the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity it may not lawfully grant, and in exchange the UFC is throwing an event at which its leadership, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will all pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

The National Park Service and the Interior Department are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is a friend of UFC president and CEO Dana White.

Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other Trump-related cases, including civil litigation accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

JERUSALEM (VINnews)-The Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 10 Hezbollah field commanders responsible for directing operations against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, the military said.

In March, IDF forces killed Hassan Salameh, the commander of Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit, one of the terror group’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon. Since then, the military has eliminated two of his successors, Mahdi Bazi and Ashraf Salloum, one after the other, according to the IDF.

Separately, within a recent 12-hour period, the IDF killed Nasser Shakir, the commander of Hezbollah forces in the Beaufort Castle area, and his replacement, Ahmad Sablini, who had previously served as deputy commander in that sector.

The military also announced the deaths of several other senior Hezbollah operatives in the region:

Ali Abbas, commander of Hezbollah forces in Bint Jbeil

Kamil Younes, commander of the Tyre sector

Fouad Moussa, commander of the Hajir sector

Hussein Salami, commander of the Jibshit sector

Ali Haik, commander of the Khiam sector

Muslim Harb, commander of the Qana sector

The targeted killings come amid ongoing IDF operations aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s command structure and operational capabilities along Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah has not yet commented on the reported deaths.

VINnews will continue to monitor developments.

NYACK, N.Y. (VINnews) — Village officials in Nyack are looking to increase awareness of park permit requirements following a visit by a large group of students from a Monsey girls’ school earlier this week.

Speaking to News 12, Nyack Mayor Joe Rand said the incident underscored the need for better communication regarding village rules governing organized group activities at Memorial Park.

According to local officials, approximately 70 students from Toras Emachu participated in the outing. During the visit, members of the group entered a stormwater passageway beneath the village, prompting a police response.

Village officials said organized groups above a certain size are required to obtain permits before using the park. Authorities indicated that no permit had been obtained for the trip.

Rand said the village’s goal is to ensure safety and compliance with park regulations, including having contact information for organizers and appropriate insurance coverage for large groups.

Police said the students were accompanied by adult chaperones and that no injuries were reported. Authorities continue to review the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Village officials said they plan to conduct additional outreach throughout Rockland County to ensure schools, camps and community organizations are aware of the permit requirements before organizing large gatherings in village parks.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) THE QUESTION: A career scammer, who has taken the life-savings of several people is sitting in prison. He declares with perfect calm that Hashem will surely engineer his acquittal. Deep down he looks at his incarceration as a mere setback and he has not done Teshuvah. Is this bitachon? Should he, in fact, even have bitachon? In short, may a rasha have bitachon?

And if the answer is “no” – then who is bitachon for? Don’t all of us do something wrong?

THE ANSWER: This is a preliminary answer and it could be subject to several revisions. There are, of course, numerous sources and different girsaos (versions) of the sources. As far as end-conclusions – there seems to be six possible views on the topic. They are quite far-ranging and we may be tempted to vehemently disagree with at least one of them.

1. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – and it will be effective but he must first do Teshuvah.
2. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – and it will be effective but he must change for the future, but not necessarily do Teshuvah.
3. Yes, a rasha should have bitachon – even if he does not do Teshuvah nor even change in the future.
4. No, a rasha should not have bitachon.
5. No, a rasha should not have bitachon and it is an aveira – for him to have it!
6. The way it works is that bitachon is a power in and of itself – and it can even work for a bank-robber to rob successfully.

The pasuk in Tehillim (32:10) states, “Many are the pains of the wicked, but as for him who trusts in the Hashem- kindness will encompass him.” The Medrash on Aicha Rabba 4:23 cites the pasuk in Tehillim and states that “even a Rasha – Hashem accepts him.” The Matnas Kehunah – the commentary of Rav Yissachar Ber HaKohen of Szczebrzeszyn, Poland (d. after 1608), a talmid of the Rema, completed in 1584 and printed in Cracow in 1587-88 – explains that when the Midrash refers to a rasha, it adds the words “vechazar bo” – as a caveat. The rasha being “accepted” is not the rasha of the first half of the pasuk; he is a rasha who has already turned back. On this reading the second clause of the pasuk is not describing the wicked man at all, but the former-wicked man, and the chessed is the reward for his return. This would seem to indicate position #1 – bitachon works for a rasha, but only after Teshuvah unlocks it.

The Yefei Toar – the commentary of Rav Shmuel Yafeh Ashkenazi of Constantinople (c. 1525–1595), first printed in Venice in 1597 – on Aicha Rabbah 4:23 does not add the words “vechazar bo” but states that he took it upon himself not to go that way in the future. The RaShaSh – Rav Shmuel Strashun of Vilna (1794–1872), whose glosses appear on nearly every daf of the Vilna Shas – on Vayikrah Rabba 15:4 understands it this way as well. The line of reasoning that separates this from the Matnas Kehunah is subtle but real. The Matnas Kehunah requires a completed act of return, a “vechazar bo” that addresses the past. The Yefei Toar asks for something forward-looking instead: a kabbalah, a firm resolve regarding the future, without insisting that the slate of the past has yet been wiped clean. A man may be unable to undo what he has done, and may not yet have reached full charatah on it, yet still resolve with sincerity that he will not continue down this road. That resolve, on this reading, is enough to make his bitachon valid. This forward-facing condition – change without full Teshuvah – is precisely position #2. [Note: the original draft labeled this source as position #4; on the description given, it maps more naturally to #2, and is placed there here.]

On the other hand, the simple reading of the pasuk is that the beginning seems to inform the context of the last part of the pasuk – that the pasuk refers to a Rasha who has neither done teshuvah nor changed his plans for the future – and his act of bitachon will cause Hashem to act in the manner of Chessed with him. The strength of this reading is that it takes the pasuk exactly as written: it is the boteach, the one who trusts, who is surrounded by chessed, and the pasuk attaches no further qualification to him. To insert a “vechazar bo” or a kabbalah for the future is to add words the pasuk itself does not supply. On the plain meaning, the very act of trusting is what draws down the chessed, and it does so on its own terms. This seems to be the approach of the Yalkut Tehillim #719. The Midrash Tehillim #25 relates a moshol of a thief who got caught and claimed he was a relative of the king. When the king asked him, “You are my relative??” He answered, “I trusted you would save me.” The king said, “Since you had faith in me, I will save you.” The moshol is striking precisely because the thief is still a thief – he offers no repentance and promises no reform – and yet the act of casting himself upon the king is itself what earns him rescue. The trust, not the worthiness of the one who trusts, is the operative cause. These would be possible sources for position #3.

The Chovas HaLevavos Shaar HaBitachon Chapter III, in the fourth requirement for Bitachon, specifically writes that it is ineffective for someone who rebels against Hashem. The reasoning here flows from the Chovas HaLevavos’s entire framework of what bitachon is. For Rabbeinu Bachya, bitachon is not a standalone technique that produces results; it is the natural fruit of a relationship of loyalty between a person and his Creator. One reasonably relies on another only where there is a basis for that reliance – and the rebel has severed the very basis. A man who is actively defying the One in whom he claims to trust has placed himself outside the relationship that bitachon presupposes. His “trust” is therefore hollow at the root; there is nothing for it to rest upon. This is in line with position #4 – not that Hashem refuses him out of anger, but that the rasha’s bitachon simply lacks the foundation that would make it bitachon at all.

The Chsam Sofer writes in his Drashos Vol. II page 236 that not only is there no Bitachon for a rasha – but it is even a sin for him to do so. The reasoning moves one step beyond the Chovas HaLevavos. For the Chovas HaLevavos the rasha’s bitachon is merely empty; for the Chsam Sofer it is affirmatively harmful, and the harm is spiritual. A rasha who tells himself that Hashem will rescue him has handed himself the perfect excuse never to change. His “bitachon” becomes a cushion for his wickedness – a way of converting the comfort of faith into a license to keep sinning. Far from drawing him closer, it anesthetizes him against the very discomfort that might have prompted Teshuvah. Because it actively entrenches him in his sin, the act is not neutral but itself an aveira. This would fit with position #5.

Finally, this author had heard in the name of Roshei Yeshiva in the Telze Yeshiva that Bitachon acts as a power in and of itself. The reasoning runs parallel to the way Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains the power of Mida Kneged Mida in the case of Penina and Chana. Penina did nothing wrong – she acted 100 percent leshaim shamayim, prodding Chana only so that Chana would daven with greater intensity. She was nonetheless punished, because she was in fact the source of pain to Chana. The lesson Rav Chaim draws is that certain spiritual realities operate mechanically, by their own internal logic, independent of the intentions or the merit of the person who sets them in motion. Pain caused produces consequence, regardless of motive.

On this model bitachon is the same kind of force: a real spiritual power that, once activated, exerts its effect on its own, without first weighing the righteousness of the one who wields it. Just as Penina’s pure intentions did not exempt her from the mechanism, the rasha’s wickedness would not exempt him from this one. Carried to its logical end, this means the koach of bitachon could in principle “work” even for a bank-robber bent on a successful heist. This would fit with position #6, although most people vehemently disagree with it.

The author is indepted to Sefer Sha’ar Elchonon for much of the source material. The author can be reached at [email protected]

GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Republican political candidates routinely highlight their devotion to President Donald Trump. But in upstate New York, Anthony Constantino is taking it to another level.

Constantino, a political newcomer and candidate in the June 23 Republican primary to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik, boasts a giant “Vote for Trump” sign atop his successful sticker business in the city of Amsterdam. He recorded a hip-hop album titled “Thank you President Trump.” He even gifted Trump a big bronze statue of Trump himself last year at his West Palm Beach golf course.

Constantino’s antics have not earned him fans among local party officials, who overwhelmingly support his opponent, state Assembly Member Robert Smullen, in the 21st Congressional District race. But Constantino has won over one powerful Republican who still has the power to sway primaries: Trump.

“Anthony is strongly supported by many of the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in our Movement, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone!” Trump wrote in an endorsement of Constantino.

The president added: “The sign is still there!”

Constantino’s battle against Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel, is shaping up to be another test of Trump’s pull at the ballot box, pitting the brash MAGA disciple against a more traditional conservative in the solid-red district.

Constantino has relentlessly attacked Smullen, calling him a “Trump hater” and giving him a derisive nickname out of the Trump playbook — “Slimebob.” He also doesn’t miss a chance to feud with the state’s Republican leadership.

“The New York GOP is a failing establishment, it’s a losing establishment,” Constantino said in an interview. “They reject outsiders. This happened with Donald Trump. The Republican Party tried to keep Donald Trump out, as well, because they knew he was going to reform things.”

Smullen has cast himself as the adult in the room, stressing his experience in the state Legislature, his military service, and his own ties to Trump.

“I think I directly represent the vast majority of the people in this district, their values, what they think about issues,” he said.

The district is ‘not your country club Republican party’
The largely rural district sprawls across most of New York’s northern tip and includes the Adirondack Mountains, the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum, dairy farms and dozens of small cities, towns and villages.

It’s solid GOP territory — Stefanik won her last race by 24 points — with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats 215,000 to 134,000. Voters there skew older and white, with many prison guards, police officers, farmers and devoutly religious people, according to Jack McGuire, an associate professor of politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

“It’s not your country club Republican party,” he said.

Stefanik shocked the New York political world when she announced late last year that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would not seek reelection to the House.

Her decision came after she didn’t get full-throated support from Trump in the governor’s race, and it followed an episode where Trump withdrew her nomination to be his ambassador to the United Nations over concerns about Republicans’ threadbare majority in the House.

Local Republicans first began angling for the seat after she was tapped to head to the United Nations, only to begin circling again when she launched her run for governor.

A clash of candidates and styles
Smullen, who represents parts of the district in the state Assembly, is running a traditional campaign, chatting up voters at volunteer firehouses and community events.

He highlights a 24-year military career that included three tours of Afghanistan and combat experience, along with his more than seven years in the state Legislature. His 2018 appointment by Trump to serve in the White House Fellows program, along with attending both of Trump’s inaugurations, was a go-to line when Constantino moved to cast himself as the Trump candidate during a recent debate.

“The idea that I have never been a supporter of President Donald Trump is a lie, it really is,” Smullen said during the debate. “And what’s happening here is that if you say it long enough and if you say it hard enough then it’s going to be true. But it’s not true.”

Local GOP officials and committees are backing Smullen, as is the chair of the state Republicans. He also has the support of the state Conservative Party, which guarantees him a line in the general election even if he loses the GOP primary.

Matt Capano, who owns a hardware store in Gloversville, a small city in the district, said he knew Smullen as his local state lawmaker and had to “give him a lot of credit” because of his experience.

Constantino — who found success with his company Sticker Mule — is more of a showman. His style has forced his buttoned-up opponent to let loose. Smullen’s campaign launched an anti-Constantino website that excoriates him for, among many other things, his past registration as a Democrat.

“I am the conservative Republican in this race,” Smullen said at the debate.

Constantino responded that he registered as a Democrat to vote for a childhood friend who was running for political office while calling himself a “lifelong conservative.”

It didn’t take long for him to steer the conversation back toward the president.

“I’ve always had his back through the whole thing,” he said of Trump. “In fact, in 2020, when he nicely exited the White House and a terrible person named Joe Biden entered, I went and I supported the president quietly by buying a Mar-a-Lago membership.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Catapulted by the market debut of his rocket company SpaceX, Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire by the end of the day.

That level of wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable. Before Friday, the trillion dollar mark was reserved for measures like the GDP (or staggering debt ) of a handful of major economies — and, in the last decade alone, the value of some of the biggest companies to ever trade on the stock market.

Musk’s new title arrives amid a wider acceleration for the richest of the rich. Year after year, his former (although now very distant) billionaires club has reaped a growing number of members — from tech titans to celebrities. All the while, more and more people worldwide are struggling to pay their everyday bills. Many have decried the arrival of the first trillionaire as the latest and most alarming example of that wealth gap.

The number “one trillion” is hard in itself for the human mind to comprehend. One trillion dollars is a thousand times greater than $1 billion. And a million times more than $1 million.

Still, here are some ways to think about how far that amount of money could go.

To the moon and back, over 200 times
Thinking about what $1 trillion looks like is almost as astronomical as the interplanetary — and at this point, still far from realized — goals SpaceX has laid out for itself.

In terms of physical cash, one trillion U.S. dollar bills laid end to end would stretch nearly 97 million miles (or almost 156 million kilometers). That would account for the distance of more than 200 round trip journeys to the moon — which NASA says sits an average of 238,855 miles (nearly 384,400 kilometers) away from Earth. It would also surpass the roughly 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) between Earth and the sun.

$122 for every person on Earth
There are nearly 8.2 billion people living on Earth today, per the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. If $1 trillion was divided among the entire population, each person would receive almost $122.

Double the GDP of South Africa
One trillion dollars is more than double the annual GDP of South Africa, the country where Musk was born. According 2026 numbers from International Monetary Fund, the nation’s output of goods and services stands at nearly $480 billion.

Only about 21 countries in the world have a GDP over the trillion dollar mark today. The U.S. and China lead the pack at more than $32.38 trillion and $20.85 trillion, respectively, but that’s far ahead most other economies.

2.5 million homes in the US
Houses sold in the U.S. have a median sales price of about $403,200, per the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. With $1 trillion, you could buy nearly 2.5 million homes at that cost.

243 billion gallons of gas
At current U.S. gas prices — which averaged at nearly $4.11 a gallon Friday per AAA — $1 trillion could buy more than 243 billion gallons of regular fuel.

To help put that in context, that far surpasses the nearly 137 billion gallons Americans used on finished motor gasoline all last year. And prices at the pump were much less expensive in 2025. Steep oil prices, spanning from the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war against Iran, propelled the national average above $4 a gallon for the first time in four years.

Over $700 billion ahead the world’s second richest person
According to Forbes, the second richest person in the world today is Google co-founder Larry Page — who carried a net worth of nearly $293 billion as of Friday morning. That’s $707 billion under the trillion dollar mark.

In fact, the combined net worth, as of Friday, of the four men following Musk on Forbes’ richest list — which, beyond Page, includes fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($270 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($251 billion) and Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($230 billion) — amounted to just over $1.04 trillion.

Those fortunes can oscillate by tens of billions of dollars by the day, or sometimes a matter of hours. Musk’s own net worth has rapidly ballooned in value. Just last year, his net worth sat at $342 billion per Forbes — up from $195 billion in 2024.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the United States is advancing an agreement with Iran centered on American interests, including preventing the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, while Israel expects the deal to also address missiles and Tehran’s terror proxies.

Katz noted that joint actions by Israel and the U.S. have significantly degraded Iran’s capabilities, setting them back by many years. He stressed that Israel must preserve its independent ability to act against any Iranian nuclear threat.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to prepare accordingly,” Katz said in a statement Friday.

Israel will not withdraw from security zones it established in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, Katz said. The Israel Defense Forces will continue defending Israel’s borders and citizens from the peak of Mount Hermon through the mountains of Lebanon, areas in the Samaria region and most of the territory of Gaza against threats from jihadist forces.

“The IDF will not withdraw from the terrorist camps in northern Samaria, which have been evacuated of residents, and if necessary, the operation will be expanded to additional terrorist camps,” he added.

Katz outlined Israel’s security doctrine as one that confronts both near and distant threats and seeks decisive outcomes rather than compromises.

“Much is at stake in this period, and we are determined to continue leading a firm security policy that will prevent harm to our security achievements and will not endanger our ability to fight against the Shiite axis of evil led by Iran and the Sunni axis of evil led by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Katz said.

He expressed appreciation to the IDF command, soldiers in the regular forces, standing army and reserves for their achievements, and to residents of the north for their steadfastness.

Katz also sent condolences to bereaved families and wishes for recovery to the wounded.

The comments come amid ongoing regional tensions following Israeli military operations against Iranian-backed groups and efforts to shape post-conflict arrangements in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of SpaceX began trading Friday after a delayed opening caused by overwhelming investor demand for one of the most anticipated stock market debuts in recent memory.

The aerospace and satellite company priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, but heavy buying interest delayed the start of trading as exchange officials worked to match orders.

When trading finally commenced under the ticker SPCX, shares opened at approximately $150, giving the company an immediate gain of more than 11% above its IPO price.

The strong debut reflects intense investor enthusiasm for the Elon Musk-led company, which has become a dominant force in commercial space launches and satellite communications through its Starlink network.

Market analysts noted that while the opening price was well above the IPO level, it was below some of the more aggressive pre-market indications, highlighting the challenges of balancing supply and demand during such a closely watched offering.

Investors will now be watching closely to see whether SpaceX can sustain its early gains as trading volume remains elevated throughout its first day on the public markets.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge agreed on Friday to extend a court-ordered block on the Trump administration’s creation and operation of a $1.8 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.

Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund in the face of a fierce bipartisan backlash. Government attorneys have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot, but plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the fund won’t move forward.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly and unequivocally endorsed its cancellation.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will remain blocked until further notice from the court. She gave the parties a week to negotiate an agreement for Blanche to submit a sworn declaration that the administration won’t revive the fund.

Brinkema previously agreed to temporarily block the administration from proceeding with the fund for at least two weeks. Her May 29 order was due to expire on Friday.

Trump’s Republican administration created the fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Plaintiffs who sued to block fund payouts argue that the government can’t legally divert taxpayer money into what they argue is a slush fund for compensating Trump’s allies.

LONDON (VINnews) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Friday that he will fight to stay in office after the sudden resignation of his trusted defense minister left his shaky leadership weakened still further.

Starmer has seen the departure of several junior and senior ministers in recent weeks, as Labour Party lawmakers revolt and rivals plot, in despair at the government’s relentless unpopularity.

But the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey is a heavy blow. Healey quit Thursday, warning that the government is not spending enough on the military to keep Britain safe “at this time of rising threats.”

His departure hits Starmer in the one place the often embattled prime minister has won consistent praise: the world stage.

Since taking office after a landslide election victory in July 2024, Starmer has bolstered support for Ukraine, working with French President Emmanuel Macron on a multinational “coalition of the willing” to help guarantee the country’s security if a ceasefire is reached.

France and the U.K. also have put together a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends.

Starmer has also argued strongly that European nations must do more to fund their own defense in response to President Donald Trump ’s criticism of the United States’ NATO allies.

“Starmer has been consistently staunch about warning of the security risk from Russia,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, head of the U.K. in the World program at the Chatham House think tank. “He’s been given quite a bit of credit by the public for having to deal with Trump and doing so with a level of steadiness and calm. And he has been, in line with previous U.K. governments, a close and consistent ally of Ukraine.”

At issue is money for defense
At issue is the government’s long-awaited Defense Investment Plan, a road map for how the U.K. will increase military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The U.K. military is also seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

Healey says defense spending must reach 3% of GDP by 2030. He quit in frustration after Treasury chief Rachel Reeves refused to budge on a plan that falls short of that.

He cited a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country as soon as 2030 and said a lower-than-needed spending plan “could make the country less safe.”

Critics argue that military spending can be a bottomless pit, and point out that procurement projects regularly run over time and over budget.

Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who quit on Thursday a few hours after Healey, said it is not just a question of spending more money, but spending it wisely. He said the investment plan was not “transformative enough.”

“I want to see a higher percentage for uncrewed systems, AI, data — data is the new gunpowder — and we’ve got to move that forward if we are going to win the next war,” he told the BBC.

Resignations could hasten Starmer’s exit from office
Healey is not the first government minister to resign. Last month Starmer lost several junior ministers and then Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who quit so that he can run for party leader if a contest is triggered.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership if he is elected to Parliament in a special election on Thursday.

But the departure of Healey, long seen as a loyal minister without personal leadership ambitions, “suggests that Starmer’s credibility, even with his inner circle of ministers, is perhaps draining away,” O’Sullivan said.

Starmer insisted Friday he is staying put, saying it’s his job to make “hard-edged decisions.”

He told the BBC that defense is “my number one priority. And I have taken the difficult decisions to make sure that we are safe as a country.”

“I’m not going to go away. I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election,” he said. “I don’t think it should happen, but if it does, then I will fight.”

(JNS) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday again vowed that Iran will not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons on his watch, as Iranian media reported that Tehran will insist on its right to enrich uranium in emerging talks with the United States.

“As long as I am the prime minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, adding that he and U.S. President Donald Trump “are in full agreement on this issue.”

The statement came a day after Netanyahu spoke by phone with Trump regarding an emerging memorandum of understanding with Iran aimed at launching negotiations on a new deal.

During a telephone rally for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones on Thursday, Trump said, “I don’t know if you heard, but we ended the war with Iran today, and they agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump has said the memorandum of understanding could be signed “this weekend” in Europe. Reuters, citing a Western source, reported that the likeliest venue is Geneva, with the wording of the agreement still being finalized and a signing potentially taking place as early as Sunday if the remaining issues are resolved.

Although Israel is not a party to the memorandum, Netanyahu said on Thursday that he appreciated Trump’s commitment that any final agreement would include the removal of enriched material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, limits on missile production and an end to Iran’s support for terrorist proxies in the region.

“For over 30 years, I have been at the forefront of the international struggle against Iran’s nuclear program,” Netanyahu said in his statement on Friday. “Were it not for this struggle, Iran would have long ago possessed atomic bombs to destroy Israel.

“Iran is working to destroy the Jewish state, and I am dedicating my life to preventing them from doing so. As long as I am the prime minister of Israel, this will not happen.”

Iranian media reported on Friday that a peace deal with Washington would not include halting uranium enrichment.

“Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is nonnegotiable,” Iranian media quoted informed sources as saying.

The Islamic Republic’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported Friday that a proposed U.S.-Iran ceasefire framework would include measures extending beyond the nuclear issue, including an end to fighting in Lebanon and the phased release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets.

According to the report, the United States would initially unfreeze $12 billion of an estimated $24 billion in Iranian funds and ease sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors, with additional steps tied to future negotiations. Mehr also reported that the arrangement would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days and a U.S. commitment not to intervene in Iran’s internal affairs or maintain forces near the country’s borders.

The report claimed that the memorandum of understanding would provide for a 60-day negotiating period aimed at reaching a final nuclear agreement, but would not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for regional proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump rejected Iranian media reports about the contents of the proposed agreement with Iran.

“The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” Trump wrote. “What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING!

“Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”

TEL AVIV (VINnews) — Officials overseeing Israel’s airports are cautioning that capacity constraints at the country’s main international gateway could affect airline schedules during the summer and upcoming holiday travel periods.

Sharon Kedmi, head of the Israel Airports Authority, said limited aircraft parking space at Ben Gurion Airport has become an increasing operational challenge. The issue is linked to the continued presence of a significant number of cargo and military-related aircraft occupying parking areas needed for commercial aviation.

Airport authorities said passenger volumes are expected to climb sharply in the coming months as travelers head abroad during the summer vacation season and the Jewish High Holidays.

According to Kedmi, if additional space cannot be freed up, some airlines may need to adjust schedules or reduce planned service during peak travel periods. He stressed that any decisions regarding flight cancellations or schedule changes would be made by individual carriers.

Officials also noted that airport congestion has contributed to operational delays, including longer waits for arriving and departing aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport remains Israel’s primary international air hub, handling tens of thousands of passengers daily. Authorities said efforts are continuing to address the capacity issue and minimize disruptions before travel demand reaches its seasonal peak.

(AP) – The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk is due back in court Friday as his attorneys seek to hold prosecutors in contempt for comments they made in the media about a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.

Defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson have accused prosecutors of going on a “media tour” to discuss expert reports about the bullet. The defense claims those statements violated restrictions imposed by Judge Tony Graf against speaking about the case outside of court.

But prosecutors said they had a right to correct misinformation from Robinson’s attorneys about an inconclusive, preliminary finding by ballistics experts, who could not immediately match the bullet fragments with a gun allegedly used by Robinson. Details about the preliminary finding spurred stories speculating about Robinson’s possible exoneration.

“The rules expressly allow lawyers to set the record straight,” Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard wrote.

Robinson’s lawyers have tried to guard against media coverage that they say sometimes misrepresents their client, as his case has drawn tremendous public attention. The 23-year-old from southwestern Utah is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk, cofounder of the conservative Turning Point USA organization, on the Utah Valley University campus.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted. He has not yet entered a plea.

Robinson’s attorneys did not specify what sanctions should be levied against prosecutors if Graf agrees they violated his orders and holds them in contempt. But in court filings, the defense team pointed to another criminal case where prosecutors were accused of contempt and said one potential remedy was to bar the state from seeking the death penalty.

While the judge in that earlier case disagreed that an order barring the death penalty was merited, Robinson’s attorneys noted that, “the court did not conclude that such a remedy was beyond its authority where the facts support it.”

Graf has said he will issue his decision about the contempt allegation at a later date.

A key hearing in the case is scheduled for next month, when prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial. That would mark the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case that has so far focused on matters of media access.

Robinson’s attorneys have asked Graf to halt the proceedings while they appeal a June 1 order in which the judge declined to bar cameras from the courtroom.

LONDON (VINnews) — A major fire tore through a commercial warehouse in northwest London on Thursday night, destroying a facility owned by a Jewish-run event production company and triggering a large-scale emergency response.

Fire officials said dozens of firefighting units and more than 100 personnel were deployed to battle the blaze at an industrial property in Brent. Much of the building sustained severe damage as flames spread through the structure.

Twenty-five fire engines and around 150 firefighters are responding to a fire on Oxgate Lane, Brent

The fire is located on a business park, and involves a multi-use warehouse building consisting of two floors

The majority of the structure and its roof is currently alight… pic.twitter.com/O4lbVObmMI

— YEDIS DRONE SHOTS (@yedisdroneshots) June 12, 2026

The warehouse belonged to SVS Productions, a company that provides equipment and production services for events across the United Kingdom. Owner Uzziel Sassoon said the facility and its contents were lost in the fire.

Authorities said crews remained at the site into Friday as they worked to extinguish remaining hotspots and begin assessing the cause of the incident.

Investigators have not determined what sparked the fire, and officials said there is currently no evidence suggesting criminal activity. A formal investigation is underway.

The incident occurred in an area not far from several neighborhoods with significant Jewish populations. In recent months, community leaders have expressed concern over a number of antisemitic incidents reported in parts of northwest London. However, authorities have not indicated that the warehouse fire was connected to any such activity.

The extent of the financial losses has not been officially determined, though the destruction is expected to have a significant impact on the business.

(AP) – At least three tornadoes battered communities outside Chicago on Thursday, leveling homes and ripping down trees and power poles, while storms grounded flights for some and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in the Midwest and Northeast.

As a large column of air descended on Merrillville, Indiana, a town about 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, the city’s police warned residents to take cover. By the evening, downed trees and power lines blocked the streets, homes were torn up and part of a high school’s roof was ripped off.

Meanwhile, emergency crews were in the nearby manufacturing and farm city of Streator, Illinois, as the community reeled from tornado damage. A reunification center for displaced residents was set up in its city hall and the Red Cross opened a shelter.

Streator Mayor Tara Bedei said there were no reported deaths. “We are incredibly grateful for the safety of our residents and the quick action of emergency personnel,” she said in a statement.

Strong storms delayed or halted flights at airports in some cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York on Thursday. Parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also strained under high heat and humidity.

Grounds crew remove water from the field after severe thunderstorms came through the Chicago area before a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/David Banks)

The tornadoes came after severe storms swept through the Midwest Wednesday, knocking out power, damaging buildings and canceling flights.

In Des Moines, Iowa, a 54-year-old man died at a homeless encampment in a park Wednesday after being hit by a tree that “broke apart and fell during strong storms,” police said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of other deaths or injuries from the storms.

Tree limb breaks through roof
Tornado warnings were also in place in Chicago and in parts of Indiana and Michigan Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. In Chicago, a series finale between the White Sox and the Atlanta Braves was postponed due to rain.

Jennifer Hall was in her garage in Elkhart, Indiana, as the winds and rain picked up Thursday evening. Suddenly, she said, she heard a loud crash and discovered a tree limb had gone through the roof of her rental home. She used buckets to catch the rain coming in from the hole.

“I’m just nervous because it’s just been one thing after another,” said Hall, explaining she just had surgery and her husband is out of town.

This frame grab from aerial video shows a building in Stickney, Illinois, after its roof was damaged by the severe storms that struck the Chicago area on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Courtesy WMAQ-TV in Chicago) TELEVISION OUT

A home vanishes before residents’ eyes
Shane Tipton stepped out of his truck in Unionville, Missouri, Wednesday afternoon to find a twister bearing down, said his daughter, Kylie Rouse. He rushed to get his 87-year-old dad out of his mobile home.

They made it back to the truck, drove just far enough away and watched as the tornado obliterated the home. Shattered cabinets, furniture and appliances littered the ground. Clothes hung in trees. They believe they lost one of their hunting dogs, who has been missing since it struck.

“Everything’s destroyed,” Rouse told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. “It was scattered clear for miles. If my grandpa would have been in there, there’s no way that he would be alive.”

Storm damages animal shelter in Illinois
Residents of Springfield, Illinois, believe a tornado touched down in their area late Wednesday. Two buildings at the Animal Protective League shelter in Springfield were heavily damaged, but none of the nearly 150 cats and 28 dogs housed there were injured, said Deana Corbin, the group’s executive director.

“It pretty much wiped out our shelter facility, took the roofs off both of our buildings,” Corbin said. “It’s a miracle. We were so blessed to not have any injuries of either people or animals.”

The community pitched in to take in all the cats and dogs temporarily, including a local animal control center, veterinarians and residents, she said.

Damage also was reported at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield.

Weather service meteorologist Frank Pereira said the system that produced the storms, including high winds and hail, was moving eastward Thursday, fueled by cool air from Canada clashing with warm, humid air from the South.

Damaged tree branches lie on a street in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, June 11, 2026, following a severe weather system in the area. (Jennifer Hall via AP)

Record high temperatures expected along East Coast
Potentially dangerous heat and high humidity arrived Thursday and was expected to continue Friday for a swath of the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, where daily high record temperatures could be broken in numerous places, the weather service said. Temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) were expected, but with the humidity it could feel like 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or more, the service said.

Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency for Thursday and Friday, activating cooling centers, home visits by field teams, outreach to people experiencing homelessness and other services. New York City officials were also urging residents to take precautions, including drinking plenty of water and finding a cool place to stay if they do not have air conditioning.

Severe weather wreaks havoc on air travel and power
At various points Wednesday and Thursday, ground stops were issued at Chicago’s O’Hare International and Midway International airports, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The Pittsburgh International Airport experienced a temporary power outage after a storm produced an “extraordinary” power surge, the airport said.

More than 1,000 flights going into and out of Chicago had been delayed or canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.

Commonwealth Edison Company, which provides electric service across northern Illinois, said the storms had downed poles and wires. On X, it wrote that it expected “80% restoration” by late Saturday.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Thousands of Puerto Ricans are struggling with water shortages so severe that the governor of the U.S. territory has activated the National Guard and emergency responders are fielding calls every day.

Officials have not publicly pinpointed the cause, with shortages largely affecting some areas in the island’s most populated cities, including the capital San Juan. The island’s utilities company extracts water from rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers that have in the past provided sufficient supply for the island’s 3.2 million people.

Residents are being forced to buy potable water, spend money at laundromats and haul heavy buckets up several flights of stairs to wash dishes, flush toilets and take showers. The elderly and disabled struggle the most, with community leaders noting that some have been hospitalized as water shortages persist.

Jorge Figueroa, a community leader for several impoverished San Juan neighborhoods, stood by his car one recent morning fielding questions from residents wondering when the next water truck would swing by.

“They are playing with people’s health and lives,” Figueroa said.

Shortages are widespread
Some customers in San Juan began reporting intermittent service more than a year ago, with the governor acknowledging the infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.

The water outages have grown so severe that Mayor Miguel Romero sued Puerto Rico’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May.

People like Jeannette Mercado Rodríguez have spent up to two weeks without water as Puerto Rico’s searing summer starts and meteorologists are already issuing heat advisories.

“This is really exhausting; it’s maddening,” she said.

The 52-year-old is among the lucky ones: a water truck is stationed near her public housing complex, Las Margaritas. But she still has to haul five buckets and 10 2-liter (half-gallon) bottles up to her third-floor apartment every day. She recently injured her shoulder doing so.

“We can’t take it sometimes,” Mercado said, confiding that she has broken down and cried. “There are older people here, bedridden people.”

Nearly 40,000 customers were hit with water outages on the first weekend of June. That prompted Gov. Jenniffer González to activate the National Guard, which began distributing water via four trucks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) each.

Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company brought in additional water trucks with a capacity of 12,800 gallons (48,453 liters) to help serve hotels and short-term rentals.

The need for water is so great that even Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture sanitized two large trucks that transport milk and instead used them to deliver potable water.

Despite those measures, water remains scarce for many in San Juan and beyond. At least one stationary tanker in an impoverished community sat empty for a couple of days, with residents cheering the water truck when it arrived, calling municipal workers “heroes.” Other residents also complain that the government doesn’t inform them when a water truck will stop by, with those at work missing out.

“This has been a disaster,” said Luz Laborde, president of a neighborhood association in Santurce, a working-class community in San Juan. “This is inhuman … It’s destroying the emotional state of a people.”

Puerto Ricans demand water
Dozens of Puerto Ricans young and old crowded into a courtroom on a recent morning, eager to hear a ruling on the lawsuit that San Juan’s mayor filed against the island’s water and sewer company as they questioned when their water would return.

“We are exhausted,” said Marcia Soler París, a 61-year-old community leader. “We shouldn’t be living this way. We don’t deserve this.”

Every day at dawn, phones ping as people in San Juan and elsewhere share whether they have water, just a trickle or nothing at all.

Soler calls the emergency management office every other day to request a water truck for her and her neighbors. She lives with her daughter, who has three boys ages 13, 10 and 4, and they play soccer every day. Like many, they don’t have a cistern.

“I don’t know what it is to see a stream of water,” said Soler, who recently spent $40 at a laundromat and was forced to buy plastic cups and plates for her family.

The extra costs are straining the budgets of many on the island of 3.2 million people where more than 40% live below the poverty line.

Soler said some of her neighbors bedridden and caregivers are forced to use towels and wet wipes to clean them. Another neighbor is blind, so people ferry water up to her apartment.

For years, chronic power outages have been a big frustration for many Puerto Ricans. Water woes also are at the top of the list now.

At Villa Kennedy, a nearby public housing complex, Elizabeth Sánchez, 79, explained how she injured her waist carrying buckets of water. Her husband can no longer help because he injured his back for the same reason.

“What we are going through is horrible,” she said as she began to cry.

Judge orders experts to investigate water woes
In February 2025, Puerto Rico’s governor appointed Luis González Delgado as executive president of the island’s Water and Sewer Authority.

Months later, former regional director Roberto Martínez Toledo was replaced. But Martínez was recently appointed to a new committee ordered by a judge to work with the agency to investigate and solve the chronic water shortages.

The mayor of San Juan, who is a member of the governor’s party, said that if Martínez hadn’t been removed from his position, “we wouldn’t be here talking about this issue.”

The new head of the water and sewer agency blamed Martínez for some of the problems.

“(The crisis) could have been avoided if Roberto Martínez had answered the phone the first day I called him,” González told reporters this week, adding that he is willing to work with him.

Some Puerto Ricans are demanding González resign as they clamor for Martínez to return to his old job, while a growing number are blaming the governor for the situation. On Wednesday night, the governor announced that all projects aimed at fixing water-related infrastructure have started with an investment of $217 million.

Those without water say they are still being billed for it.

“That’s another outrage,” said Laborde, the community leader. “You lose no matter what.”

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Two collisions one after another on a highway in western Hungary early Friday killed eight people, police said.

A truck caught fire after colliding with a construction vehicle near the city of Győr around 4.30 a.m., killing one person and snarling traffic, police said.

About half an hour later, a minibus with Moldovan license plates slammed into a truck that stopped on the highway following the first accident. The second crash killed seven people and seriously injured two, police said.

Authorities closed one lane of the M1 highway toward Austria.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

Lángok és roncsok az M1-esen, Vitézy Dávid soron kívüli vizsgálatot rendelt el a halálos tragédiák miatt.https://t.co/40Hg6X4wWW

Fotó: Győr HTP / Győr-Moson-Sopron VMKI#Hungary #tragedy #accident #indexhu pic.twitter.com/wKgrtKoXb4

— Index.hu (@indexhu) June 12, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk may never colonize Mars as promised, but enough investors consider the SpaceX founder to be a sort of miracle man that they’ll help him reach another fantastic goal Friday when he takes the rocket company public.

The world’s richest man is set to become its first trillionaire.

Known for his brilliant technology breakthroughs, as well as wild claims and missed deadlines, Musk is expected to break that trillion dollar mark in the biggest initial public offering ever as investors place bets on a company with losses as big as its ambitions. Ahead of the first trade in SpaceX, Forbes puts Musk’s net worth at $982.6 billion.

In addition to establishing a one-million person Martian colony, the company has promised to save humanity by establishing other outposts in space, launch data centers the size of football fields into orbit and outdo rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the race to make money from artificial intelligence.

To reach its goals, SpaceX needs billions more than it currently takes in from its rocket and satellite business. Between the start of 2025 and March 31, 2026, the company lost $8.7 billion.

Big institutional buyers and smaller-pocketed investors alike have indicated they are willing to take a chance, paying a high enough price for the 555.6 millions on offer to raise $75 billion. That will easily top the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that raised $26 billion in its 2019 initial offering.

If the IPO goes off without a hitch, its value will come down mainly to one thing: Musk.

The soon-to-be trillionaire — on paper at least — made his fortune by creating two companies, Zip2 and PayPal, that netted him about $200 million at sale. He used that money to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla, and defied the odds by creating a space company that figured out how to reuse rockets and a car company that made electric vehicles cool.

Musk has realized vast sums of wealth for himself, much of it in stock he has yet to cash in or grants for shares he’ll only receive if Tesla or SpaceX hit ambitious performance targets. His recent pay package from Tesla drew criticism from the Vatican. At Tesla, he’s worried shareholders by fighting with regulators or dividing his attention between multiple companies and last year by taking a role in the Trump administration.

But a rising stock price has cured all ills: Since it went public in 2010, Tesla has returned 20,000% for shareholders, or more than $1.2 trillion in investor wealth. That has helped lift Musk’s pre-SpaceX IPO worth to $795 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

SpaceX is the first of three “megacap” companies expected to go public this year, with Anthropic and OpenAI to follow. Nasdaq even revised its rules to allow SpaceX to gain entry into funds tied to its indexes in 15 days, which means investors will end up buying the rocket maker’s shares much earlier.

Not all investors are thrilled about SpaceX potentially showing up in their holdings of index funds. Officials from pension funds for firefighters, teachers and other workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX last month decrying some of the provisions in its IPO, including the “super voting shares,” mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims instead of the possibility of lawsuits and how much power Musk will hold over the company.

(AP) – Ford is recalling more than 250,000 vehicles that were incorrectly repaired under a previous recall meant to fix a problem that caused the engine to stall while driving.

The recall includes 255,404 Ford Focus automobiles, model years 2012-2018. Ford said the canister purge valve may malfunction, causing the engine to stall unexpectedly while driving, increasing the risk of crash and injury.

To fix the problem, dealers will provide a powertrain software update free of charge.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed July 6. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332.

Ford’s number for this recall is 26S40. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s number for this recall is 26V369. The original NHTSA recall number for this issue is 18V735.

Vehicle identification numbers involved in this recall will become searchable on NHTSA.gov on July 6.

(AP) – Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries, depots and pipelines. Tanker trucks attacked and left ablaze along the land corridor from Russia to Crimea. Motorists waiting in long lines at gas stations.

In a new blow to the Kremlin’s narrative that Moscow is winning the 4-year-old war in Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces have targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The persistent attacks reflect the growing intensity and efficiency of Ukraine’s drone strikes and have caught Russia off guard and struggling for a response.

As the country marks the Russia Day national holiday on Friday, signaling the start of summer vacations, the gas shortages are threatening to cause further disruptions to the tourism-dependent region with its beaches and resorts.

In a rare public acknowledgment, the Kremlin has recognized the scope of the problem and promised to address the issue quickly.

Ukraine’s successes have highlighted its ability to inflict painful damage on Russia and change the course of the conflict while Moscow’s advances recently have ground to a near halt. On Thursday, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reached its 1,569th day, surpassing the duration of World War I.

Crimea has special importance to Russia
Crimea has been a jewel in Russia’s imperial crown since it was seized from Turkic-speaking Tatars in the 18th century after Moscow defeated the Ottoman Empire.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 when both republics were part of the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the diamond-shaped peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.

Russia kept a naval base in Sevastopol, and when a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president was ousted by a popular uprising in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent in troops to overtake Crimea. Weeks later, Moscow annexed the peninsula following a referendum that most of the world refuses to recognize.

Soon afterward, a Moscow-backed separatist insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine, and fighting there raged with varying intensity until the February 2022 invasion. Russian troops concentrated in Crimea quickly seized large parts of southern Ukraine early in the war and secured the land route to the peninsula.

Since early in the war, Ukraine has fired missiles and drones to try to dislodge Moscow’s hold on the territory. The Ukrainian military sank several Russian warships in the Black Sea and at their Crimean bases, crippling Moscow’s naval capability and forcing it to redeploy its fleet to Novorossiysk.

Ukraine also methodically targeted munitions depots, airfields and Putin’s prized asset, the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The span was struck by a truck bomb in October 2022 that killed five people, blew up two sections of the bridge and required months of repairs. More attacks on the bridge followed in 2023 and 2025.

Ukraine has attacked the land corridor to Crimea
Since the Kerch Bridge attacks, Russia has channeled most fuel and other supplies along the highway and railroad via the occupied territories along the Sea of Azov coast. Those shipments were interrupted last month, when Ukrainian drones hit fuel trucks on the highway that Moscow once deemed to be safe, leaving behind dozens of burning vehicles.

Other relentless Ukrainian strikes hit refineries, oil depots and pipelines deep inside Russia, hurting its oil exports and causing domestic fuel shortages.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted the synergy between the longer-range attacks and those disrupting supplies to Crimea and other occupied regions.

“The long-range strike campaign is therefore reducing Russia’s production capacity, while the midrange strike campaign is hurting Russia’s ability to transport the gasoline Russia is still able to produce,” it said in an analysis.

Making matters worse, Ukrainian drones this week repeatedly hit the Chonhar Bridge, which links mainland Ukraine and Crimea over a shallow strait. Authorities deployed pontoon bridges.

The Ukrainian military said it struck the bridge to disrupt the movement of troops, ammunition and fuel from Crimea.

Natia Seskuria, of the Royal United Services Institute in London, observed that the latest attacks on Crimea’s supply lines have exposed Russia’s vulnerabilities and inflicted significant damage, allowing Ukraine to reclaim momentum.

“It’s a political statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, underscoring that Ukraine does not accept the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has both the capabilities and intent to contest Russian control in Crimea,” she said. “And on the other hand, it serves a strategic aim to deprive Russia (of) its very important logistics hub.”

Crimea is seeing lines for fuel and gas rationing after Ukrainian strikes
It’s not immediately clear how the fuel disruptions will affect Russian military operations, but residents of Crimea and other occupied territories are keenly feeling the blow.

The peninsula has had periodic fuel shortages from Ukrainian strikes before, but this crisis is the worst since its 2014 annexation.

At the end of May, authorities restricted the sale of gasoline to 20 liters (5 1/3 gallons) per vehicle owner per week using prepaid coupons. Those were snapped up immediately following their release on an official messaging app channel, and motorists lined up for hours, waiting to refuel.

Social networks have been abuzz with requests and advice on where to find fuel, and authorities launched a hotline for tourists who have found themselves trapped.

While fuel shipments over the Kerch Bridge long have been suspended for security reasons since the Ukrainian attacks, fuel also has been carried by ferries. Those shipments are expected to increase.

Some motorists bring their own gas over the bridge from the mainland, but they are restricted to carrying 100 liters (about 26 1/2 gallons) per vehicle. Some speculators are selling gas at double the market price.

Crimea attracted nearly 7 million tourists last year, and it had hoped to top that number this year. The business daily Kommersant reported that nearly 80% of hotel bookings were canceled in late May and early June.

Some hotels offered gasoline as a bonus for new bookings, offers that were quickly snapped up.

Some travelers were unsettled by a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week on a passenger train traveling from Moscow to Crimea, injuring its driver and killing his assistant. That led to a brief suspension of service, with passengers taken by buses.

An earlier attack on a commuter train in Crimea killed one person and injured three others, forcing authorities to shift schedules to limit service during daytime hours.

The Kremlin pledges action
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the Crimean fuel shortages earlier this week and promised that “measures were being taken” to deal with them.

The Russian Defense Ministry has been silent about the Ukrainian attacks on the land corridor, while some war bloggers have harshly criticized the military for failing to anticipate the strikes and its slow response.

Some suggested military escorts for fuel trucks while others urged stepping up strikes on Ukrainian bridges, fuel storage sites and other infrastructure.

Amid the fuel crisis and the finger-pointing, Ukraine dealt another symbolic blow to Russia, striking a historic Sevastopol building that houses a huge panoramic painting that depicts the defense of the city during the 19th century Crimean War. The painting was effectively destroyed by fire during the attack, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea’s largest city.

Given Putin’s focus on Crimea, military blogger Valery Shiryayev said the attack would certainly anger the Russian leader.

“It’s hard to find another work of art, another part of national heritage, whose destruction would be as painful for Putin,” he said.

JERUSALEM (VINnews)-Israeli forces conducted a raid several weeks ago in the southern Lebanon village of Dibbine, locating significant weapon depots used by Hezbollah to launch attacks against troops and Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday.

Dibbine lies approximately 12 kilometers (about 7.5 miles) north of the Israeli border and beyond the IDF’s forward defense line, which marks Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon. Troops from the 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade carried out the operation, according to the military.

During the raid, the Israeli Air Force struck around 50 targets, destroying dozens of Hezbollah sites and killing operatives, the IDF said. The village had served as a base for Hezbollah to advance anti-tank missile attacks and other assaults on Israeli forces.

The brigade previously operated in Dibbine in April, prior to the implementation of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon.

The announcement highlights ongoing Israeli efforts to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon despite the truce.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.

The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The formal stay will be filed on Friday, the person said.

Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The board move marks a shift from a June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel saying email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped the president’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat who is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, said in a statement that he participated in the meeting and opposed seeking a stay.

“I look forward to putting these distractions behind us and focusing on supporting the arts and the future of the Center.”

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a hand-picked board of trustees that named him chairman. He brought in Richard Grenell to serve as president, a position he held until March when Matt Floca assumed the role.

The center’s lineup has included more Trump-friendly programming, serving as the venue for events such as the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania.”

The board also announced it had renamed the facility the Trump Kennedy Center, a change scholars and lawmakers say must be initiated by Congress, and physically added the president’s name to the building’s facade.

The fallout from the arts community was swift and intense. Actor Issa Rae, musician Bela Fleck and author Louise Penny were among the numerous artists who withdrew from appearances, while consultants such as musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned. Earlier this month, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Jean Davidson, left to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to voting on the stay on Thursday, the board backed a resolution recognizing Trump’s “commitment to uphold this cherished American institution.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fruit-flavored e-cigarettes recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration were not significantly better at helping smokers quit than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, according to a new memo that’s likely to stir more questions about the agency’s decision.

The FDA last month gave its first OK to fruit-flavored vapes — essentially endorsing them as a less-harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes. The decision came despite the agency’s longstanding position that such flavors appeal to children and must show extra health benefits to warrant approval for adults.

Health groups and Washington lawmakers quickly condemned the decision and have called for an explanation.

A six-page FDA memo released this week provides more details about the agency’s rationale. In it, FDA regulators appear to sidestep previous statements about the risks of sweet vaping flavors while acknowledging shortcomings in the data submitted by vape manufacturer Glas Inc.

To meet federal standards, companies must show that their products benefit public health. In practice, that means demonstrating that their vapes help adult smokers switch or quit cigarettes, while not attracting underage use by teens.

Smokers who tried Glas vapes were much more likely to completely switch from cigarettes over the course of a three-month study, according to the memo.

But the data did not show “statistically significant differences” between adults using the company’s mango and blueberry flavors and those using a tobacco-flavored e-cigarette.

That means the new vapes failed to meet the same bar as a handful of other flavored products previously sanctioned by the FDA, including menthol-flavored vapes from Juul and NJOY. Those companies showed that adults who used menthol were significantly more likely to cut down or quit cigarettes compared with those vaping tobacco flavors.

Elsewhere, FDA regulators explained that the Glas flavored vapes “did not have to demonstrate added adult benefit,” because young people were unlikely to use them. Glas requires users to unlock each e-cigarette with an age-verifying cellphone app.

The agency’s authorization also runs counter to recent FDA guidelines advising companies that fruit and dessert flavors would have to meet “a high evidentiary burden” for adult use, given their risks to children. Tobacco-flavored products are not popular with teens and generally face lower regulatory hurdles at the FDA.

The FDA document is also unusual in its brevity.

Previous FDA memos on new vaping products typically run dozens of pages. For example, last year’s document authorizing Juul’s menthol e-cigarettes was more than 90 pages and included detailed scientific data from research involving 50,000 people.

The short memo on Glas does not include key details, such as how many smokers the firm studied.

Previously, the FDA almost always posted such memos immediately after announcing an authorization. The document on Glas appeared on the agency’s website more than a month after regulators OK’d the products.

The agency has faced questions from members of Congress about the decision. Last month, 10 Democratic senators sent a letter to the agency requesting more information about the authorization, calling it a “shortsighted and reckless decision.”

The application from Glas, which also included menthol and tobacco-flavored vapes, followed a winding path to authorization. The small, Los Angeles-based company submitted a marketing request to the FDA in 2021.

In February, FDA scientists authorized several of the flavors. But that decision was blocked by a senior official reporting to then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, according to internal memos later released by the agency.

The mango- and blueberry-flavored products were finally OK’d during Makary’s last full week leading the agency. He resigned the post after months of criticisms from industry stakeholders, including tobacco companies that have lobbied President Donald Trump’s Republican White House for looser regulations on vaping flavors.

A spokesperson for the company could not immediately provide comment when reached Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday announced the launch of Fostering the Future Accounts, a spinoff of the Trump Accounts investment funds meant to give $1,000 to every newborn whose parent opens one.

Building on her work helping foster children, Trump said the new federal guidance will give child welfare agencies the ability to act as a guardian for children in foster care for the purposes of opening an account.

The first lady, speaking at a news conference at the Treasury Department, said the move “gives foster children the same chance at asset ownership and long-term wealth as every other child.”

The accounts will be open for contributions on July 4. To qualify for an account, a child must also be a U.S. citizen born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that a Trump Account balance for a baby born in 2026 will be $5,800 by age 18 and $18,100 by age 28 if no other contributions are made.

The first lady said 23 governors, all Republicans, have pledged to allow state agencies to begin the process of enrolling children in the program. “I urge every governor and business leader to help fund these accounts,” she said.

There are roughly 330,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, according to the National Council for Adoption. One in 5 of them is at risk of homelessness after aging out of foster care, and only half gain employment by the time they are 24, the National Foster Youth Institute says.

“Those outcomes are unsettling, but we refuse to accept them as inevitable,” Bessent told the news conference. “We are affirming that the American dream belongs to every child.”

A provision of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation that he signed into law last summer created Trump Accounts. Under them, the Treasury Department gives $1,000 to babies so long as their parents open an account. That money is then invested in the stock market by private firms, and the children can access the money when they turn 18.

Employers and billionaires across the country have pledged to make matching Trump Account contributions for employee benefits. Among them are Michael and Susan Dell, who announced a $6.25 billion donation, and hedge fund founder Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, who pledged $75 million for kids under 10 in Connecticut, where the Dalios live.

MONSEY, NY (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – The heartbreaking death of an eight year old girl in Monsey last week continues to touch hearts worldwide, with noted personalities expounding on the message her parents are sharing, transforming pain into purpose.

I know this story well. Those parents are my children. And that beautiful, freckle-faced girl with the million dollar smile is my granddaughter, Charlotte.

Speaking at the levaya, my son in law, Yudi Herzberg’s heartfelt words moved everyone beyond the tears they were already shedding. He powerfully, passionately, and publicly proclaimed that the Satan had attempted to divide their community by having his best friend and chavrusa drive the car that ended Charlotte’s life. The Satan failed, he told the hundreds who had come to pay kavod acharon to Charlotte, and achdus would prevail.

A letter that appeared on The Monsey Scoop written by Rabbi Binyomin Eisenberger detailed how on the night after the levaya, he personally witnessed the two couples – one who had lost their child, and another that had been chosen as Hashem’s instrument to return Charlotte’s neshama to shomayim – embracing each other, loving each other, and vowing not to let this terrible tragedy come between them and their community.

In the days that followed, people who came to be menachem aveil found themselves being comforted by Charlotte’s parents and their choice to use their loss as a means to end machlokes in Klal Yisroel, by asking people to forgive those had wronged them, just as they had done. The message has resonated far beyond the small Monsey neighborhood of Pomona East where my children live.

Giving his weekly shiur on Parshas Shlach, Rabbi Joey Haber told his listeners what had happened in Pomona East. He urged those hearing his shiur to take that first step towards shalom, telling them to trust that Hashem will give them the momentum of holiness, and the wings they need to make peace.

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With Charlotte having sung in her choir this year, singer Shaindy Plotzker used her Instagram platform to spread the Herzberg’s Shalom for Charlotte message far and wide, asking her followers to fill out an online form describing how they dropped a grudge that they had been holding l’iluy nishmas Charlotte, Shaindel bas Chaim Yehuda Leib. She found herself inundated by stories, with several hundred submitted within a matter of days, coming from all over the world.

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Also sharing their thoughts on the way Charlotte’s parents have managed to respond to this tragedy with emunah was Rabbi Efrem Goldberg. Speaking tearfully about the tragedy and how Charlotte’s parents are encouraging unity in her memory, he shared a story he had just heard of someone who decided to repair a painful and complicated 14 year-long family rift after seeing a “Drop the Grudge” flyer being circulated as a zechus for Charlotte.

Also addressing the situation with her followers was well-known lecturer Chani Juravel, who watched Charlotte’s mother grow up. Speaking about how people react when Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers no to their tefilos, she noted that Charlotte’s parents set an example of gevurah, choosing forgiveness over anger, and asking others to follow in their footsteps as a zechus for Charlotte.

Our family always knew that Charlotte had the potential to change the world, and right now, we’re seeing that happen from the Olam Haemes. We ask you to forgive someone who wronged you as a zechus for Charlotte, and, if you’re able to, share the story with her parents by filling out this form

MIAMI (AP) — On a late March afternoon, a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer pulled up to a Guatemalan couple walking their dog in a park in the affluent beachside community of Bonita Springs, along the Gulf Coast. From his car, he asked to see the husband’s identification and then ordered them to head toward the park exit, according to the wife.

When they arrived in the parking lot, the officer arrested the husband on a bogus charge, said his wife, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity for her and her 48-year-old husband because she didn’t want to risk being detained as well or put either of their pending asylum cases at risk.

“He told us he was issuing a ticket because the dog had bitten him, but that wasn’t true because the officer never got out of the car,” she said. “He started making calls, arrested him, and waited 40 minutes” for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to arrive and take her husband away.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has met with fierce resistance in Democratic-led sanctuary cities, where police are forbidden from assisting, elected officials have pushed back and local residents have tried to defend their migrant neighbors by whistling the alarm, recording cellphone videos and berating the masked federal agents viewed by many as an invading force.

That hasn’t been the case in Republican-led Florida, though, where 347 state and local agencies have signed on to take part in the crackdown and unleashed a flood of immigration arrests. Among them are police and sheriff’s departments, the Florida National Guard and the Highway Patrol, but also ones as seemingly unlikely as the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Lottery.

The surge in Florida immigration arrests during Trump’s second term has largely flown under the public’s radar, as many start as run-of-the-mill police traffic stops, the public seems more supportive of the initiative, and participating state and local agencies are roundly rejecting requests for arrest records and body camera video at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration arrests more than triple
Nearly 39,000 immigrants were arrested in Florida in the 416 days beginning Jan. 20, 2025 — the start of President Donald Trump’s second term — through March 11, 2026, the last day for which data was available in a set provided to the University of California, Berkeley’s, Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the AP. During the preceding 416 days of the Biden administration, there were 11,088. On average, Florida recorded 93 daily arrests during that Trump-led period, trailing only the 239 recorded by Texas, which shares the nation’s longest border with Mexico.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed Florida’s push to partner with ICE through so-called 287(g) agreements, which bestow immigration enforcement powers on state and local law enforcement agencies, allowing them to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for possible deportation. And they are under pressure to deliver, experts say.

“There’s a lot of officers who have been deputized, given immigration authority, and they are just looking for people,” said immigration attorney Vilerka Bilbao, who represents at least 23 clients detained by local police in the Jacksonville area. “They are arresting anybody — they need to show the numbers to DeSantis and the federal government.”

Officers stop vehicles for a “pretext reason” — such as a broken taillight or overly dark window tint — “and then you end up in ICE custody,” Bilbao said.

A father and son are deported
On Feb. 15, Lee County sheriff’s deputies detained a 44-year-old Guatemalan man and his 21-year-old son on the outskirts of Fort Myers. They approached the two in a store parking lot, told them their license plate was expired and ordered them out of their car even though its tags were valid until March 25, according to the older man’s wife and younger man’s mother.

The woman, a 40-year-old Guatemalan asylum-seeker who spoke on condition of anonymity for herself and her family over concerns for her safety and the safety of her three kids still with her in Florida, said her husband and adult son were detained and deported to Guatemala a week later, leaving behind her, her two underage sons and her daughter, who is an American citizen.

She said her husband and adult son had pending immigration court cases but were detained anyway. Her husband had attended three immigration court hearings but missed one because it was in Miami, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of Fort Myers, and he didn’t have the money to get there, she said. Her son, meanwhile, was seeking asylum, had a valid driver’s license and a work permit.

DHS disputes that the man and his son were legally in the U.S., saying they crossed the border illegally in 2017 and had a final order of removal from 2019.

In the case of the man walking his dog, DHS said he was arrested because he had two final orders of removal.

A test of Florida’s Sunshine Law
In both cases, the Florida agencies that initiated the stops — the Fish and Wildlife Commission and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office — refused to share the arrest reports and body camera footage with the AP, explaining that ICE requires them to forward all inquiries about immigration arrests to it.

ICE and DHS, its parent agency, declined to share the arrest reports and bodycam footage, with DHS explaining in a statement: “We are not going to disclose law enforcement sensitive intelligence.”

An ICE directive sent to the 287 (g) partners in Florida states that “information obtained or developed” under the agreements is “under the control of ICE” and cannot be released without federal approval.

The directive appears to violate the long-standing Florida Sunshine Law, which was passed in 1967 and presumes records are public unless specifically protected. The conservative state Legislature, though, has carved out exclusions in recent years.

It’s not just Florida
Although Florida is at the forefront of partnering in the crackdown, opening the “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” immigration detention centers in the past year, participation in the 287(g) program has skyrocketed, going from 135 agreements in 20 states before Trump’s second term began to more than 1,700 in 41 states and territories.

DHS announced financial incentives for state and local law enforcement agencies, including salary reimbursement. This includes up to $7,500 for equipment for each officer participating in the agreements, and up to $100,000 for agencies to purchase new vehicles.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s new conservative government on Thursday abolished an entry ban on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of his ministers, marking a shift in policies toward Israel that had been pursued by the previous center-left government.

The government of populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa also lifted a ban on imports from Jewish settlements and ended an embargo on the export and transit of military weapons and equipment to and from Israel, the official STA news agency reported.

Jansa’s government took office earlier this month following a parliamentary election in March. Jansa has said he would seek to improve ties with Israel, in a contrast to the policies of his predecessor, Robert Golob.

Under Golob, Slovenia was one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the European Union. The small Alpine nation recognized a Palestinian state in 2024, before imposing the entry bans in 2025 on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Netanyahu.

Ben-Gvir was banned also by France last month. He has sparked global outrage after promoting a video of himself taunting the activists from a flotilla to Gaza who were detained by Israeli police.

The new Slovenian government said in its statement that it was scrapping the punitive measures to open political communication, the official STA news agency reported. The Defense Ministry said that weapons trading is already sufficiently regulated by existing national defense laws and the EU arms export criteria, the same report said.

Political dialogue and quiet diplomacy will help “strengthen the role of the Republic of Slovenia in the efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East,” the government said. It cited “active cooperation” over “actions that limit and close off channels for direct communication.”

Last year, Slovenia linked the entry ban for Netanyahu to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

Shortly after taking office, Jansa’s government removed a Palestinian flag from the government building, also symbolically marking the policy shift. Slovenia’s liberal president, Natasa Pirc Musar, then raised the flag on the presidency building.

Also this month, Israel announced that it would open an embassy in Slovenia. The country’s embassy in Austrian capital Vienna has previously covered Israel’s diplomatic interests in neighboring Slovenia.

Jansa is serving his fourth term in office. The political veteran is an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump and was a close ally of former populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was defeated in a landslide election in April.

The March 22 election was marred by allegations of foreign influence and corruption. The population of around 2 million in the Alpine nation are deeply divided between liberals and conservatives.

HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. (VINnews) — Federal and local authorities are renewing their search for Eugene Palmer, one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, more than 13 years after he was accused of fatally shooting his daughter-in-law in Rockland County and disappearing without a trace.

The Town of Haverstraw Police Department said investigators continue to pursue leads in the 2012 killing of Tammy Palmer, who was shot outside her home in Stony Point.

According to authorities, Palmer allegedly ambushed the mother of his grandchildren as she walked up her driveway before fleeing in a pickup truck. The vehicle was later found near Harriman State Park, where investigators believe he may have entered the sprawling wilderness area.

Palmer, an experienced hunter and outdoorsman who was 73 at the time of the shooting, has not been seen since. He would now be 87 years old.

The FBI added Palmer to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 2019 and continues to offer a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest. Authorities have cautioned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Despite years of unsuccessful searches, investigators say the case remains active and they have not ruled out the possibility that Palmer received assistance while evading capture.

“The Town of Haverstraw Police, along with their FBI and U.S. Marshals Service partners, have not forgotten this crime and continue to work the case,” the department said.

Anyone with information about Palmer’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Haverstraw Police Department or the FBI.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration put up $750,000 to charter a private yacht to evacuate a single American citizen from a remote South Pacific island after she had been aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, a move that has further strained the State Department’s emergency budget.

The woman, who may have been exposed to the virus while aboard the Dutch MV Hondius cruise liner in April, had gotten off the ship and then flown to San Francisco before traveling to the isolated British territory of Pitcairn Island through Tahiti, according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press.

The exact amount of the total evacuation payment is still being assessed because the operation is still underway. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a medical case covered by U.S. privacy laws.

The costly effort to pick up the woman has added to the expense of rapid evacuations for diplomats and private U.S. citizens from the Middle East since the start of the Iran war as well as preparations for possible evacuations from Ebola-stricken countries. All have stressed the State Department budget for unforeseen emergencies, known as the “K Fund,” and brought its balance to the lowest level in seven years.

State Department emergency budget strained by multiple evacuations
Another internal document said the State Department is looking at transferring as much as $50 million into that emergency fund from other accounts — $35 million from the budget for embassy security, construction and maintenance and an additional $15 million from an account that pays for broader diplomatic programming. No decision on the transfers has yet been made.

One of the officials said the State Department has another option, to ask Congress to replenish the fund. However, the official said the department is expected to be able to handle payments for both ongoing and “emerging contingency needs.”

The official would not say what the potential shortfall is but insisted that the department is “well positioned” to support diplomats, other U.S. government employees and private Americans who have been forced to leave the Middle East because of the Iran confict, as well as U.S. citizens who may need assistance due to developments such as the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

How the US is evacuating an American exposed to hantavirus from a remote island
The State Department declined to comment on the specifics of the woman’s case on Pitcairn Island but said that “when an American is at risk abroad and unable to access commercial transportation, the Department of State seeks to provide appropriate assistance to get them home to the United States or to another safe location.”

After the woman departed the cruise liner where the hantavirus outbreak occurred, the ship continued to other destinations in the South Atlantic, with some passengers falling ill and at least three dying. The unidentified American woman was stuck on Pitcairn, an island with only about 50 inhabitants, no airport and infrequent maritime options to depart.

Pitcairn is well-known as the island on which Fletcher Christian and other British mutineers from the HMS Bounty took refuge after the 1789 events that toppled Capt. William Bligh, which have entered into the public lexicon with books and films about the “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Their descendants make up most of the island’s current population.

Complicating matters, British authorities had sought urgent American assistance in evacuating the woman from the island, which is their territory, according to the government document about the cost of the evacuation and the second U.S. official.

But initial attempts to send her to Tahiti, a French dependency, about 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) — or a 30-hour sea journey — from Pitcairn, were rejected by French Polynesian authorities. They did not want to allow her in because she had not disclosed her exposure when she transited the island on her way to Pitcairn.

The U.S. is transporting the woman, who was not symptomatic, from Pitcairn to Easter Island, another remote location in the Pacific about 1,400 miles (2,253 km) away, which is a territory of Chile and has direct flights to Santiago, so she can return to the United States for any necessary treatment.

All of those factors mean the process of getting her moved from Pitcairn to Easter Island took many weeks to arrange, the officials said.

The government document, which was confirmed as accurate by the two officials, said moving the woman from Pitcairn eventually was arranged via the “Titaina Explorer” trimaran yacht owned by a wealthy Frenchman, who uses it for personal exploration in the South Pacific. Pitcairn has no airport and only limited sea access.

The officials said the woman had no political or celebrity connections and they did not know exactly when she will return to the U.S. Maritime tracking sites show that the Titaina Explorer departed Pitcairn Island on June 5. The voyage to Easter Island can take up to 10 days depending on the speed of the boat and the weather.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — Hundreds of Chabad emissaries, supporters, public officials and community leaders from across the United States and dozens of countries gathered in Washington this week for the Living Legacy Conference, a three-day event dedicated to the teachings and enduring influence of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

Organized by the American Friends of Lubavitch-Chabad, the conference explored the Rebbe’s impact on Jewish life, public service and civic engagement while highlighting the global reach of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which today operates in all 50 states and more than 110 countries.

The gathering opened with a Capitol Hill breakfast attended by members of Congress and senators from both parties. Participants later visited the Library of Congress, where rare Jewish manuscripts and Chabad-related works were displayed. Educational sessions examined the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States, Jewish contributions to American history and the Rebbe’s teachings on leadership.

The conference continued at the U.S. State Department, where diplomats and Jewish leaders took part in a Global Jewish Roundtable. Among the speakers was Yechiel Leiter.

“It is not easy to inspire a room full of rabbis, but he succeeded,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov.

Additional discussions focused on challenges facing Jewish communities around the world, with diplomats and Chabad representatives from Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Gulf states sharing perspectives from their regions.

An evening gala at the Organization of American States honored members of the U.S. military and Jewish service members. The parents of former Gaza hostage Edan Alexander, Adi and Yael Alexander, spoke about faith, hope and prayer, drawing on their visits to the Rebbe’s resting place in New York.

The keynote address was delivered by Marcus Solomon, who discussed the Rebbe’s approach to combating antisemitism and addressing contemporary social challenges.

On the conference’s final day, participants visited the White House and met with senior administration officials. A smaller delegation later held discussions with Vice President JD Vance.

Rabbi Shemtov said the conference’s mission was to foster unity among people of different backgrounds and viewpoints while drawing inspiration from the Rebbe’s teachings.

“At a time when Jewish communities face growing challenges, bringing people together around a shared sense of purpose is more important than ever,” he said.

NEW YORK (AP) — On hot afternoons, DeAnna Brandon’s three dogs zag around while she splashes in a backyard kiddie pool with her grandkids. These are the moments the 48-year-old blood cancer survivor cherishes — and wonders if she’ll get to have in the years to come.

Brandon, who lives in Rockwell, North Carolina, is worried that new Medicaid work requirements starting next year could jeopardize her health coverage. She had expected to qualify for a medical frailty exemption, but new guidance introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration last week has thrown that into question.

The interim final rule released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services means being sick with extreme exhaustion and memory challenges related to her treatments may not be enough for Brandon to evade the new work requirements. She’ll have to attest and later prove that those symptoms “significantly impair” her ability to fulfill the new mandates.

If the government doesn’t accept her case, she could lose her coverage — and the twice-monthly maintenance chemotherapy that keeps her multiple myeloma in remission. Working is “outside of the realm of possibility for me,” she said in an interview.

“I was always a push-through-it person — you know, ‘Oh, you’re tired. Push through,’” Brandon said. “It’s hard to explain to people you can’t push through it.”

Health analysts have sounded the alarm about the Republican Trump administration’s newest guidance, which differs from what states had been expecting. Experts said it will put more Americans at risk of losing their health insurance and force states to scramble in their already harried efforts to implement the changes on time.

“This will mean more paperwork for Medicaid patients — specifically for the sickest Medicaid patients,” said Adrianna McIntyre, a professor at Harvard University’s school of public health. That, she said, “is going to push in the direction of more people needlessly losing coverage.”

Medical frailty rules may mean paperwork nightmares for sick people
The new Medicaid restrictions, which Democrats have criticized, were part of Trump’s big tax and policy law in 2025. The change affects those covered through an expansion, which most states chose to make, that gave more lower-income people access to the government’s safety net healthcare program.

Expansion enrollees aged 19 to 64 will have to show that they work or do community service at least 80 hours a month or are in school at least half the time. There are exceptions for those considered medically frail or in addiction treatment programs, among others.

Last week’s announcement from CMS caught states off guard with a new definition of medical frailty. The law had said medically frail people include those who have substance use disorders, disabilities or serious medical conditions. But the CMS rule last week went further, saying someone’s condition must “significantly impair” their ability to work, volunteer or attend school at the rates required in the law for them to be granted an exemption.

In 2027 and once in 2028, the patient can attest that they meet this definition. But when they try to renew coverage in 2028, they’ll need to prove it.

Advocates said it’s unclear what kind of documentation could prove that point. They said doctor notes may be required — something some providers don’t feel comfortable writing. Medicaid enrollees fighting disease may carry the bureaucratic burden.

Brandon, who tried to prove she couldn’t work to access disability benefits during her active cancer treatment and failed, said she’s worried about the hoops she and other patients may need to jump through.

“It’s not that easy — you may have to go through four doctors,” Brandon said. “If you’re already battling an illness like this, you don’t have the physical or the mental or the emotional energy to do that all the time.”

States and advocates are confused by the government’s approach
States have been planning to use Medicaid claims data and other data sources to automatically exempt eligible enrollees whenever possible.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on a call with reporters last week endorsed that approach, saying he hoped most people would be helped “without ever having to talk to anybody.”

Asked to clarify how the rule should be implemented, CMS told The Associated Press in an emailed statement that the agency “chose not to allow states to categorically exclude individuals from work requirements based solely on a diagnosis or condition type.” For renewal in 2028, it said, “verification through claims data or other documentation will generally be required.”

But state Medicaid officials and consultants said Medicaid claims data doesn’t prove someone is significantly impaired from working, and they don’t know of any existing data that does. That has left them confused about how to honor the government’s rule.

“States are going to be asked to make a determination using information that doesn’t exist in their systems,” said Kinda Serafi, a partner at the consulting firm Manatt Health who is working with states to make the changes.

One state, Nebraska, started the new Medicaid work requirements ahead of schedule. But it used diagnostic codes to identify people who are medically frail, and it therefore will likely have to rework its system, said Sarah Maresh, healthcare access program director at the advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed.

Maresh said she was concerned doctors in the rural state who are already reluctant to take Medicaid patients may decide to stop.

“They’re already drowning in paperwork, so to require them to do an additional step of certifying whether someone is able to work, I think is concerning,” she said.

Preparing for the Jan. 1 kickoff of the new policies is an immense and expensive task. A $200 million federal allotment is flowing to states to help, and CMS has partnered with technology companies to provide free and discounted services, but the tab for the additional technology requirements and more staff is likely to exceed $1 billion, according to an AP analysis. That extra cost will be borne by a mix of federal and state tax dollars.

Republicans say the rules will save Medicaid for those who need it most
Democrats have slammed the Medicaid work requirements as attacks on healthcare coverage for struggling Americans.

Republicans promoting the new rules, though, say they are commonsense measures to eliminate government freeloading and preserve benefits for people who need them most. Oz last week, citing a report by the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, said able-bodied people on Medicaid spend an average of 6.1 hours a day “watching TV or just hanging out.”

“This is a concern, not a criticism,” he said. “Work requirements are going to turn this around, we hope.”

But current enrollees who don’t meet the work requirement threshold said that’s a misrepresentation of their experience.

Mids Meinberg, a 42-year-old freelance writer from New Jersey who lives with chronic depression and diabetes, said that even with his health issues, he’s proud to have found a meaningful career. But his conditions make him unable to work 80 hours a month. He said he thinks there are many people with disabilities who are “too disabled to work but not disabled enough for the state to think they can’t work.”

Brandon, in North Carolina, said she wants the government to understand that she’s “not just sitting around wasting time or being a drain on society.”

“I’m pouring into my grandchildren,” she said. “We’re valuable, and we can still contribute to our communities even if it’s not working.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he has called off new military strikes on Iran, hours after threatening to escalate the war.

The president said in a social media post that he made the move “based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

Trump also suggested that progress has been made in talks to extend the fragile ceasefire, writing that “discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail,” approved by United States, Israel, and other regional allies. He did not offer details.

Trump on multiple occasions over the last several weeks has claimed that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told a group of visiting Christian leaders that support for Israel among many evangelicals is grounded in religious beliefs and longstanding biblical teachings rather than political considerations.

Addressing participants at a conference in Jerusalem focused on combating antisemitism and strengthening Christian-Jewish relations, Huckabee said many Christians view their connection to Israel through the lens of scripture and faith.

He praised Israel’s ability to withstand repeated security challenges throughout its history and said the country’s continued growth and development have inspired many supporters around the world.

Huckabee also rejected suggestions that Christians face broad hostility in Israel, saying his decades of visits to the country have been marked by positive interactions with Israelis from all walks of life.

The ambassador said he has consistently felt welcomed in Israel as an evangelical Christian and emphasized the strong relationship that exists between many Christian communities and the Jewish state.

The gathering brought together Christian leaders from multiple countries to discuss rising antisemitism and ways to deepen cooperation between Christian supporters of Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee speaks at Jerusalem Summit https://t.co/mtPZZGyeQK

— Reuters (@Reuters) June 11, 2026

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities on Thursday deported a prominent French journalist after she was refused entry upon landing at the country’s main international airport the day before, her employer and the Foreign Press Association in Israel said.

Alice Froussard, who has worked for years in Israel and the Palestinian territories, arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a flight from Paris on Wednesday, according to Radio France Internationale, the public radio news network for which she often reported.

Froussard had the required travel authorization and had applied for a press visa to work in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, RFI said. But when she arrived, Froussard was questioned, held and then sent back on a plane to France.

“Israeli authorities have not provided RFI with any explanation for the decision,” the network said in a statement.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Pascal Confavreux, said France had mobilized its diplomatic network to support Froussard, but that the decision to deport her “nevertheless falls within the sovereign authority of the Israeli authorities.”

Several Israeli media outlets quoted the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism as saying it recommended Froussard be denied entry for coverage that was critical of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank, including using the word “apartheid” to describe government policies toward Palestinians.

In a post on X, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, celebrated her deportation. “I am pleased to announce that at this very moment, Alice Froussard, a French journalist who supports Hamas, and who claims that the October 7 massacre must be viewed ‘in context,’ is making her way from Ben Gurion Airport back to Paris,” he wrote.

The Foreign Press Association, a nonprofit representing journalists who work for international outlets in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called the allegations against Froussard “outrageous.”

“This is not the first case in which the Israeli government decides that the journalist coverage is ‘one-sided,’” the FPA said in a statement.

While not unprecedented, the deportation of a foreign journalist from Israel is unusual. Press freedom groups have condemned Israel for its attacks on journalists since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militant groups attacked Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

Since then, Israeli forces have killed 259 media workers and journalists, mostly in Gaza but also in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit promoting press freedom worldwide.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)

It was 1982, and this author and two friends had come to the home of Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz zt”l to purchase his Minchas Yehudah series of seforim for the yeshiva. There were not enough chairs, and he hurried to borrow some from the neighbors so that we could all be seated. The welcome we received was like finding one’s long lost zeidy — a grandfather who had been waiting years, pining to meet us at last. He asked us all about ourselves, drawing out each detail with genuine warmth and interest, and only after some twenty-five minutes did he gently ask why we had come. To us, he was the living embodiment of Avraham Avinu in his hachnasas orchim — the guest came first, and only afterward the purpose of the visit. We all left with a memory that has lasted us a lifetime, and we used his seforim for years. Once a rosh yeshiva whose shiur I was in attacked the position of the Minchas Yehudah, and I stayed up the entire night to answer up the questions. That morning, the rosh yeshiva accepted the answer and said it was correct.

Today, the 26th of Sivan, marks the yahrtzeit of one of the great roshei yeshiva and educators of the Lithuanian Torah world, Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz, zt”l, who passed away on this date in 5771 (2011) at the age of 97.

Rav Michel Yehudah was born in Volozhin in Kislev 5674 (December 1913) to Rav Moshe Dovid and Chaya Lefkowitz. Volozhin, a town in what is today Belarus, was renowned throughout the Torah world as the home of the famed Volozhiner Yeshiva, the “mother of yeshivos” founded by Rav Chaim of Volozhin.

His father was sixty years old when he married, and despite a meager income, he hired private melamdim to teach his son. At the age of twelve, the young Michel Yehudah traveled to learn in the small yeshiva in Lida, celebrating his bar mitzvah together with his fellow students, far from his parents who remained in Volozhin. He later moved to Vilna to learn in Yeshivas Ramailes under Rav Shlomo Heiman, whom he regarded as his primary rebbe. Years later he would publish his rebbe’s shiurim in the sefer “Chiddushei Rabbi Shlomo.”

In 1936, the family ascended to Eretz Yisrael through certificates obtained by his older brother Aryeh Leib. This was the era of the British Mandate and the Arab revolt of 1936–1939, when entry to the land was tightly restricted by British immigration quotas, making such certificates precious and difficult to obtain. There he learned in Yeshivas Chevron in Yerushalayim and grew close to several of the gedolim of the generation, including Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, with whom he established a weekly seder, and the Chazon Ish, of whom he became a devoted talmid.

On Lag BaOmer 5700 (1940), he married Chava Esther Gershonovitz, daughter of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Gershonovitz, rosh yeshiva of Tiferes Tzion in Bnei Brak. The Chazon Ish himself served as the shadchan and led him to the chuppah. Shortly after his marriage, Rav Michel Yehudah was appointed as a ram in Tiferes Tzion, where his talmidim included Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Rav Nissim Karelitz, and Rav Meir Tzvi Bergman.

During those years he founded a special shiur for baalei batim in the beis medrash of the Chazon Ish. At times the Chazon Ish himself would listen to the shiur with enjoyment. That shiur continued in an uninterrupted fashion for roughly fifty years.

In the early 1950s, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman founded Yeshivas Ponevezh L’Tzeirim for boys ages thirteen to seventeen, and appointed Rav Michel Yehudah to head it alongside Rav Aharon Yehudah Leib Steinman. For some sixty years he delivered shiurim there, producing thousands of talmidim, among them rabbanim, roshei yeshiva, and renowned talmidei chachamim. Only at the end of 5769 (2009), weakened by age, did he cease delivering his shiurim.

A man of deep humility, Rav Michel Yehudah requested in his will that only his two sons eulogize him, and that he not be described with the titles “gaon” or “tzaddik.” He also asked that no memorial volume be published in his honor, lest it cause bittul Torah.

When Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach founded Degel HaTorah, Rav Michel Yehudah was added to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and he was widely regarded as a faithful continuer of Rav Shach’s path. His influence in the realms of chinuch and the yeshivos was vast; many roshei yeshiva sought his counsel, and he served as nasi of numerous Torah institutions. He devoted himself with particular passion to safeguarding “chinuch tahor” — pure, uncompromising Torah education. In his final will, he charged his family to strengthen the education of sons and daughters al taharas hakodesh.

Among his treasured educational guidance, Rav Michel Yehudah taught that a father should learn Torah with his son not only to fulfill “v’shinantam l’vanecha,” but to build a bond of love between them. Such learning, he taught, must flow from love rather than coercion: a father should listen to his son patiently and with a pleasant countenance, praise him for a good sevara to endear the learning to him, and rebuke gently so the son senses it stems from his father’s love and concern for his good. The generation is weak, he would say, and so one must lead primarily with the right hand that draws close rather than the left that pushes away. The key to success in raising children, he taught, is tefillah b’demaos — prayer with tears. And above all, he emphasized the power of personal example: when a son sees his father immersed in Torah and meticulous in mitzvos, it influences him more than any words of reproof.

Rav Michel Yehudah was survived by sons and daughters who themselves became marbitzei Torah, and by grandchildren and a vast network of talmidim who carry forward his legacy. He left behind important seforim, including Mincha Yehudah on numerous masechtos, Amri Daas, Darchei HaChaim, and Emek HaShaar.

He passed away on Tuesday, the 26th of Sivan 5771 — the yahrtzeit of his father-in-law, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Gershonovitz. His levaya, which set out from his home on Rechov Vilkomir in Bnei Brak, was attended by an estimated one hundred thousand people.

There is an extremely large percentage of the world accepts the principle of “What Goes Around Comes Around” – which in the language of Chazal is “Midah Keneged Midah.”

But why does Hashem do it? Why does Hashem run the world in this fashion? [It should also be noted that the American use of the word Karma is technically not the original use of the notion – which reflects an idea from a foreign religion/ The American use of it reflects the idea of Midah Keneged Midah].

Rav Michel Yehudah writes that there is a clear and determined purpose for Midah keneged Midah, and it is not what most people think. Every day, just before the Shma, we recite the bracha of Ahavah Rabbah which recalls the boundless love Hashem has for Klal Yisroel. But we must also remember that Hashem loves all of His creations and so much wants their Teshuvah. Hashem even wanted Pharoah’s Teshuvah. Hashem is good to all – Tov Hashem Lakol. Karov Hashem lechol Korav – lechol asher yikra’u’hu b’emes.

The reason for Hashem punishing people with “Karma” explains Rav Michel Yehudah, is that He wants us to know exactly what we did wrong so that we will know exactly how to do Teshuvah – so that we can come back to Hashem. Karma, so to speak, directs the individual to the exact location and area where he had stumbled.

Yehi zichro baruch.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

NEW YORK(VINnews) – In a recent interview with journalist Alan Skorski, Dr. Jacob Agronin, a cardiology fellow, detailed the antisemitism he and other Jewish physicians face within their union — the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) — and explained why he felt compelled to testify before Congress.

Dr. Agronin appeared before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions to highlight what he described as the union’s adoption of positions aligned with Hamas and Hezbollah supporters, amid broader concerns about antisemitism infiltrating healthcare — a field many expected to remain free of political and religious conflict.

CIR, which represents more than 37,000 physicians and is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has passed resolutions declaring Israel guilty of “apartheid” and “genocide,” endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and directing the union to oppose candidates who support legislation criminalizing BDS. The resolutions also reject equating antisemitism with anti-Zionism and claim that concerns over rising antisemitism are being exploited to stifle anti-Zionist organizing, according to Agronin’s testimony.

The union has also expressed support for figures associated with Hamas and Hezbollah, including Mahmood Khlail, a former Columbia University student targeted for deportation by the Trump administration.

In his interview with Skorski, Agronin recounted noticing troubling signs about the union approximately a year ago when his hospital voted to join CIR. He described being disturbed by the organization’s focus on anti-Israel positions that have nothing to do with patient care or medicine.ac5b68

When asked what motivated him to testify, Agronin told Skorski: “I didn’t want any of this… but someone had to stand up and say something.”

Agronin, a cardiology fellow at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, emphasized two primary concerns for Jewish doctors: being forced to pay dues to a union they did not choose that targets them and Israeli colleagues, and the politicization of medicine. He argued that CIR’s resolutions align it with activists who disrupted college campuses following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

In the interview, Agronin noted that he first became aware of rising antisemitism on college campuses about 10 years ago and was surprised to see it extend into healthcare. He connected with the American Jewish Medical Association and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund for support before his congressional testimony.

The testimony and interview come as reports of antisemitism in medical settings — including calls to exclude Israeli doctors and hostile environments for Jewish patients and providers — have increased since Oct. 7.

NEW YORK (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  There is a question that sits unspoken in far too many homes. A daughter announces an engagement that the family cannot accept. A son walks out of yeshiva into a world his parents spent twenty years trying to keep him from. In short, the child embarks upon a path that the parent tried earnestly to prevent. And the parent is left with a choice as to how to proceed.  Embrace or reject?  Attend the wedding or boycott it?  Walk her down or let strangers do it?

THE KALBA SABUA METHOD

Kalba Savua was among the wealthiest men in Yerushalayim — a man whose storehouses, the Gemara says, could feed the city for years. His daughter looked past that wealth and saw something in a penniless, illiterate shepherd and married him in secret (Kesubos 62b-63a). When her father found out, he swore she would have nothing of his and turned her out. The couple slept on straw, and Akiva picked the stalks from his wife’s hair, while her father — with storehouses that could feed a city — knew where she was and let her freeze.

We all know the ending – that the illiterate shepherd became the great Rabbi Akiva. 

No one is saying Chalilah that Kalba Sabua was a Rasha.  It could be, however, that he was too quick to make such a Neder.  But let’s take a look at the parenting underneath. Kalba Sabua’s love had a price of admission.  It was real love, no one doubts that — but it was conditioned on a daughter who married within the lines he had drawn, who would chose a son-in-law that he could be proud of in the marketplace.

The moment she chose otherwise, the love did not just soften into disappointment; it hardened into a hard-core neder – a vow. He did not just withhold his blessing. He swore a neder that she would derive no benefit from his possessions, and then he enforced it with the full power of his abilities.  

This choice means to let that child sleep on straw, to know that this child huddles in against the walls under second-hand blankets to fend off the cold. To know that the event the child had longed for – for her entire life – that her parents walk her down to the Chuppah will not happen. 

Clearly, Kalba Sabua was a forceful man. And there likely was a collective failure to act –  on the part of others – in the face of an obvious wrong.

What about Mrs. Kalba Sabua?  We are not sure whether she existed, but if she did – there is no doubt that she, deep inside, wanted so much to be there for her daughter. But Kalba Sabua was a powerful man, and she dare not go against him.  Nor would the siblings – if they existed – even though they surely loved their sister Rachel.  And so we might have years and years of what could have been – moments of joy, laughter, brotherhood.  Hinei Ma Tov umah Na’im sheves achim gam Yachad. The door was bolted shut.

The pasuk not only ignored but stepped upon.. Aru, Aru, ad haYesod bah.

THE RAV MEIR CHODOSH METHOD

Now the other side of the coin.

Rav Meir Chodosh, zatzal, in Ohr Meir (p. 151), teaches that a parent must love his children without limit, so completely that his own boundaries dissolve in it. His model is Avraham Avinu.

Avraham Avinu had two sons who could not have been further apart. Yitzchak was Kedusha itself. Yishmael, in his youth, was guilty of the three cardinal sins — avodah zarah, gilui arayos, and shefichus damim — as Rashi explains on “metzachek” (Bereishis 21:9, citing Bereishis Rabbah 53:11). As off-the-derech as a child can go.

When Hashem came to test Avraham with the Akeidah, the Yalkut Shimoni (Lech Lecha, remez 72) records the exchange word by word. Hashem said, “Take your son.” Avraham said, “I have two sons.” “Your only one.” “Each is the only son of his mother.” “The one you love.” And Avraham answered: “I love them both.” Then he asked: “Is there a limit to the compassion in a father’s heart?”

Avraham knew precisely who Yishmael was. He had no illusions about which son had abandoned his ways entirely. And still, when Hashem invited him to name the son he loved, he could not locate the seam where his love for one ended and his love for the other began.

Notice what he did not do. He did not wait for Yishmael to return before loving him. The Gemara in Bava Basra (16b) tells us Yishmael did eventually do teshuvah — but that came after. Avraham’s love did not arrive as a reward for repentance. It came first, while the child was still in his sins. Kalba Savua waited for his daughter’s choice to prove itself worthy. Avraham Avinu waited for nothing.

A child who has strayed already knows he or she has not met the expectations of the parents. But what the child does not know is whether or not there is still a door. Kalba Savua’s door was bolted shut. Avraham Avinu’s heart had no door to bolt, because a heart without walls needs none.

This is not an argument against boundaries. There are times a parent must protect a household, shield younger children, guard the dignity of a home. But there is a difference between a line drawn to keep a child safe and a wall built to make a child pay. Kalba Savua built a wall. At the end, we had a Rebbe Akiva but most parents who build that wall are left without a relationship with their child and grandchildren.

But the worst part is the Chillul Hashem of it all. 

Most people know that the Kalba Sabua method is so destructive.  And when they see the strident efforts to control that which is not controllable – the rejection and boycotting – they are horrified.

And that is perhaps the greatest tragedy and the furthering of the Geulah.  We need to walk in the footsteps of Avrohom Avinu – not reject his mehalech. 

The author can be reached at [email protected]

NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was acquitted Thursday of criminal charges related to his arrest last September at a protest inside a building that houses one of New York City’s immigration courts.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry J. Ricardo delivered his verdict exonerating Lander a day after presiding over a one-day trial in Manhattan.

“I find the defendant not guilty,” Ricardo said after reading a lengthy analysis of the evidence and Lander’s testimony. Lander jubilantly hugged his lawyers immediately after the proceeding ended.

Outside the courthouse, Lander, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in the Democratic primary, said he was moved by the judge’s “thoughtful, thorough review and ruling in this case.”

“I feel genuinely moved by the rule of law,” Lander said, calling it a blessing to live in a country where someone can successfully fight the government when wrongfully charged.

He said he wishes that immigrants facing possible deportation from the U.S. could receive the same access to quality lawyers and the courts that he enjoyed.

Federal prosecutors unsuccessfully argued that Lander obstructed an elevator on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza as he sat in front of it for 20 to 25 minutes on Sept. 18, 2025. Ricardo said the government had failed to show that Lander intended to obstruct the elevators or was uncooperative as members of federal law enforcement gave protesters conflicting instructions.

A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment Thursday.

A day earlier, Lander had testified in his own defense that he had no intention of disrupting elevator traffic in the lower Manhattan building that houses 40 federal agencies, including the FBI.

Lander, formerly the city’s comptroller and an ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, testified that nobody told him to step away from the elevator or said he was obstructing it before his arrest.

Weeks after his arrest, he rejected a deal that would have dismissed the misdemeanor obstruction charge in six months.

The arrest was not the first time that Lander, who ran for mayor last year, has faced jeopardy during an immigration protest. He was arrested in June 2025 at an immigration court in Manhattan after he linked arms with a person authorities were trying to detain, but charges were never filed.

MILAN (AP) — Foreign workers building a sprawling $350 million American Consulate in Milan were paid less than $2 an hour after being promised fair wages, according to Associated Press interviews with five former employees and a review of their employment letters and pay stubs.

Italian prosecutors are investigating Montgomery, Alabama-based Caddell Construction, a major builder of U.S. diplomatic missions. Two of its managers in Italy were arrested this month on suspicion of labor exploitation, one while boarding a flight to leave the country and another planning to flee, prosecutors said.

The investigation is led by prosecutor Paolo Storari, who also has spearheaded probes into sweatshops supplying luxury brands. So far only Caddell has been named as a target, not any of its subcontractors.

The consulate probe was launched about six months ago and involves some 70 workers, mostly from India. Prosecutors allege Caddell illegally deducted room and board from wages and forced them to work 10-hour days, six days a week. Some were paid as little as 500 euros (less than $580) monthly after room and board were deducted, prosecutors said.

Caddell and the U.S. State Department said they are investigating the allegations and cooperating with Italian authorities.

The consulate project is part of a construction boom in Milan over the past two decades that has modernized the skyline and raised the international profile of Italy’s fashion and finance capital.

Workers describe unpaid wages and threats
The AP spoke to four workers from Kenya and one from India at a trade union center where officials were organizing assistance, including legal help and housing. The workers provided documentation and spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to protect the ongoing investigation.

The Kenyan workers said they had been hired by Caddell after working on a multi-million-dollar extension of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.

Two showed employment letters on Caddell stationery signed by a company representative promising annual salaries topping 25,000 euros (nearly $29,000).

They said they were not paid anything close to that and were threatened by human resources personnel at the job site after they questioned management.

“When you go to the office to ask any question, you are being told, ‘Either you work or you will be returned to your country. That’s the amount you are supposed to be paid,’’’ one Kenyan electrician said. He added that he was paid just 800 euros ($925) a month after being promised 2,300 euros ($2,660).

Another Kenyan electrician said he was threatened with defamation after presenting an AI summary of Italian labor law and was told the 25,000 euros in the employment letter was “for visa purposes,” not a promise of payment.

US government and Caddell say they are investigating
The State Department said it is investigating the allegations made by prosecutors and that U.S. law enforcement is working with Italian authorities.

“The U.S. government does not tolerate labor exploitation,” the department said in a statement.

Caddell said it was “fully cooperating” with Italian authorities and conducting its own “comprehensive inquiry into this matter to ensure all our global subcontractors and consultancies are in compliance with all labor standards and legal requirements.”

“Caddell is committed (to) treating and paying workers fairly. We will continue to work with authorities in good faith to ensure the welfare of those who work on this important project,” the company said in a statement.

More than a decade ago, Caddell paid millions to the U.S. government to settle allegations it made false claims to gain access to government incentives. Caddell did not reply to a request for comment on that case.

Fired workers seek help
All five of the workers who spoke to the AP, ranging in age from their late 20s to early 50s, said they were fired without cause this year. One of them said he returned from visiting family in Kenya to find that he no longer had a job or place to stay.

Four of the workers were trained electricians, including the Indian worker whose resume showed he had more than a decade of experience working for other companies in Persian Gulf countries.

The Indian worker said he was promised a monthly salary of 2,500 euros (nearly $3,000). Instead, he had a pay slip showing his actual pay amounted to around 500 euros (less than $580) per month. It listed an hourly wage of 1.55 euros ($1.80).

The Kenyans said they reached out to authorities after learning of the investigation.

“I believe in justice,” one said. “Also the workers there should not be afraid. They should come and speak up.”

Two said they are currently sleeping in parks, while one is staying with a friend. One said he had been offered a job at a Caddell site in another country but declined after his treatment in Milan.

Caddell is a major diplomatic contractor
Caddell became a leader in building U.S. diplomatic missions when the State Department launched a major security upgrade after the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya killed more than 250 people.

“Very few contractors can meet the strict requirements to even bid on secure work necessary for diplomatic facility projects,” Caddell said on its website marking its 40th anniversary in 2023. At that point, the firm counted 39 projects in its embassy portfolio valued at $7.4 billion. It has added four projects since then.

The Milan consulate campus is being built on a 10-acre (40,000-square meter) site at a former shooting range. The current U.S. Consulate is in a high-rise building designed by acclaimed Italian architect Gio Ponti.

Plans for the campus called for about 500 “locally employed workers,” according to the U.S. State Department. The project includes restoration of a century-old building, along with a five-story consulate building, restored gardens, a reflecting pool and a large outdoor gathering area.

Work is continuing under court supervision. Workers no longer have their room and board deducted. They are limited to 45 hours and guaranteed two days off a week.

Pay records appear to bolster allegations
The pay stubs presented by the workers listed apparent charges of 510 euros (around $590) a month for housing and more than 300 euros (around $350) monthly for food. But those deductions only account for a portion of the difference between the promised wages and actual pay.

Unions intend to seek damages for the workers to recover at least what they earned “through hard work and commitment,” said Laura Malguzzi, a labor representative at the Fillea Cgil union federation representing construction workers.

Malguzzi said she was surprised that the pay stubs presented by the workers appeared to document the alleged exploitation. Union experts are still studying the documents, which do not conform to Italian standards, and could not verify their origins.

“They probably had in their minds the absolute certainty that they were untouchable,’’ Malguzzi said.

The Kenyan workers said they begrudgingly accepted a $200 monthly salary in Nairobi, where unemployment is rampant. But they expected better from a U.S. company operating in Europe.

“They can just hire you, and you just go running,” one worker said of the company. “Because you are poor you have nothing. And you have nothing you can do.”

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli leaders on Thursday welcomed members of the Bnei Menashe community who recently immigrated from northeastern India, as the government reaffirmed plans to facilitate the immigration of thousands more over the coming years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer and Nof Hagalil Mayor Ronen Plot at an event recognizing new arrivals from the Bnei Menashe community, a group that traces its ancestry to one of the ancient tribes of Israel.

ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו:
״לאחר שנים של חיזוק הקשר בין ישראל להודו, הודות לקשר החם עם ידידי נרנדרה מודי, אני נרגש לראות את בני המנשה שבים הביתה. אנחנו הולכים להעלות את כל הקהילה בארבע השנים הבאות. אתם חלק בלתי נפרד מעם ישראל, וישראל היא ביתכם. אני מאחל לכם קליטה מוצלחת והצלחה… pic.twitter.com/ruZD8My6KJ

— ראש ממשלת ישראל (@IsraeliPM_heb) June 11, 2026

Israeli officials said roughly 600 members of the community have arrived in Israel since the start of the year, with hundreds more expected before year’s end. The government has approved a plan aimed at bringing the remaining members of the community, estimated at about 6,000 people, to Israel over the next several years.

The event followed the opening of a new absorption center in Nof Hagalil designed to assist newcomers with Hebrew language studies, employment, education and integration into Israeli society.

Netanyahu said the government intends to continue the immigration effort and described the Bnei Menashe as an integral part of the Jewish people. He welcomed the new immigrants and expressed support for their successful integration into life in Israel.

The Bnei Menashe community originates from India’s northeastern states and has maintained traditions that supporters say reflect ancient Jewish heritage. Thousands have immigrated to Israel over the past two decades.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — The Trump administration blocked plans for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to meet privately with Colombian President Gustavo Petro during the Colombian leader’s visit to New York this week, according to a report by the New York Post.

The meeting, which reportedly was intended to focus on democracy in the Americas, was canceled after U.S. officials raised objections to the engagement, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.

According to the report, State Department officials viewed the proposed meeting as inconsistent with restrictions placed on Petro’s U.S. visa following comments in which he urged American troops to disobey President Donald Trump.

“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” a State Department official told The Washington Post, according to the New York Post report.

Petro, a left-wing leader and frequent critic of the Trump administration, was in New York for United Nations-related events. The New York Post reported that Colombian officials later informed Mamdani’s office that Petro’s shortened itinerary would no longer allow for a meeting.

Neither the White House nor New York City Hall immediately commented on the report.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A Toronto police officer was shot and killed Thursday by a suspect in the investigation into a shooting attack that damaged the facade of the U.S. Consulate in the Canadian city in March, police said.

One suspect was in custody at a hospital while officers searched for a second suspect, who was identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi and was considered armed and dangerous, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a news conference. “I urge you to turn yourself in,” Demkiw said.

Police officer Marc Pinizotto, who was 43 and had been on the force for 18 years, died of his wounds in a hospital, Demkiw said.

Canadian police had said in March that two individuals emerged from a white Honda RV SUV at around 4:30 a.m. and fired multiple shots at the consulate building before fleeing. The shooting damaged the outside of the building but did not cause any injuries.

The consulate attack in March followed heightened tensions over the war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran in late February, and it had followed gunfire attacks on two Toronto-area synagogues the previous weekend.

The investigation that led to Pinizotto’s death “concerned a number of shootings, including the shooting at the United States consulate on University Avenue. There were several search warrants executed this morning,” Demkiw said.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said she’s known the mother of the deceased officer for the 20 years.

“Their grief is shared across this city,” Chow said.

A Toronto police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty this morning.

My deepest condolences to the officer’s family, loved ones, colleagues, and all of the Toronto Police Service.

Today my thoughts are with them, and with all officers in uniform who selflessly put… https://t.co/VYU5GoJzqb

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) June 11, 2026

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weighing significant changes to the candidate selection process in the ruling Likud as the country moves closer to national elections, according to a report by Israeli journalist Moran Azulay.

Discussions within Netanyahu’s circle have included the possibility of replacing party primaries with a selection committee. However, party officials cited in the report said the primary objective is to overhaul and refresh the party’s electoral slate rather than eliminate the democratic process altogether.

According to the report, Netanyahu wants a list composed not only of candidates capable of winning internal party primaries but also of figures who can attract broader public support and appeal to younger voters.

The effort could include expanding the number of reserved positions on the party list for younger candidates and other public figures. Among the names reportedly being considered are Almog Cohen, who has gained popularity among younger voters, and activist Hadar Muchtar, should she become eligible.

The prospect of granting Netanyahu between eight and 10 reserved slots in realistic positions on the party list has reportedly sparked resistance among incumbent lawmakers, who fear it could jeopardize their chances of returning to the Knesset.

A Likud lawmaker quoted anonymously in the report said discussion of a selection committee may be intended to make the expanded use of reserved slots more acceptable to party members.

“Primaries are an inseparable part of the democratic process in Likud and what distinguishes the party from others where such a process does not exist,” the lawmaker said. “Canceling the primaries is a move that cannot happen.”

The issue is expected to be addressed in the coming weeks as party leaders, including Haim Katz, await a final decision from Netanyahu regarding the structure of the party’s candidate-selection process.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — Jacob Reses, an Orthodox Jewish adviser who serves as chief of staff to Vice President JD Vance, plans to leave the administration at the end of the summer after serving in one of the most influential positions in the White House, NBC News reports.

Reses, who has served as Vance’s chief of staff since January 2025, reportedly informed the vice president of his plans several months ago after he and his wife learned they were expecting their first child.

A longtime adviser and close confidant to Vance, Reses played a key role in the vice president’s successful 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio and remained a trusted member of his inner circle throughout his rise to national office. Before joining Vance’s team, Reses worked for Heritage Action and on the staff of Josh Hawley.

One of the highest-ranking Orthodox Jews in the Trump administration, Reses has maintained strong ties to the Jewish community while helping shape policy and political strategy at the highest levels of government.

In a statement, Vance praised Reses as both a trusted adviser and friend.

“Jacob’s been by my side for my whole career in public life,” Vance said. “I could not have asked for a more loyal and discerning adviser and friend as my chief of staff.”

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said Reses had served with distinction, handling matters ranging from diplomacy and national security to the daily operations of the vice president’s office.

Reses also earned praise from senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff highlighted Reses’ role in diplomatic efforts abroad, including trips involving Israel and other key international matters.

Although his future plans have not been announced, people close to the vice president’s office say Reses is expected to remain active in public policy and Republican politics and could work with Vance again in the future.

His departure marks one of the most significant personnel changes in the vice president’s office since the Trump-Vance administration took office.

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Comedian Jerry Seinfeld needed just three words to turn a routine postgame encounter into a viral social media moment Wednesday night outside Madison Square Garden.

Fresh off watching the New York Knicks complete a historic comeback in the NBA Finals, Seinfeld was approached by a streamer who asked him to say, “Free Palestine.”

Rather than engage in a lengthy debate, the comedian smiled and replied, “It doesn’t exist,” before continuing on his way.

The brief response quickly spread across social media, where supporters applauded the trademark Seinfeld-style deadpan delivery, while critics voiced their displeasure. Within hours, the clip had generated thousands of comments and reignited debate over the comedian’s outspoken support for Israel.

For Seinfeld, however, the exchange lasted only seconds. For the internet, it became another all-night argument.

The moment came as Knicks fans poured into the streets celebrating one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history. While New York was buzzing about basketball, Seinfeld’s three-word response managed to steal a share of the spotlight — and leave plenty of people arguing long after the final buzzer.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Rabbi Dov Landau, the leader of the Lithuanian charedi community in Israel, delivered the keynote address at the Keren Olam Hatorah fundraising event in Chicago, Illinois, and described the state of haredi yeshiva students in Israel as a “trouble” which requires international mobilization.

Rabbi Landau claimed that “yeshiva and kollel (study halls for married men) students are persecuted by the authorities and the courts in Israel for no wrongdoing on their part,” and described a reality where thousands of haredim “cannot live like regular human beings are supposed to live” due to the threat of arrest and extensive economic restrictions.

According to the rabbi, many of the married students are having trouble paying to educate their children, and they even “don’t have bread for their children’s mouths.”

קליפ מסכם מהרגעים הנבחרים במעמד “קיום התורה” בעיר שיקגו, המעמד המרכזי של קרן עולם התורה, בהשתתפות גדולי ישראל שליט”א pic.twitter.com/E2dxPQcZI4

— (((IsraelMatzav))) (@IsraelMatzav) June 11, 2026

The rabbi stressed the importance of Keren Olam Hatorah as a central line of defense: “If it hadn’t been founded by generous people here in the United States, G-d forbid, yeshivas and kollels would be on the brink of closing.”

He called for widespread donations, claiming that supporting Torah scholars “brings blessings” to the donors themselves.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey unexpectedly resigned on Thursday, saying the government isn’t willing to spend enough on the military at a time of “rising threats.”

The resignation is another blow to embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is already facing demands from Labour colleagues to step down.

Healey told Starmer in a letter that the government’s Defense Investment Plan falls “well short of what is required at this dangerous time.”

Publication of the plan has been delayed amid reports of disagreement between the defense ministry and the Treasury.

Starmer has pledged to boost U.K. defense spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027 and 3% by 2034. But many in the military say that isn’t fast enough.

“You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats,” Healey wrote in his resignation letter.

He said that the spending plan put forward by the Treasury would see defense spending rise to just 2.68% in 2030 after hitting 2.6% next year.

Healey said that isn’t enough with growing demands on defense and British military commitments, citing the Iran war, Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine and threats from Moscow.

“I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation,” he said.

Healey has been U.K. defense secretary since the Labour Party government was elected in July 2024, and he’s regarded as a capable and serious minister.

He has played a key role in bolstering international support for Ukraine and assembling a multinational coalition to help guarantee security if a ceasefire is reached. Healey also has helped spearhead a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends.

The United Kingdom and other NATO member nations have faced pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to increase military spending. Trump has long questioned the value of the military alliance and complained that the United States provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.

The U.K. military is also seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which fully invaded its neighbor Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, informed of Healey’s resignation by The Associated Press during a news conference in Brussels, said that Healey is someone “I respect very much.”

“What we are seeing all over the alliance is countries increasing their defense investments, and of course it is not easy, because in the end there is always a trade-off with other expenses, which are also important,” Rutte said.

Healey’s resignation is likely to further stoke talk that Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered. Already bruised by a series of missteps since Labour returned to power less than two years ago, Starmer has faced calls within his party’s ranks to stand down.

He appears to have been unable to bridge the gap between Healey’s department and Treasury chief Rachel Reeves over defense spending.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership, if he returns to Parliament in a June 18 special election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The opening of a Canadian-U.S. bridge across the Detroit River that President Donald Trump previously threatened to block has been delayed due to “outstanding issues.”

In a statement released Thursday ahead of a Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority says “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.”

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan and was expected to open to traffic later this month.

The bridge’s opening had remained in question for months after Trump, a Republican, in February demanded that Canada turn over at least half the ownership of the bridge to the U.S. federal government and agree to other unspecified demands in one of his many salvos over cross-border trade issues.

Invitations for the bridge’s opening went out this week following a conversation between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“This project is a powerful example of bipartisan and international cooperation, and the governor looks forward to attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony when it happens,” a statement from Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy said.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — An Israeli researcher who specializes in locating heirs to unclaimed properties says he declined to pursue a case that would have earned him roughly 300,000 shekels ($85,000) after discovering that most of the inheritance would ultimately benefit organizations engaged in missionary activity targeting Jews.

Michael Strud, who works to identify legal heirs to forgotten or unclaimed assets, also decided to make his story public, saying he hoped it would serve as an example for others who may face similar ethical dilemmas where financial gain conflicts with deeply held values.

Strud said he spent considerable time tracing the inheritance chain of a property whose ownership could be clearly documented. Under his business model, he receives a commission only after heirs successfully obtain the assets to which they are entitled.

According to Strud, the case initially appeared straightforward and likely to result in a substantial commission. However, during his research he became concerned after discovering that an individual involved in the inheritance process had connections to missionary activity.

Strud said he continued investigating to determine the ultimate beneficiaries of the estate. As he traced a series of wills and inheritances, he concluded that the majority of the assets would eventually be distributed to several organizations that he believed were linked to messianic or missionary groups seeking to encourage Jews to convert to Christianity.

Seeking confirmation, Strud contacted Yad L’Achim, an Israeli organization known for its efforts to combat missionary activity. The group reviewed the organizations named in the inheritance documents and provided information that, according to Strud, confirmed their involvement in religious outreach and conversion efforts.

After receiving the findings, Strud said he decided to abandon the case despite the anticipated commission of approximately 300,000 shekels.

Rather than simply walk away, he said he wanted the public to know why he made the decision.

“I decided to publicize the story because I felt it carried an important lesson,” Strud said. “People can find themselves facing a significant financial opportunity and have to decide whether it aligns with their principles.”

“I am part of the Jewish people, and I will not assist in strengthening organizations whose activities are directed at drawing Jews away from their faith,” he added.

Representatives of Yad L’Achim confirmed the details of the case and praised Strud for forgoing the potential financial gain.

The case highlights the ethical and religious considerations that can arise in inheritance and asset-recovery work, particularly when beneficiaries include organizations whose missions conflict with the personal beliefs of those involved in the process.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices climbed last month at the fastest pace since November 2022, fueled by a surge in energy prices.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — jumped 6.5% from May 2025. It also rose 1.1% from April, same as it did the previous month.

Inflationary pressures, intensified by the energy shock caused by the Iran war, are frustrating Americans five months before midterm elections that will determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republicans keep full control of Congress.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.4% from April and 4.9% from May 2025.

The wholesale inflation numbers came out a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier, most in three years. Gasoline prices were up nearly 41% from May 2025. Airfares were up almost 27%.

Inflation is running well ahead of the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged as its meeting next week. But financial markets expect the Fed could raise rates by the end of the year in an effort to curb price increases.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for jobless aid rose modestly last week, but remain at a historically low level despite economic headwinds brought on by the war in Iran.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment aid for the week ending June 6 rose by 4,000 to 229,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most since early February, before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran, but still considered a healthy level. It’s also more than the 216,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite concerns that the conflict in the Middle East could further squeeze a flagging labor market, hiring has picked up in recent months following a miserable 2025 that saw fewer than 200,000 job gains. For comparison, about 1.5 million jobs were added in 2024.

U.S. employers delivered a surprising 172,000 new jobs in May and the economy is averaging 188,000 job gains in the three months since the Iran war began in late February. That’s the best three months of hiring since early 2024. The unemployment rate remains historically low at 4.3%.

Job openings also rose in April as employers posted 7.6 million vacancies, up from 6.9 million in March and the most since May 2024.

The government reported Wednesday that rising gas prices — triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s southern border — pushed U.S. consumer inflation in May to 4.2%, its highest level in three years. Despite recent declines, prices for oil and gas remain elevated, which can squeeze consumers’ budgets and make businesses think twice about hiring.

With inflation well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, most analysts expect officials at the U.S. central bank to stand pat on its benchmark interest rate when they meet next week. That meeting will be the first with new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who replaces Jerome Powell after his eight-year run as the U.S. central bank’s leader.

Lower interest rates can boost the economy and hiring, but also tend to stoke inflation, leading a number of Fed policymakers to say they are actually willing to consider an interest rate hike this year. That could potentially help bring inflation down, but higher borrowing costs generally make businesses more reluctant to hire.

Optimism over artificial intelligence has also injected a degree of uncertainty about the job market due to the investment required to develop it and because the powerful technology could alter or even replace some jobs.

Among the companies that have cut jobs recently are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks and Walmart.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 4,250 to 219,000.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending May 30 jumped by 24,000 to 1.8 million, slightly more than analysts predicted.

(AP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday said the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” threatening in a social media post to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the key Kharg Island, in the “not too distant future.”

The U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.

It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Identical twin brothers from Jerusalem have experienced an extraordinary family coincidence for the second time in two years after their wives gave birth on the same day at the same hospital, according to a report by Israeli outlet N12.

Moshe and Yosef Mizrahi arrived at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center over Shabbat with their pregnant wives, Shiri and Esther. By the end of the day, both couples had welcomed baby boys.

The event was especially remarkable because the same thing happened two years ago, when the brothers’ wives gave birth to daughters on the very same day at the same hospital.

Bat Ami Yisrael, director of the Mother and Newborn Division at Shaare Zedek, said hospital staff were amazed when they learned of the family’s history. Hospital policy generally avoids placing mothers with the same surname in the same room to prevent identification mix-ups between mothers and newborns. After hearing the family’s story and learning how satisfied they had been with their previous experience, staff made an exception and allowed the sisters-in-law to share a room.

Medical personnel described the family as warm, cheerful and close-knit. The mothers themselves reportedly found it hard to believe the unusual coincidence had occurred again.

One nurse recalled briefly thinking she was seeing double when she encountered what appeared to be the same father twice, only to discover she was speaking with identical twin brothers. The brothers’ good-natured sense of humor quickly became a source of amusement for staff.

The latest double birth was not planned. Moshe said his wife, Shiri, was not due for another month and delivered prematurely. Their son weighed approximately 2 kilograms, or 4.4 pounds, at birth and is reportedly doing well at home.

According to the N12 report, the earlier same-day births were also entirely unplanned. At that time, one wife delivered later than expected while the other gave birth on schedule, resulting in both daughters being born on the same day.

For the Mizrahi family, a coincidence that would seem nearly impossible has now happened twice, creating a unique family story that has captured attention across Israel.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Channel 14’s  documentary “Re-Education Corps” (“Heil Chinuch Mechadash”) presents what its creators describe as a long-term process that has fundamentally changed the Israel Defense Forces’ educational system and the way generations of soldiers and commanders are taught to understand war, morality, nationalism, and the role of the military in the State of Israel.

The investigation examines changes that began in the 1990s, a period it describes as a turning point in the IDF’s value system. At the center of the film are the development of the IDF’s ethical code and the drafting of the “Spirit of the IDF” document, which over the years became fundamental texts in military education.

According to the investigation, what began as an effort to formulate an ethical code for the military later expanded into a much broader process. Civilian institutes, organizations, and academics became involved in the IDF’s educational framework and turned into significant partners in shaping the content and messages conveyed to soldiers and commanders.

The film focuses, among other things, on the involvement of organizations such as the Shalom Hartman Institute, BINA, and others, including Professor Asa Kasher who wrote the IDF’s ethical code. Critics of the process argue that these groups promoted universalist and progressive concepts at the expense of traditional military values such as victory, decisive military outcomes, and national identity.

”ביקשו שננסח את ערך הניצחון כערך יסודי, אמרנו לא!”.
תכירו את פרופסור אבי שגיא,
חבר של אסא טרך.

ממנסחי רוח צה”ל ותבינו איך הרסו את צה”ל מבפנים. חלק 3 בתחקיר שלנו ‘חיל חינוך מחדש’ ששודר בערוץ 14,
צפו ושתפו pic.twitter.com/itEHzELdNe

— 😃 דּוּדּוּ 🍒 Dudy 🟢 (@JOnHuzC9jQW7u3C) June 10, 2026

Professor Sagi refused to mention victory in IDF values

This led to commanders being taught to respect all human life, even that of the enemy’s civilians, as the ultimate value. The commanders were even taught that it is fitting to endanger even their own soldiers to protect the lives of the enemy’s civilians. This became known in the IDF ethical code as “purity of arms”, a concept unique to the IDF among global militaries.

At the heart of the film is the question of whether this was a natural and necessary adaptation for a modern military operating in a complex reality, or a profound ideological transformation that fundamentally altered the character of the IDF and the fighting spirit on which generations of soldiers were raised.

“Re-Education Corps” joins a series of investigations and documentaries in recent years that have examined the IDF’s values and identity, as well as the public debate surrounding the influence of civilian and academic institutions on Israel’s defense establishment and military education.

The IDF Spokesperson’s responsed that “The institutes mentioned are among dozens of educational institutes that provide activities to the IDF under agreements with the Ministry of Defense.

Former Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz responsed that “The Spirit of the IDF without the value of victory does not fulfill the purpose and uniqueness of the IDF. I do not deal in gossip; the important thing is that the value of victory appears in the Spirit of the IDF. Thank you.”

Professor Kasher’s response:”You have serious problems understanding what I wrote on professional and ethical matters.”

BINA stated: “It is regrettable and outrageous that the investigations desk chose to request a response only one day before broadcast, without any prior contact or minimal fact-checking with the organization. This indicates a predetermined agenda and bias in the publication.

The claims presented to us are a complete misrepresentation with no basis in fact. BINA is a Zionist, non-profit educational organization that has worked for years to promote Jewish and Israeli identity and strengthen social resilience. The organization is not political and is not affiliated with any political party or camp. Its activities are based on Zionist values, Judaism, social responsibility, love of the Jewish people and the land of Israel, tolerance, and unity.

Among other things, BINA proudly operates a variety of educational programs, including pre-military academies and preparation programs for meaningful service in the IDF, as well as study programs, tours, and cultural activities that strengthen ties to Jewish tradition, Israeli heritage, and Israeli society.

We strongly reject attempts to attach foreign political agendas or goals of ‘indoctrinating the public’ to the organization. At a time when Israeli society needs connection and unity more than ever, some choose to attack and disrupt the work of organizations dedicated to serving the State of Israel and the IDF.

We are closely monitoring the content that will be broadcast. If false information, distorted facts, or defamatory material about the organization are published, we will pursue all available legal remedies.”

The IDF added that:

• The IDF uses a variety of educational materials to provide a values-based framework for training, professional qualification, and regular service.
• The content is formulated professionally and in a state-oriented manner, according to the needs of the IDF and the operational and current reality.
• Engagement with IDF values is one of the means by which the military fulfills its mission.
• The Education and Youth Corps runs programs led by commanders to strengthen fighting spirit and belief in the justice of the mission in light of IDF values.
• Discussions of IDF values are led by commanders, while civilian institutes assist with dialogue skills and educational tours. The institutes mentioned are among dozens that provide activities to the IDF under Ministry of Defense agreements.

The Hartman Institute stated: “The Hartman Institute is a Zionist institution that is proud of its work on behalf of a Jewish and democratic Israel, whose strength rests on both military and moral superiority.

The failure of the military and security establishment on October 7 was not the result of any restraint in the use of force, but rather a series of military, intelligence, and political failures that led to the largest massacre in Israel’s history. It appears that the channel associated with the government of failure is attempting to invent a false narrative to divert attention from its own major failures and from the need for a state commission of inquiry so that all lessons can be learned.”

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Following a bitter public struggle that was led by extremist liberal elements in the Ramat Aviv HaYeruka neighborhood together with the organization Hiddush, the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality has announced that it is reconsidering its original plan to build a mikveh in the neighborhood.

The mikveh was intended to provide a basic religious service for tens of thousands of women in northern Tel Aviv, religious, traditional, and secular women alike who observe Jewish tradition. However, it became the focal point of a social conflict led by a small group of residents, with the support of a city council member, who allegedly sought to prevent Jewish religious institutions from expanding in the public sphere.

In a letter to local residents, the municipality acknowledges the need of local women for the mikveh and says that the matter had been examined by various regulatory bodies, but added that due to “the site chosen arousing planning and environmental complexities, the municipality will hold an open discussion with local residents to examine other possible alternative locations in the neighborhood.”

At the same time as the decision to reconsider the mikveh location,  the municipality also issued an eviction order against a Chabad kollel operating in a local commercial center.

According to the order, if Torah study activities are not halted within 35 days, the rabbi operating the institution could face a fine of 250,000 shekels for what the municipality describes as unauthorized use of the property.

Hadas Rogolsky, the city council member who led much of the campaign reportedly praised these measures, arguing that they were necessary to preserve the neighborhood’s character and maintain what she described as its “secular-liberal nature” against groups seeking to change it.

The religious council of Tel Aviv–Jaffa strongly rejected the criticism and expressed deep disappointment with the decision.

Council representatives emphasized that building a mikveh is not religious coercion but rather the provision of a basic public service requested by women in the neighborhood, for whom ritual immersion is an important part of their lifestyle. They noted that a mikveh previously operated in the area before being demolished, and that the planned facility on Noah Street was intended merely to replace it and provide a nearby option for local residents.

Religious activists in the city stated:”A few politicians, in order to gather a few votes in elections, chose to take a sacred project of ritual purity and turn it into a source of hatred and social friction. It is truly shameful.”

They added: “Things for which our ancestors sacrificed themselves in Soviet Russia to establish underground mikvehs are today disturbing people in the heart of the Jewish state.”

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The U.S. military carried out strikes overnight (Wednesday–Thursday) against targets in Iraq and Iran. Explosions were reported at several locations in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz. Among the reported targets were a petrochemical facility in Asaluyeh and additional sites near Bandar Abbas, one of the most strategically important areas along Iran’s coastline.

At the same time, explosions were reported in other parts of southern Iran, including Minab and Sirik in Hormozgan Province. Some reports said explosions were also heard on Qeshm Island, while air defense systems were reportedly activated in western Tehran. Additional explosions were reported on Khargan Island in southern Iran.

In northern Iraq, explosions were reported in Erbil in the Kurdish region, suggesting a possible regional expansion of the conflict. Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported exchanges of fire at sea between U.S. and Iranian forces. Iranian media claimed that American warships were targeted with missiles and drones.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that American forces had begun additional self-defense operations against eight targets in Iran at approximately 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time. According to the military statement, the actions were carried out under orders from the Commander-in-Chief and were a response to Iran’s “unwarranted and continued aggression.”

President Donald Trump told Fox News that U.S. fighter jets had operated in Iranian airspace. He also said he had spoken directly with Iranian officials amid the latest developments. According to Trump, Iranian officials asked him to stop the attacks. He added that the strikes would end soon, though he suggested the U.S. might strike again if necessary. Trump emphasized that Israel was not involved in the latest attacks and said the operation was not directly connected to Israel.

Tensions between the United States and Iran continued to escalate for a second consecutive night. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier warned that the United States would strike key facilities in Iran and described the attacks as “strong, sharp, and clear.” He said the operation was intended to advance U.S. military interests and strengthen Washington’s diplomatic position.

According to Reuters, Iran’s military leadership warned that the armed forces would deliver a “crushing and decisive response” to any American aggression. Iranian officials stated that the country was on full alert and prepared for any scenario, and warned that any U.S. attack would result in further strikes against American interests in the region.

Against the backdrop of the escalating tensions, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a security warning to American citizens in Iraq, urging heightened vigilance and caution.

Iran’s Mehr News Agency also reported that air-defense systems were activated in Fars Province in southern Iran, reflecting increased military readiness amid fears of further attacks.

The latest developments indicate that the region is experiencing one of its most tense periods in recent months, with growing concern about a direct confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

At the same time, the New York Times reported that the chances of achieving a diplomatic breakthrough have diminished after the Qatari mediation delegation left Tehran on Wednesday evening without any progress being made in the negotiations.

TEL NOF AIRBASE (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces have established a new Israeli Air Force technician unit for ultra-Orthodox men, enabling them to serve in the military while maintaining their religious lifestyle.

The unit is housed in one of the 106th Squadron’s reinforced aircraft shelters at Tel Nof Airbase in central Israel. The squadron operates F-15 fighter jets.

Twenty male soldiers, 15 of them Haredi, recently completed their training and are now certified as “level A” technicians for the F-15, the military said.

In the past two years, the IDF has established the first two such IAF technician units for Haredi soldiers at Ramat David Airbase.

The initiative reflects ongoing efforts to integrate Haredi men into specialized military roles while accommodating their religious observances

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks made a record comeback from 29 points down and moved to the brink of their first championship since 1973 by beating the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 on Wednesday night.

OG Anunoby tipped in the miss of Jalen Brunson’s long 3-point attempt with 1.2 seconds remaining to complete the rally, giving the Knicks a 3-1 lead and three chances to win the championship.

It looked impossible early, when the Spurs rolled to a 27-point halftime lead. But Brunson helped bring the Knicks back with 36 points and Anunoby finished with 33.

Game 5 is Saturday night in San Antonio.

No team had come from more than 24 points down in a finals game, when Boston did it against the Lakers in 2008, since the NBA began keeping detailed play-by-play for all four quarters in 1997. The Spurs pushed their lead to 81-52 in the third quarter.

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NEW YORK (VINnews) — A large network of summer camps serving thousands of children, including many Jewish and Orthodox Jewish families, has filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on debt owed to investors in Israel.

Simad Holdings, controlled by brothers David and Michael Shabsels, sought Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey last week along with dozens of affiliated entities. The brothers also filed for personal bankruptcy protection. Court filings list liabilities ranging from $500 million to $1 billion.

The filing has sent shockwaves through the Jewish camping world because the Shabsels organization owns approximately 30 camps, including Camp Blue Star in North Carolina, Camp Lavi in Pennsylvania, Camp Achim in New York, SHMA Camps and several other overnight and day camps throughout the Northeast. Several of the camps cater primarily to Orthodox Jewish families and yeshiva communities and host thousands of campers each summer.

Despite the bankruptcy proceedings, camp officials have emphasized that summer operations will continue as planned. Representatives of several camps told media outlets that campers and parents should expect a normal summer season.

The financial crisis follows a $195 million bond offering in Israel completed late last year. The bonds were secured by a portfolio of camp properties and other assets. However, the company later disclosed that approximately $34 million had been transferred to entities controlled by the Shabsels brothers. When the funds were not returned, Simad defaulted on interest payments owed to bondholders.

According to reports by The Real Deal and eJewishPhilanthropy, the company subsequently came under scrutiny from Israeli regulators, who are examining potential securities law violations. Trading in the company’s bonds was suspended after their value plunged, and reports indicate Israeli authorities have launched an investigation into the company’s financial disclosures and transactions.

The brothers entered the camp business in 2006 and built one of the largest for-profit camping networks in the country. Unlike most Jewish camps, which operate as nonprofit organizations affiliated with Jewish denominations or community institutions, many of the camps owned by Simad are privately held for-profit enterprises.

Industry observers say the long-term future of some camps could depend on the outcome of the bankruptcy proceedings, particularly if creditors seek to sell camp properties as part of a restructuring plan. Under Chapter 11, however, operations can continue while the company reorganizes its finances and negotiates with creditors.

The bankruptcy filing comes at a time when demand for Jewish summer camp remains near record levels. Last summer, nearly 200,000 young people attended Jewish camps affiliated with the Foundation for Jewish Camp, underscoring the important role camp plays in Jewish education, identity and community building.

In addition to their camp holdings, the Shabsels brothers own office buildings, retail properties and other real estate assets. Reports indicate the organization controls roughly 80 properties nationwide.

The brothers have also been active in Jewish philanthropy and communal causes. David Shabsels has been listed among supporters of the Orthodox Union, while Michael Shabsels has served on the U.S. National Board of United Hatzalah. The family has hosted fundraising events benefiting Israeli and Jewish charitable organizations.

For now, camp directors insist preparations for the summer season are moving forward without interruption, even as the company faces one of the largest financial crises ever to hit the Jewish camping industry.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a government watchdog’s request for a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from forging ahead with a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.

But the judge ended a hearing by issuing a “fair warning” to President Donald Trump’s administration: “Don’t play possum with this court,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told a government attorney.

Leon ruled from the bench in favor of the administration, which argued that the watchdog’s lawsuit is moot because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress earlier this month that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he accepts Blanche’s representation for now.

The judge’s refusal to issue a temporary restraining order isn’t the final word on the fate of the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Leon said he will consider a separate request by the plaintiffs — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — for a preliminary injunction that would block payouts from the fund on a more permanent basis.

A different federal judge, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, already has temporarily blocked the fund’s operations. However, that order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is due to expire Friday unless she extends it after a hearing on the same day.

The administration created the fund last month to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department hasn’t formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria, so there has been no money paid out nor claims accepted.

The fund has generated a fierce bipartisan backlash. Even many of the Republican president’s allies are opposed to compensating rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. During a May 19 congressional hearing, Blanche wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police at the Capitol could be eligible for fund payouts.

Later, during a House hearing on June 2, Blanche said, “We are not moving forward with the fund, period.”

“Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.

“Correct,” Blanche answered.

Leon asked Justice Department attorney Andrew Block why Blanche doesn’t formally rescind his May 18 order establishing the fund.

“I don’t know the reason for that,” Block said.

Block said Blanche’s statements to Congress are sufficient to moot the watchdog’s claims. He also argued that the group doesn’t have the legal standing to bring them.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Nikhel Sus noted that Trump himself contradicted Blanche’s testimony. During an interview on June 3, a day after Blanche’s House testimony, Trump expressed support for continuing with the fund despite the Virginia judge’s ruling against it.

“On paper, the fund is still a legally operating entity,” Sus said. “Nothing has changed.”

A federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Trump’s attorneys to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until Friday to respond in writing to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the “victim of a fraud.”

In Virginia, attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The plaintiffs in the Virginia case include a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest.

(AP)- If you like the idea of owning a fun-to-drive car but can’t afford a new one, this summer is an ideal time to consider buying used. Right now, quite a few performance cars that might have been out of reach for you when new can be had for less than $25,000 on the used market.

Edmunds’ editors reviewed what’s available for under 25 grand and came up with five of their favorites. There is a car here for every kind of enthusiast, from a V8-powered coupe with tire-smoking torque to a four-door hatchback with room for your mountain bike.

2015-2018 BMW 2 Series
The BMW 2 Series is BMW’s smallest two-door coupe and convertible. A four-cylinder 2 Series is available, but the more powerful six-cylinder M235i and BMW M240i are what you want. They have quick acceleration, balanced handling and excellent long-distance comfort. Output ranges from 320 horsepower in the M235i to 335 ponies in the later 2017-2018 M240i. Driving a 2 Series offers a more upscale driving experience than the other cars on our list, even if its back seats are a bit small for a luxury-branded car.

Look for: The earlier M235i is easier to find under $25,000. Both it and the M240i come well-equipped with standard features, though BMW a few optional packages that could be worth seeking out. A 2 Series with the Technology package, for example, has a bigger center screen and a navigation system.

2008-2013 Chevrolet Corvette
The sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette, often called the C6, delivers absurd performance value. Powered by a beefy V8 producing up to 430 horsepower, these Corvettes remain shockingly fast even by modern standards. Rear-wheel drive, relatively low weight, strong braking performance, and excellent highway comfort put the C6 on this list. And they make it worth tolerating the C6’s low-rent interior.

Look for: Narrow your search to 2008-and-newer models, which get more power and an improved interior. Coupes are easier to find under $25,000 than convertibles or the later higher-performance Grand Sport trims. The V8 powering these cars is durable, but finding a Corvette with a maintenance record history is a good idea anyway.

2019-2021 Mazda Miata
The current Mazda MX-5 Miata remains a milestone for light, fun convertibles. It produces 181 horsepower, which doesn’t sound like much but is enough to amply motivate this lightweight two-seater. With precise steering, predictable handling, and an available slick-shifting six-speed manual transmission, this Miata is a textbook topless sports car. Just be aware that the Miata’s cabin will feel cramped for tall drivers.

Look for: You could buy an older Miata of this generation, but the 2019 and newer models have 26 horsepower than earlier models plus a telescoping steering wheel to help improve the driving position. Our favorite Miata trim is the Club that adds numerous mechanical enhancements to make the Miata even more fun to toss around tight curves.

2017-2020 Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86
The Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 are two small coupes co-designed by Subaru and Toyota. They provide a connected and mechanical feel for the driver, which is a rare attribute these days. After the 2017 update, its four-cylinder engine produces up to 205 horsepower, which is enough to be quick without making it so easy to build speed that you’re always getting in trouble. They also have a back seat, though it’s quite small and really only useful for storing cargo.

Look for: Sticking to 2017-and-newer versions means you’ll get meaningful improvements to gearing and suspension tuning. The Toyota 86 is often slightly cheaper than the BRZ, making it a value play. BRZ models with the Performance package are especially desirable thanks to their upgraded brakes and suspension.

2015-2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI
The Volkswagen Golf GTI of this era is the definition of an everyday performance car. It blends four-door hatchback practicality with genuinely entertaining handling. Its turbocharged four-cylinder produces up to 228 horsepower, depending on model year and equipment packages. It’s paired with either a six-speed manual or a six- or seven-speed automatic, also depending on the year.

Look for: Try to get a GTI in the SE or Autobahn trim. These trims have the most standard features such as a premium sound system, upgraded brakes, and a limited-slip differential that helps maximize available traction during acceleration.

Edmunds says
A realistic budget now opens the door to a wide range of performance. Do your homework by avoiding cars with obvious deferred maintenance, neglect or heavy modifications. Still, for under $25,000, buyers can choose between some of the most fun and focused performance cars of the last two decades. It’s a good time to be a driving enthusiast.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) – In a statement highlighting the surge in antisemitic incidents across the United States, advocates are calling on Congress to swiftly pass the Jewish American Security Act, arguing it is essential to protect Jewish communities facing threats, violence and intimidation.

The bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Senate on May 19 by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK).

“Jewish kids are being threatened. Synagogues are being bombed. And across the country, Jewish Americans are hiding their Star of David so they don’t get accosted,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, this bill is necessary and I urge Congress to pass it as soon as possible.”

The legislation aims to bolster security measures for Jewish institutions and individuals amid a documented rise in antisemitic attacks, including threats to schools and places of worship. Proponents say the bill addresses a reality where Jewish Americans feel compelled to conceal religious symbols to avoid harassment.

In a perfect world, such legislation would not be needed, the statement noted, but current conditions demand action.

Key provisions of the bill include:

Requiring the Department of Education to develop and implement a comprehensive framework under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to combat antisemitism on college campuses, including the establishment of a dedicated antisemitism coordinator, improved enforcement and processing of discrimination complaints, annual trainings, and the creation of an online clearinghouse for school safety and civil rights best practices.

Authorizing a historic $1 billion investment in the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to provide security resources for at-risk houses of worship, synagogues, Jewish community centers, day schools and other nonprofit institutions.

Requiring large social media platforms (with at least 50 million active monthly U.S. users) to publish biannual transparency reports to the Federal Trade Commission detailing their moderation practices and handling of antisemitic content, along with an annual congressional report analyzing links between online antisemitism and real-world violence.

VINnews has reported extensively on the increase in antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The FBI and organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have documented sharp spikes in harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish communities nationwide.

A companion bill has been introduced in the House. Congressional leaders have not yet announced a timeline for consideration of the legislation. Supporters continue to press for bipartisan backing to ensure enhanced protections for Jewish Americans.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said Wednesday it has begun another round of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said more were coming. The escalating attacks threatened to derail efforts to end the war, with Trump warning that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations.

U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that the military is striking “multiple targets in Iran” and that it’s being done “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”

The second day of American strikes came hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan — all of which host U.S. troops — came under Iranian fire. It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month ceasefire. They also came a day after the U.S. struck Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.

Trump urged Iran to sign a deal to end the war.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. military said it had fired on an oil tanker attempting to transport oil from Iran in violation of its blockade on Iranian ports.

Trump’s comments underlined his whipsaw approach to the war; earlier this week he suggested a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.

Iran has proved resilient despite weeks of heavy bombing. It is betting that its ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial passageway for oil and natural gas — gives it a strong bargaining chip.

Iran’s United Nations envoy said the U.S. should refrain from threats of force if it wants a deal.

“Iran has never negotiated under threats and pressure and will never submit to pressure or question,” Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Still, both countries seem to be looking for a way to end the conflict — if they can manage to sell it as a win at home.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing goals that make compromise harder: the collapse of Iran’s theocratic government, the elimination of its nuclear program, and the destruction of the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. On Monday, Iran and Israel targeted each other.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While millions of soccer fans cheer or groan over World Cup matches spanning North America, health officials will be on high alert for germs.

A heat wave may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. With a nearly six-week stretch of packed stadiums, bars and tourist sites in 16 cities, officials are on the lookout for a long list of infections, from the stomach bug norovirus to mosquito-borne dengue fever.

“This is truly a marathon,” said Palak Raval-Nelson, Philadelphia’s health commissioner.

The mass gatherings come at a tense moment for budget-strapped health agencies in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hit hard by Trump administration staffing cuts, already was grappling with a growing Ebola outbreak in central Africa and a cruise ship hantavirus outbreak. While CDC officials have advised state and local health departments behind the scenes, its expected World Cup disease surveillance dashboard still was “in final development” days before games began, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Our public health professionals are pretty stretched,” said global health specialist Rebecca Katz of Georgetown University, who is leading an unusual new hub to help.

At the Health Security Operations Center, a joint effort between Georgetown and MedStar Health, workers are analyzing data from around the country so they can alert health authorities, even emergency rooms, to any early signs of trouble. The center is issuing daily “situation reports” about disease trends around World Cup host cities and team base camps to several hundred local and federal public health groups, emergency management and hospital officials and others who’ve signed up.

“It’s important that we don’t become alarmist,” said MedStar emergency medicine specialist Dr. Shane Kappler. “We’re trying to be the insurance policy.”

Measles is a top concern for potential World Cup spread
Already more than 2,000 people in the U.S. have come down with measles this year, nearly as many as during all of last year, according to the CDC. Patients can spread measles before the rash appears and they realize they’re sick. Not too long ago, the U.S. seldom saw measles except from international travel by unvaccinated people.

Now with frequent U.S. outbreaks, “actually a lot of our international partners are worried about measles being exported to them after the games,” said Georgetown’s Katz.

Measles is spreading in Canada, too, and has exceeded 11,000 cases in Mexico, according to PAHO. It’s urging soccer fans to be sure they’re vaccinated, with a health campaign saying a single measles patient can spread the virus to up to 18 unprotected people.

Is Ebola a concern at the World Cup?
Brown University’s Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived Ebola while working in the West Africa outbreak over a decade ago, said he’s repeatedly asked about the risk of Ebola during the World Cup — but “for me, Ebola is not the No. 1 or No. 2 or even No. 3 threat.”

“I am concerned about importation of measles, I am much more concerned about the importation of other infectious threats that may not seem as scary to us as Ebola,” Spencer said.

Many health experts agree that the risk of Ebola spreading in the U.S. is very low. That’s partly because of government travel screenings and restrictions on people recently in outbreak-affected areas. Moreover, Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids from someone showing symptoms, not through the air like measles or respiratory viruses.

“One fortunate thing about this virus is you’re most contagious when you’re really quite ill. It’s not like COVID, where you could be sitting next to someone who doesn’t even know they’re infected and perhaps contract the virus,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown’s Pandemic Center.

How to spot brewing diseases
There’s precedent for germs invading major sporting events. Canadian scientists linked a community measles outbreak to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and clusters of norovirus had to be contained during the Olympics this year in Milan and in 2018 in South Korea.

One way to detect signs of trouble: People with certain viral or bacterial infections shed genetic material that sophisticated testing of wastewater can spot. For example, measles can appear in wastewater days before an emergency room sees its first patients.

This week’s surveillance reports from Katz’s center note that wastewater testing recently found diarrhea-causing rotavirus, hepatitis A and norovirus in some parts of the U.S., something to watch as soccer crowds arrive.

In Dallas, officials ramped up wastewater screening including at the international airport, casting a wide net rather than looking for specific illnesses, said Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

His team also is enhancing the usual mosquito testing, checking not just for West Nile virus that regularly spreads in the U.S. but for viruses more common in other countries like dengue and chikungunya.

Public health officials have been preparing for months, said Philadelphia’s Raval-Nelson, including with mock emergency drills and communications with counterparts around the country.

“I don’t want to send a message that there’s one key thing,” she said. “We have the frameworks in place to carry out what we need to.”

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Community members are being warned about a fraudulent website that appears designed to impersonate the donation platform of Adirei HaTorah, potentially diverting charitable contributions intended for the organization.

The legitimate organization operates through the website “AdireiHaTorah.com.” However, a nearly identical domain, “AdireiTorah.com,” was recently registered, omitting the word “ha” from the name in what cybersecurity experts commonly refer to as “typosquatting” — the practice of registering deceptively similar web addresses to mislead users.

According to publicly available domain registration records, the authentic Adirei HaTorah website has been active since 2022, while the look-alike domain was created only this week.

The similarity between the two web addresses could easily confuse donors, particularly those accessing links from text messages, emails or social media posts, or individuals with impaired vision.

Further examination shows the two websites are operated through entirely different technical infrastructures and registrars, indicating they are not affiliated.

David Perkowski, owner of Duvys Media, which operates thousands of Jewish websites, told VINnews that his name was improperly placed on the fraudulent site in a manner that appeared intended to suggest he designed or endorsed it.

“It is 100% fraud,” Perkowski said. “I have absolutely nothing to do with this site.”

Perkowski said he is deeply troubled by the apparent website that appears to be targeting members of the Jewish community.

Community members are urged to verify website addresses carefully before making donations, avoid contributing through unsolicited links, and contact organizations directly if there is any uncertainty regarding an official donation page.

The incident serves as a reminder that even a single missing letter in a web address can redirect charitable donations away from their intended destination.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday showed how he had learned to stop worrying about inflation and simply, in his own words, “love” it.

Asked about the new report that the consumer price index in May had jumped 4.2% over the last year, the president took a surprisingly optimistic tack with the challenging news. Trump didn’t dismiss the affordability issue as a “hoax” that was started by Democrats, as he has done previously. Nor did he claim that he was bringing down the cost of living.

Instead, after the government said that inflation spiked to the highest level since April 2023, Trump praised the numbers.

“You know what I really love?” Trump said. “I love the inflation.”

It was an unexpected take given that voters ahead of the November midterm elections have ranked the economy as a top concern — and have given Trump low marks on that issue. Within minutes of his on-camera comment, Democrats quickly rushed to promote it on social media.

Trump had pledged in his 2024 campaign to quickly vanquish inflation, but his argument now is that higher prices are solely a function of rising energy costs because of the Iran war. On Wednesday, he claimed that relief is already on its way because of a secret military operation to ferry what he said was 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the primary shipping channel for 20% of the world’s global oil supply that has been effectively closed by the war since late February.

“Trump really said, ‘I love the inflation.’ On camera. For all of America to hear,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer quickly posted on X. “His contempt for you knows no bounds.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X that with Trump’s stated love of inflation, “We finally found something that Donald Trump loves as much as he loves himself.”

Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, quickly pressed Energy Secretary Chris Wright at a hearing about whether he, too, loved inflation.

“Do you love inflation?” Sykes asked.

“I love ending Iran’s ability to have a nuclear weapon,” Wright answered. He only conceded after being pressed: “No, I would prefer lower inflation.”

When asked about Trump’s specific comments, Wright said, “He’s an entertaining, hyperbolic guy who’s done tremendous leadership.”

Trump claimed the secretive shipments were why oil prices had fallen below $90 a barrel, after surpassing $110 at the start of April.

“I’m just announcing today for the first time, but we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night,” Trump said.

On social media, the president said the mission began last month and had “resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.” There was no immediate data available to back up that total, and it was not immediately clear what role the U.S. military had played.

To put that figure into context, a daily average of 20 million barrels of oil had gone through the strait before the war, which would mean that Trump’s mission had resulted in the equivalent of five days’ worth of normal oil shipments.

Responding to the new inflation report, the White House pointed out that some expenses had dropped in May relative to the previous month: the price of new vehicles, prescription drugs and auto insurance, for example. But when the overall inflation number is paired with the change in hourly wages, there is a bleak sign that people’s spending power relative to their earnings has declined.

“President Trump has consistently maintained that oil and gas prices — and thus overall inflation — will plummet once the Iran situation is resolved, and the administration will continue pushing our affordability agenda to enable Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email.

But the financial markets were cautious about Trump’s claims that he was lowering prices by getting oil tankers through the strait — claims that came as the United States also launched airstrikes against Iran, and as Tehran fired back at countries in the region.

U.S. crude oil futures climbed more than 2.8% in Wednesday afternoon trading to just above $90 a barrel.

(AP) – Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power.

Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said. Coal supplied 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever.

“For years solar power has risen in the U.S. electricity mix,” said Nicolas Fulghum, senior energy and data analyst at Ember. “At the same time, coal power has lost its status, first as the largest source in the U.S. mix, and then gradually over the years has fallen even further.”

Solar also became the third-largest source of electricity in the U.S. in May, behind natural gas and nuclear, Fulghum said. Coal generation hit an all-time monthly low in April and rebounded only modestly in May, allowing increasing solar generation to overtake coal, he added.

Electricity is produced by converting sources of energy — fossil fuels, renewable resources and nuclear — into electrical power. Burning coal, oil and natural gas for electricity emits carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere and warming the planet. By contrast, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and nuclear are carbon-free.

After about two decades of essentially flat electricity consumption in the U.S., electricity demand is increasing to power artificial intelligence, grow domestic manufacturing and electrify transportation and heating. Fulghum said he expects to see more months where solar exceeds coal generation, before overtaking it on an annual basis in a few years.

These milestones signify that solar “has staying power” at a time where there’s less support for renewable energy at the federal level, he added.

Wind and solar combined have overtaken coal in the past, and wind power alone has outpaced coal during spring months when wind speeds pick up. Ember gets its hourly and monthly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Globally, electricity generation from renewables is growing rapidly. Renewables will become the largest global energy source, used for almost 45% of electricity generation by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

Trump helps the struggling US coal industry while curtailing solar and wind
Last week, Trump announced a plan to boost the struggling U.S. coal industry by spending nearly $700 million to support coal-fired power plants and coal exports. Trump said at a White House event that “coal’s a great business,” and that “in terms of power, there’s really nothing like it.”

Martin Pochtaruk, CEO and founder of Canadian-based solar panel manufacturer Heliene, said Trump can say that coal is coming back, but investors will invest their money in whatever brings the best return. And for power generation that is solar, making it the fastest-growing fuel, he added.

A White House spokeswoman defended the administration’s overall energy policies, saying they were geared toward strengthening the country’s security.

“The President has reversed the Left’s devastating policies, saved the American coal industry, prevented the retirement of more than 17 gigawatts of power, and saved lives during heightened demand periods,” Taylor Rogers said in a statement.

While Trump is trying to reverse the coal industry’s decline, solar has been the top source for new power for five years, SEIA said. SEIA and Wood Mackenzie said solar and battery storage were practically the only energy resources being built in the first quarter, making up 91% of all new generating capacity.

The Trump administration has canceled solar and wind projects, implemented policies that slowed clean energy permitting and development and terminated $7 billion in funding intended for affordable solar energy projects across the U.S.

“As power demand skyrockets, political and regulatory attacks are slowing down the exact resources we rely on,” Darren Van’t Hof, interim president and CEO of SEIA, said in a statement. “Impeding the only sector that is actively building new power is a reckless gamble that will only drive electricity bills higher.”

Several groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency over canceling the Solar for All program. A district court dismissed the case last week citing lack of jurisdiction. The plaintiffs have another filing pending in the Court of Federal Claims.

In a ruling Saturday, a federal judge struck down guidance from the Internal Revenue Service restricting tax credits for wind and solar projects.

Trump has blamed renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power for skyrocketing energy costs. But energy analysts say recent price hikes are based on growing demand, aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events that are exacerbated by climate change. Most recently, the war in Iran that Trump launched has also led to a spike in energy costs.

Top states for solar voted for Trump
States won by Trump in the 2024 election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter of 2026, with Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Arizona and Mississippi ranking among the top 10 states for new solar additions, SEIA said. The U.S. now exceeds a total of 6 million installations nationwide across all solar sectors, which includes large-scale solar arrays, commercial, community solar and residential or rooftop solar.

Johanna Neumann, at the Environment America Research and Policy Center, said it’s “good news for our health and our planet that solar continues to grow,” and also, not surprising.

“Today we can harness solar more affordably than any other energy source. It’s scalable. And it’s also our most abundant renewable energy source,” said Neumann, senior director of the center’s campaign for 100% renewable energy. “So I think it’s hard to keep the lid on a good idea, especially if the economics are tilting in your favor as well, which they are in the case of solar.”

Environment America’s renewable energy dashboard shows that 32 U.S. states generated at least 10% of their retail electricity sales from solar, wind and geothermal energy last year, compared to 18 states in 2016. Clean energy in the South is booming, particularly in Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi, Neumann said.

“I think there is a misconception in the United States that clean energy is something for the coasts and liberal cities,” she said. “The true story of renewable energy is a 50-state story.”

WASHINGTON D.C  (VINnews) – Multiple U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tankers and a Navy surveillance aircraft were operating over the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, coinciding with President Trump convening his national security team in the White House Situation Room.

Flight tracking data showed at least five tankers — two KC-135 Stratotankers and three KC-46A Pegasus aircraft — along with a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol plane active in the strategically vital waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

An Iranian source cited by the state-linked Fars News Agency said Iran is monitoring U.S. military movements in the region. The source warned that any country participating in military action against Iran would be subject to retaliation.

The developments come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. Trump has not publicly detailed the purpose of the national security meeting.

WASHINGTON (VINNews) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sharply criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday, calling him a “socialist communist” and saying he has “zero respect” for the mayor.

Appearing on Fox News, Mullin was asked about Mamdani’s recent criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, which the mayor described as “cruel” and “inhumane.”

“First of all, Mamdani is a socialist communist that I have zero respect for,” Mullin said. “He’s running a great city by allowing lawless activity to continue to run rampant on the streets.”

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: "Mamdani is a socialist communist that I have zero respect for. We're going after the worst of the worst, no matter where they're at, including New York. Mamdani can't do a thing about it." pic.twitter.com/YvGajP7YBd

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 10, 2026

Mullin defended the administration’s immigration enforcement policies and vowed that federal authorities would continue targeting criminals in sanctuary jurisdictions, including New York City.

“What we’re doing is we are going after the worst of the worst, no matter where they’re at, and that’s including in New York,” Mullin said. “Mamdani can’t do a thing about it because we’re going to enforce laws, not pick and choose which laws we are going to enforce.”

The comments come as Border Czar Tom Homan has promised a major increase in ICE operations in New York, arguing that state and city policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities have made enforcement more difficult.

Mullin’s remarks stand in notable contrast to those of his boss, President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly spoken positively about Mamdani despite their political differences.

Since Mamdani took office, Trump has described the mayor as a “nice guy” and said he enjoys a good working relationship with him. During an Oval Office meeting last year, Trump expressed optimism about the mayor’s leadership and pledged federal cooperation with New York City.

“I think, hopefully, you’re gonna have a really great mayor, and the better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said at the time.

The two have reportedly remained in regular contact, exchanging text messages and holding multiple meetings at the White House, even as disagreements persist over immigration, policing and other policy issues.

The public divide between Trump and one of his top Cabinet officials highlights differing approaches toward Mamdani, who has emerged as one of the nation’s highest-profile progressive elected leaders and a frequent target of conservative criticism.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) – Executives from America’s top defense contractors are preparing for a possible meeting with President Trump at the White House later this week, where they will face pressure to accelerate production of weapons and munitions amid depleted U.S. stockpiles.

The discussions follow extensive U.S. military operations in the Middle East, including recent strikes on Iran, as well as continued support for allies in Ukraine and Israel. Key systems such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and air-defense interceptors have seen sharp drawdowns, prompting concerns about readiness for potential future conflicts, sources familiar with the matter said.

A similar high-level meeting earlier this year led to commitments to dramatically increase output of advanced weaponry. Leaders from companies including Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing and Northrop Grumman are expected to update the administration on efforts to expand manufacturing capacity while highlighting challenges such as supply chain bottlenecks, workforce shortages and facility limitations.

The Trump administration has made rebuilding stockpiles a priority through executive actions and calls for supplemental funding. Officials stress the need to scale up both sophisticated “exquisite” systems and basic munitions to maintain a strong deterrent posture for U.S. forces.

No final schedule for the meeting has been confirmed, but preparations are underway as national security concerns mount, according to the sources.

The push comes as Israel continues to face threats from Iran and its proxies, with U.S. aid playing a critical role in bolstering the Jewish state’s defenses.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Payments giant Visa said Wednesday that it has embedded its payment network inside of ChatGPT, empowering the chatbot to independently shop and complete transactions on behalf of its user.

It means AI agents can not only recommend products but complete the purchase on the user’s behalf, at potentially any merchant that accepts Visa. The payment network’s previous attempts at this technological leap were confined to a single retailer or a small set of enrolled merchants.

It is not OpenAI’s first attempt at e-commerce. The company late last year announced Instant Checkout, which allowed ChatGPT to scour the internet for a specific item like a digital personal shopper. But the process was prone to errors and was not widely adopted by merchants due to the fee that OpenAI was charging merchants. The company retired Instant Checkout in March.

Visa’s collaboration is different from OpenAI’s previous attempts, as it will allow users to link their Visa cards to ChatGPT to shop and make it easier for merchants to accept transactions initiated by agents.

OpenAI will provide the technology to allow agents to interact, make decisions and initiate purchases through ChatGPT. Visa, the world’s largest payment network outside of China, will provide the payment authorization and fraud monitoring needed to do this at scale.

“As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa’s focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure and seamless,” said Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer at Visa.

Speaking at a company event Wednesday in San Francisco Wednesday, Forestell gave an example of a customer telling ChatGPT they’re looking for a pair of wireless headphones under $150. The chatbot would find a pair for sale under those parameters and buy it on behalf of the customer.

Visa and OpenAI did not disclose the financial terms of the collaboration and did not give details on the fees merchants or customers would have to pay.

Instant Checkout charged merchants 4% of the transaction’s value, which merchants saw as being too expensive.

Allowing AI agents to buy products on behalf of a consumer raises concerns for both banks and retailers. A customer could overspend, or the agent buys the wrong item, or the customer claims they did not authorize that transaction. Banks have been concerned about potential fraud claims that could occur when an agent uses a bank customer’s credit or debit card.

Visa says the feature will have guardrails like spending limits, required approval steps and approved merchants for shopping in order to protect consumers and minimize fraud.

Retailers have introduced shopping assistants powered by AI that can recommend products and personalize the customer’s shopping experience, with the earliest iterations of those experiments being Amazon’s Alexa. But Alexa could only shop on Amazon, and OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature was limited to select merchants.

Visa’s biggest competitor, Mastercard, has also been introducing its own AI-shopping features to its payment network on a smaller scale.

Mastercard announced that AI agents will have the capability to procure services on behalf of a business. For example, a coffee shop wants to start an advertising campaign as part of a launch, so it gives an AI agent the authorization to purchase services from web and ad providers in order for the coffee shop to build out its campaign.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Defense Minister Israel Katz declared Tuesday that Israel’s campaign against Iran remains ongoing, with the Israel Defense Forces poised to deliver a powerful response to any further aggression from the Islamic Republic.

“The campaign against Iran is far from over — the IDF is prepared to strike Iran with great force,” Katz said at the Israel Defense Award ceremony.

Katz highlighted dramatic shifts in the Middle East, pointing to ongoing IDF operations against Hezbollah, which he described as acting on behalf of the Iranian regime.

“Right now, we proudly see our heroic fighters operating deep in Lebanon against the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which acts on behalf of the Iranian regime, delivering heavy blows to it,” he said.

The minister referenced a recent operation in which the IDF cleared a Christian neighborhood in Tyre where Hezbollah militants had taken shelter. Residents will now be able to return to their homes, he added.

“We continue to attack Hezbollah militants everywhere for the security of the northern communities and the State of Israel, firmly rejecting Iran’s threats and its attempt to link the arenas,” Katz stated.

He cautioned against assuming the conflict is over.

“We must not think the work is done — the campaign against Iran is far from over,” he said. “If Iran attacks Israel — it will suffer a severe blow as we did a few days ago. The IDF is prepared to strike Iran with great force.”

Katz’s remarks come amid heightened tensions following recent Israeli strikes on Iranian targets and continued cross-border threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon.

TEL AVIV (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces promoted incoming defense attaché Tal Politis to the rank of vice admiral Wednesday, the naval equivalent of major general.

Vice Adm. Politis, who most recently served as chief of staff of the Israel Navy, is set to assume the defense attaché role in the United States, a position that has been vacant for approximately six months.

A promotion ceremony was held at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv and attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Defense Minister Israel Katz, senior officers and Politis’s family.

Politis’s appointment as defense attaché comes at a time of heightened strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States. The role involves representing the IDF in Washington and managing military-to-military ties.

(AP) – A prominent OB-GYN group announced vaccine recommendations on Wednesday that differ from what the U.S. government advises.

The immunization schedule is specifically for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women. It aligns with prior recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before changes were made under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists withdrew from a CDC advisory committee on vaccines because of those changes, which have spawned legal challenges.

“So now for the first time, ACOG has made the decision to formally release its own immunization schedule to provide and communicate clear evidence-based guidance and to address the growing vaccine misinformation that is circulating,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, the OB-GYN group’s chief of clinical practice.

The new schedule has been endorsed by 13 other professional and medical societies. Some other groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have also put out vaccine schedules this year that differ from the CDC’s.

Here’s what you need to know about the OB-GYN group’s advice.

What does the OB-GYN group advise?
Four immunizations are routinely recommended during pregnancy:

— The flu vaccine, which can be taken any trimester, at any time of year, although it’s best to get it in early fall.

— The COVID-19 shot, which can be taken during any trimester at any time of year, although it’s best to receive it as soon as possible during pregnancy.

— A tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) shot, preferably as early as possible between 27 and 36 weeks.

— A respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy in your first pregnancy, during September through January in most parts of the U.S. If you had the RSV vaccine during a previous pregnancy, you do not need to get it again, the group says, but your baby should get an antibody shot after birth. Your baby can also get that shot instead of you receiving the maternal vaccine.

Other vaccines –- pneumococcal, meningococcal, hepatitis A and hepatitis B –- may be needed for women with certain risk factors. The group recommends talking with your doctor about them.

Three others are recommended before pregnancy or after birth, protecting against human papillomavirus; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.

How do these recommendations differ from CDC advice?
The biggest difference involves the COVID-19 vaccine.

Last May, Kennedy announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy pregnant women and children — a move immediately questioned by several public health experts.

Spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Are health care providers seeing pushback on vaccines?
Yes. Several spoke at an event announcing the new guidelines.

“Vaccine hesitancy is huge in this country right now,” said Carol Hayes of the American College of Nurse Midwives. “Patients come in all the time saying I’ve done my own research, and sadly, they’re doing research and they’re getting information that is not scientifically based.”

Sarah Vaillancourt of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health said her organization’s members are seeing much the same. Some of the confusion is being fueled by social media, she said.

In such a landscape, she said, it’s “really useful” for the OB-GYN group to provide accurate information for patients.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – A new United Hatzalah ambulance was dedicated in honor of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight during the wedding celebration of Elliot Julis and Yuval Julis, combining a family simcha with a commitment to saving lives in Israel.

The ambulance was donated by philanthropists Mitch and Jolene Julis in honor of their son’s wedding and in recognition of Voight’s steadfast support for Israel and the Jewish people. An inscription on the vehicle reads: “Dedicated in honor of Jon Voight, in recognition of his profound love of the Holy Land and its people.”

Mitch and Jolene Julis are longtime supporters of United Hatzalah, Israel and numerous Jewish causes. Mitch Julis is the co-founder of Canyon Capital Advisors, a leading investment management firm, and the couple has supported a wide range of educational, humanitarian and Jewish communal initiatives in the United States and Israel.

The bride and groom participated in the dedication ceremony, adding a meaningful lifesaving tribute to their wedding celebration. Voight joined the event via FaceTime and reacted warmly upon seeing the ambulance bearing his name.

“Oh, that is so beautiful, you guys,” Voight said.

One of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors, Voight rose to prominence with his Academy Award-nominated role in Midnight Cowboy and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Coming Home. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he has appeared in films including Heat, Mission: Impossible, Ali and National Treasure. He is also the father of actress Angelina Jolie.

In recent years, Voight has become one of Israel’s most outspoken supporters in the entertainment industry, frequently speaking out against antisemitism and expressing solidarity with Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.

The ambulance joins United Hatzalah’s nationwide fleet of emergency response vehicles, helping volunteer medics, paramedics and doctors respond to medical emergencies across Israel.

“Jon Voight has stood with Israel with heart, strength and unwavering moral courage,” said Eli Beer. “It is deeply meaningful that an ambulance bearing his name will help save lives every day in Israel.”

United Hatzalah is Israel’s largest volunteer emergency medical service organization, with more than 8,600 volunteers providing free emergency care to people of all backgrounds throughout the country.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday extended a direct message of peace to the people of Lebanon, declaring that Israel seeks harmony with its northern neighbor but identifying Hezbollah as the sole barrier to that vision.

“We long for peace with you. The only obstacle to this beautiful vision is Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said in his appeal. “They want war, not peace. They want death, not life. You deserve more. Your children deserve more.”

The statement comes amid ongoing tensions and Israeli military operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon. Netanyahu emphasized that Israel’s conflict is not with the Lebanese people but with the Iran-backed militant group, which has used Lebanese civilians as human shields and drawn the country into cycles of violence.

Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog, have issued similar messages this week, urging Lebanon to free itself from Hezbollah’s dominance and Iranian influence to pave the way for lasting peace and prosperity. The appeals follow recent Lebanese calls for dialogue and occur against the backdrop of a fragile security situation in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s message echoes past overtures in which he has called on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and reclaim its sovereignty, promising a future of peace and economic opportunity for both nations. Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by Israel and many Western countries, has long been accused of prioritizing its agenda — and Tehran’s — over Lebanese national interests.

No immediate response from Lebanese officials was reported. The situation remains fluid as Israel continues efforts to neutralize threats from the group while expressing hope for a broader regional de-escalation.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — As tensions remain high between Iran, Israel and the United States, Israel’s international spokesman to the United Nations, Jonathan Harounoff, says the world must draw a distinction between the Iranian people and the Islamic Republic that governs them.

Speaking with Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, Harounoff, a British-Iranian journalist and author, described Iran’s ruling regime as one focused on preserving its revolutionary ideology rather than improving the lives of its citizens.

Harounoff pointed to widespread unrest in Iran and argued that many Iranians continue to oppose the government despite harsh repression. He highlighted the role of the Women, Life, Freedom movement and praised the courage of citizens who have challenged restrictions and demanded greater freedoms.

The author of Unveiled: Inside Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Revolt also warned that Tehran often uses negotiations to advance broader strategic goals while maintaining its long-term regional ambitions.

Harounoff urged Western governments to provide greater support to Iranian civil society and to engage more closely with members of the Iranian diaspora, whom he said can offer valuable insight into conditions inside the country.

Despite ongoing tensions, Harounoff expressed optimism about Iran’s future, saying the country’s educated population, entrepreneurial spirit and rich history could help transform both Iran and the broader Middle East if political change eventually takes place.

TYRE (VINnews) – The Israeli military said Wednesday it carried out strikes against Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure in Tyre and other areas of southern Lebanon over the past day, hitting a weapons cache in one of the attacks.

The IDF released footage showing some of the strikes, which it described as targeting terror group assets. At least 13 people were reported killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese officials and media reports.

The operation comes amid ongoing tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, with Hezbollah continuing attacks against Israeli forces and communities in northern Israel. Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed to degrade the Iran-backed terror group’s capabilities and prevent threats to Israeli civilians.

No immediate comment was available from Hezbollah. Lebanese health officials said the strikes caused casualties in multiple southern villages, though details on the identities of those killed were not immediately released.

The IDF said the targets included operatives and infrastructure used by Hezbollah for attacks against Israel. In one strike in the Tyre area, forces hit a weapons cache, the military added.

The developments were reported as efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict continue, with both sides exchanging fire in recent days despite diplomatic initiatives.

VINnews will continue to monitor the situation.

DETROIT (VINnews) — Federal authorities arrested seven people Wednesday on a 10-count indictment alleging they carried out a coordinated campaign of threats and vandalism targeting University of Michigan officials and businesses because of their ties to Israel.

According to the indictment, the suspects, described as college-aged adults, engaged in a series of criminal acts beginning in March 2024 and continuing through April 2025. Prosecutors allege the group sought to pressure university leaders and other institutions to sever relationships with Israel.

🚨 Early this morning, @FBI and partners arrested 7 individuals on a 10 count indictment for allegedly targeting University of Michigan leaders and businesses in the Eastern Michigan region with violent threats and attacks.

The indictment alleges that after the October 7, 2023…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 10, 2026

Authorities said the defendants allegedly vandalized homes and property, spray-painted messages including “Intifada” and “Free Palestine,” left threatening notes, and damaged residences. In some cases, investigators allege chemical-filled jars were thrown through windows of occupied homes.

Federal officials said several incidents occurred on Oct. 7, 2024, the first anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel. Prosecutors allege one suspect targeted the Jewish Federation in Bloomfield Township, while another allegedly vandalized the home of the University of Michigan president.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests, crediting investigators from the FBI’s Detroit field office and other law enforcement partners for conducting a lengthy investigation.

The defendants have been charged with conspiracy and transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce. Court proceedings are ongoing.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States launched airstrikes Wednesday against Iran, and President Donald Trump said more were coming, as Tehran fired back at countries in the region. The escalating attacks threatened to derail efforts to end the war, with Trump warning that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations.

Trump’s warnings at the White House and on social media came hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan — all of which host U.S. troops — came under Iranian fire. It was the second time this week that back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month ceasefire. On Monday, Iran and Israel targeted each other.

“We’re going to hit them again hard today,” Trump told reporters at the White House hours after U.S.. Central Command said it struck Iranian military sites.

Shortly after Trump spoke, the U.S. military said it had fired on an oil tanker trying to transport oil from Iran in violation of its blockage on Iranian ports. It was the eighth merchant vessel disabled in the waters off Iran, U.S. Central Command announced in a social media post Wednesday.

Trump wouldn’t say if he planned to follow through on threats he made earlier in the war to attack bridges and utility plants in Iran. He urged Iran to sign a deal with the U.S.

“We were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments underlined the American leader’s whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.

Iran, meanwhile, has proved resilient despite having faced weeks of heavy bombing. It is betting that its ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial passageway for the world’s oil and natural gas — gives it a strong bargaining chip.

Still, both countries seem to be looking for a way to end the conflict — if they can manage to sell it as a win at home. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing much more difficult goals: the collapse of Iran’s theocratic government, the elimination of its nuclear program, and the destruction of the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. That will make compromise much harder.

Strikes by the US and Iran shake the Mideast
Since the U.S. and Israel started the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the conflict has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world, and made food and other basics more expensive. The international benchmark for crude oil traded above $92 a barrel on Wednesday, up more than 25% since the start of the war.

In the latest strikes, U.S. fighter jets targeted “air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites,” the military’s Central Command said.

Iran said U.S. strikes hit two water reservoirs in its southern city of Sirik, cutting off water to thousands of people. Iran’s state media published video of what it said was a damaged reservoir, though the Associated Press could not immediately verify the footage.

U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s top diplomat vowed that there would be a response, and Tehran later claimed attacks in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

Jordan said it shot down five incoming missiles, which Iran said targeted an airbase the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. The base has hosted American F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency reported there were no injuries.

Bahrain and Kuwait said they intercepted incoming fire, without elaborating.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the American attacks as a violation of Iranian sovereignty in calls with his counterparts from Turkey and Saudi Arabia “and emphasized the inherent right of self-defense, including reciprocal action,” according to a post on his office’s Telegram channel.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in televised comments Wednesday that, following the new attacks, Iran would review its stance on negotiations to end the war.

Efforts to mediate a deal continued. Following consultations with the U.S., a delegation from Qatar arrived in Tehran for talks on Wednesday, according to an official with knowledge of the visit who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

The exchanges of fire came a day after a U.S. Army attack helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz after colliding with an Iranian drone, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. It wasn’t clear whether the collision was intentional.

A drone boat rescued both of the helicopter’s crew, and Trump said they were uninjured.

Trump says a deal is close, then says it’s taking too long
Before he accused Iran of downing the U.S. helicopter, Trump expressed renewed optimism over negotiations with Iran, though he didn’t say why there was reason for hope.

While Trump, wary of high gas prices in the run-up to congressional elections in November, seems to be looking for a quick win, he is also making demands that will be tough for Iran to swallow.

The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. While Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, that uranium is a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Iran is refusing to give up the uranium and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something Trump rejected.

It’s not clear how those differences can be bridged — and Trump has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the talks. His Truth Social post Wednesday accused Iran of taking “too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”

Meanwhile, Iran has continued to insist that any deal to end the war must also end fighting between its ally Hezbollah and Israel. Instead, Israel has intensified its military campaign against the militant group.

An airstrike on a village east of Tyre killed at least six people, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. It said two others were killed by an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern city of Sidon.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Younger students have regained ground academically after the pandemic’s disruptions while older students’ test scores continue to stagnate, according to the latest testing data released Wednesday by the federal government.

Nine-year-olds rebounded to pre-pandemic reading scores and saw some recovery in math, according to data from a test taken regularly in the United States since the 1970s. The same recovery has not emerged for 13-year-olds, whose average scores in math and reading remain below pre-pandemic averages. In fact, the latest reading scores, from teenagers who took the test in 2024, are essentially the same level as they were when the test started in 1971.

Since the pandemic, schools and state policymakers have focused on overhauling instruction for elementary students, especially in implementing the “science of reading,” which teaches kids to read by understanding how letters form sounds. But recent test scores show educators should also focus more intensely on adolescent learners and turning around academic outcomes in middle school, said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.

Indeed, the 13-year-olds who took the national test experienced the pandemic’s disruption during formative elementary years of schooling. In a few years, they will have graduated — and they may still be behind.

“The 13-year-olds who took this assessment last year are headed to high school now or are already enrolled,” she said. “Schools won’t have them much longer. We can’t hesitate or wait if we’re going to turn these trends around.”

What the test measures
Typically given every four years, the long-term trends assessment offers a snapshot into the academic skills of American students at ages 9 and 13. Roughly 31,000 students in public and private schools sat for the test in the 2024-2025 school year. Unlike the main Nation’s Report Card test for fourth and eighth graders, which is updated regularly with new skills to reflect changing curricula, the long-term test has stayed largely the same since the 1970s.

American students’ academic achievement was already declining when the pandemic hit. Test scores peaked around 2012, then started to fall, said Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.

“We can clearly see that this isn’t just a pandemic story,” Soldner said.

The test results show younger kids are improving foundational skills, such as identifying facts in a simple news article or understanding basic multiplication and division. Seventy-one percent of 9-year-olds reached the benchmark in reading, and 84% reached that level in math, a few percentage points higher than in 2022.

Teenagers are tested on more advanced skills, such as making generalizations from a reading passage and comparing information from charts and graphs. Only 58% met the benchmark skill level in reading and 70% in math, with no statistically significant improvement from 2023.

Fewer students are reading for fun
Compounding the issue of stagnant literacy rates: Fewer students than ever are reading for fun.

Students who took the test also completed a survey. Only 14% of 13-year-olds said they read for fun every day, down from 27% in 2012 and a peak of 37% in 1992. Among 9-year-olds, 37% said they read for fun every day, a significant decline from 53% in 2012. Researchers have noted the decline in time spent reading corresponds with the rise of social media use on cellphones.

Still, younger children have shown an “incredibly encouraging” recovery academically in recent years, Soldner said. “Almost 50 years of progress has been eliminated” for 13-year-olds, he said.

The 13-year-olds who took the most recent test would have been in second or third grade during the first year of the pandemic. They would have returned to in-person learning in fourth or fifth grade and taken this national test in their last year or two of middle school.

In contrast, the 9-year-old group would have been entering kindergarten or first grade as the pandemic’s most acute phase ended and schools reopened. Their second and third grade years would have been more reflective of typical in-person teaching.

Those experiences are dramatically different, Soldner said, as the older group would have missed foundational years in building literacy and computational skills in school.

While more recent declines in student outcomes are alarming, decades of test data show it’s possible to change children’s trajectories over time, said Mark Miller, an eighth grade math teacher and former member of the National Assessment Governing Board.

“We have made progress in the past, from the early ’70s to 2012,” Miller said. “Can it be done again? Absolutely.”

SYDNEY (VINnews) — The man accused of carrying out a deadly attack at a Jewish festival near Bondi Beach has been charged with 19 additional offenses, Australian authorities confirmed.

Naveed Akram, 24, was already facing dozens of charges, including multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and terrorism-related offenses stemming from the December 2025 attack that left 15 people dead and dozens injured.

The newly added charges include allegations of attempted murder, firing a weapon while resisting arrest, and causing serious injuries with intent to kill.

During a court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said investigators continue to review extensive evidence, including hundreds of thousands of surveillance images and digital materials linked to the case. Akram has not yet entered a plea and is scheduled to return to court in August.

Authorities allege Akram and his father planned the attack for months before opening fire at a Jewish gathering. His father was killed by police during the incident, while Akram was wounded and taken into custody.

The attack, one of Australia’s deadliest mass shootings in decades, prompted renewed debate over security, antisemitism and gun laws, and led to the establishment of a national inquiry into antisemitism.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A World Cup referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the United States was received by a crowd of supporters and officials Wednesday as he arrived home in the capital of Mogadishu, where he said he plans to be at the next World Cup and urged Somali youth to be proud of their country.

Omar Artan was set to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making FIFA’s final list for the tournament. He is one of Africa’s top referees and was named the continent’s best male referee in 2025.

He was denied entry at Miami International Airport on Saturday over “vetting concerns,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, without giving details of the concerns. FIFA subsequently cut him from the tournament’s referee list.

Artan was issued a visa to travel to the U.S. last week, according to the Somalia Embassy in Kenya, which processed it. The U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada, and Artan was due to meet up with other World Cup referees at their training base in Miami.

He returned to a hero’s welcome in Mogadishu, where he thanked the Somali government and people as well as FIFA for their support for him.

“I promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,” he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved Somali flags. “I want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.”

Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre hosted Artan on Wednesday, writing on X that the referee “already won the hearts of millions and secured his place in history.”

“He devoted himself to ensuring that football was decided by merit, yet fate denied him the stage he so richly deserved,” Barre said.

The U.S.’s highly unusual move to deny a FIFA-appointed match official permission to enter a World Cup host country drew outrage across the world and raised questions among some fans about America’s capacity to host the competition.

Somalia is one of nearly 40 countries subject to new travel restrictions under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

On Wednesday, the United Nations’ top human rights official called for a “massive rethink” of immigration policies especially in the United States around the World Cup.

Hundreds of supporters, government officials and members of Somalia’s football community gathered hours before Artan arrived at Aden Adde International Airport.

As he disembarked, supporters waving Somali flags crowded around him before draping him in the flag.

He was then escorted by police officers to the airport’s VIP terminal, where he was welcomed by Somalia’s sports minister and other dignitaries, and spoke to journalists.

“It is up to all of us to defend the Somali name,” Artan said. “Somalia belongs to us, whether it is in a bad state or a good state. That flag belongs to us, and that passport belongs to us.”

In a country where decades of war and the rise of the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group have limited the potential of many in Somalia, Artan’s denial brought disappointment but reminded people what is possible if they chase their dreams.

Artan’s expected milestone at this year’s World Cup “stands no matter what,” the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — from neighboring Ethiopia — wrote Tuesday on X. “You reached the summit of your profession and inspired a generation back home just by getting there, and being kept off the pitch you earned doesn’t change that.”

NEW YORK (AP) — When SpaceX makes its debut on the U.S. stock market, it wants smaller-pocketed, mom-and-pop investors to play a big role in what may be the biggest IPO ever.

Elon Musk’s rocket company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is steering some of its initial public offering of stock directly to what are called “retail” investors. These are people who buy stocks in a brokerage account on their phone, not pension funds or other big “institutional” investors routing orders to their professional trading desks.

Here are some things to keep in mind as the IPO approaches:

A chunk of SpaceX stock will go to regular investors
Most IPOs offer only 5% to 10% of the total offering to retail investors, according to Fidelity. In this case, though, it could be up to 30%. SpaceX expects retail investors to participate in its IPO through Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi and E-Trade by Morgan Stanley.

At Fidelity, investors with as little as $2,000 in their accounts could potentially snag SpaceX shares in the IPO. That’s down from account minimums of $100,000 or even $500,000 that Fidelity has for other equity offerings.

Demand from investors may be so high in this IPO that not everyone indicating interest will actually get a share.

Trying for a short-term flip has risks
Given all the hype around SpaceX, temptation could be high to grab shares in the IPO and sell them quickly if a frenzy sends its price spiking. But brokerages have policies to block investors from future offerings if they dump shares bought in an IPO quickly, like within a couple weeks.

Big swings in price may be possible
Potentially high interest from retail investors following the IPO is one reason SpaceX is warning that its stock price could be volatile. These investors aren’t known for moving as meticulously as a pension fund, which is trying to build money for payments it must make years or decades in the future.

It’s retail investors, after all, who helped drive GameStop and other “meme stocks” to market-bending heights in 2021 that professional investors called irrational.

IPOs can see a big first-day bounce, but that may not last
The typical IPO has seen a 7% jump in its first day of trading, from 1980 through 2025, according to Jay Ritter, an IPO expert and a professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.

But IPOs tend to lag similar-sized peers in the ensuing five years, not including their first day of trading. They do so by an average of 3.6% per year, according to Ritter.

SpaceX has debt and has been losing money
It’s very expensive to launch things out of the earth’s atmosphere and to construct huge AI data centers, and SpaceX has built up $29.1 billion in debt, as of the end of March.

The company also lost $4.9 billion last year and another $4.3 billion through the first three months of 2026. It acknowledges that it “may not achieve profitability in the future.”

Over the long term, a stock’s price tends to track with how much profit the company is making.

You don’t have to buy SpaceX to own it
You could end up owning some of SpaceX even if you never intended to. Consider the many people who own shares of the popular QQQ exchange-traded fund, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index and has roughly $460 billion in total assets.

Historically, the Nasdaq 100 index would wait until each December to add new members in an annual reconstitution to make sure it includes the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq. But Nasdaq recently made changes to allow some big companies to enter the Nasdaq 100 index after just 15 trading days.

That means if SpaceX’s IPO is as successful as expected, it could quickly join both the Nasdaq 100 and QQQ fund, all while QQQ holders do nothing on their own.

The company behind the more popular S&P 500 index, though, is not making changes that would allow SpaceX faster entry.

Any shares bought would take a back seat to Musk’s in influence
In its IPO, SpaceX is offering 555.6 million shares of its “Class A” stock. Each of these shares gives an investor one vote on matters that shareholders decide. That includes such weighty things as who is on the board of directors overseeing the CEO.

This IPO is not offering what are called “Class B” shares, each of which give its holder 10 votes. Musk, meanwhile, owns so many of those shares that he by himself could control more than 82% of all the stock’s voting power following the IPO.

In filings with U.S. securities regulators, SpaceX acknowledges the potential for conflicts of interest between it and Musk, along with other companies he owns, such as Tesla.

Some big investors really disagree with the ownership structure
Officials from pension funds for firefighters, teachers and other workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX last month decrying some of the provisions in its IPO, including “super voting shares,” mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims instead of the possibility of lawsuits and how much power Musk will hold over the company.

They said they could become owners of SpaceX stock because they hold index funds, which automatically buy stocks after they get included in certain indexes.

If Musk is able to control so much of the voting power on the board of directors, it would make him tremendously powerful atop SpaceX, “essentially making him unfireable without his own consent,” the CEO of California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the New York state comptroller and the New York City comptroller wrote in their letter.

“This level of insulation from accountability is virtually unheard of among any other large U.S. issuer whose governing documents foreclose accountability to public owners on these terms.”

Don’t confuse SpaceX with other companies with similar names
SpaceX plans to trade under the ticker symbol “SPCX.” That’s very close to “SPCE,” which is the symbol for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings.

TAICHUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s military fired rockets in China’s direction from “shoot-and-scoot” mobile launchers on Wednesday in a demonstration of how it might try to repel a Chinese attack.

While the U.S.-supplied system known as HIMARS has been tested before, the latest live-fire exercise was the first time its rockets were fired into the waters of the narrow Taiwan Strait that separates the self-governing island from China.

“Due to the current enemy threat, we will continue HIMARS training with unwavering determination to protect Taiwan as the nation’s strongest force,” army Sgt. Wang Ming-hui said.

The military said it used reduced-range practice rockets that don’t fly very far from the coast before falling into the water.

China views Taiwan as a renegade province and says it must come under its control at some point in the future. It sends warships and planes into the skies and waters near the island almost every day and has held major military exercises in its vicinity in recent years. The United States does not recognize Taiwan as a country, but it opposes any change to its status by force and is its main supplier of weaponry for its defense.

The HIMARS, which stands for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, is part of a U.S.-encouraged shift in strategy, toward an asymmetric approach designed to keep China at bay rather than trying to go head-to-head with big-ticket weapons purchases. The truck-mounted pod of rockets can be driven out from a hidden position to fire its missiles, then quickly taken to a new hiding place in what are called shoot-and-scoot tactics.

They were fired on the second day of exercises on Taiwan’s west coast, which faces China. The drills, which also included 155 mm howitzers, simulated a response to a Chinese invasion and were designed to test rapid deployment and precision-strike capabilities.

The HIMARS was the centerpiece of the drill. After receiving a firing order, the vehicles maneuvered into position and launched their rockets with bright flashes within three minutes, demonstrating their mobility.

The U.S. announced plans in December to sell 82 more HIMARS systems to Taiwan as part of a major arms deal, but that package appears to have been put on hold after President Donald Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing last month.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Graham Platner won the Maine Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, channeling voter frustration over the high cost of living and overcoming revelations about his past to set up a high-stakes race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Speaking to supporters in the small town where he was born, Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, stressed a message of redemption as he promised to oust Collins. Democrats see the race as a top opportunity to flip a GOP-held seat and a must-win as the party tries to claim control of the Senate in November.

Platner’s expected win in the primary came after days of questions about his past personal conduct, particularly his relationships with women, that threatened to undermine enthusiasm on the left over his candidacy.

“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner said during his acceptance speech in Blue Hill, a rural town where he was born, as the crowd cheered on. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it.”

Maine is the only state with a competitive Senate race where voters supported Democrat Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in 2024. Collins is the only Republican senator from New England.

Platner, a progressive who had early support from Sen. Bernie Sanders, has said he plans to focus on economic issues such as housing and healthcare. He’ll be facing one of the most powerful legislators in the Senate, and one of its few remaining moderate Republicans.

“Any of those who feel let down, or disappointed, or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith and support, and I will spend every day of this campaign, and if I have the privilege, every day in the United States Senate doing exactly that,” Platner said.

Maine voters also were choosing nominees for governor U.S. House. The Democratic and Republican primaries for governor and the 2nd Congressional District will be decided by ranked choice voting after no candidate won a majority Tuesday.

Platner blasts Collins as ‘spineless’
After thanking his supporters, Platner quickly pivoted to attacking Collins, who was unopposed in the GOP Maine primary.

“Susan Collins has never met a war she didn’t like, she’s been supporting endless wars since I was a teenager, and I know, I had to fight in two of them,” Platner, a Marine and U.S. Army veteran, said. “You and your friends profited, and my friends died.”

He also criticized Collins for voting alongside Trump, stressing she was a key vote in support of putting conservative judges on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“She has become just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves,” Platner said, noting that Collins once promised to only serve two terms.

First elected in 1996, Collins has said her experience and key position as chair of the powerful appropriations committee are two reasons to send her back to the Senate.

“While others talk about revolution and division, Susan Collins is delivering for Maine communities by funding rural hospitals, supporting our shipbuilders and fishermen, improving infrastructure, expanding broadband, and strengthening public safety,” said Collins’ spokesperson, Shawn Roderick. “Maine people are practical. They care about whether their communities are stronger and their families are better off. That’s exactly what Susan Collins is focused on every single day.”

Platner energized Democratic voters
Platner, 41, has focused his campaign on fighting the high costs he says hold down the middle class and said he got in the race to focus on income inequality. He had early support from progressive champions helping to boost his candidacy.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who backed out of the race earlier this year after citing trouble raising enough funds, has yet to endorse Platner. In a statement Tuesday, the governor thanked her supporters but did not mention Platner.

Platner’s background has repeatedly generated criticism from both the right and the left.

Old online comments made by Platner in which he appeared to endorse political violence, dismiss rape in the military and criticize police officers and rural America surfaced last year. Platner apologized for the comments and said he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression when he wrote them.

He’s also faced questions about a skull-and-crossbones tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol. Platner has repeatedly said he was unaware of the symbol’s association but has since had the tattoo covered with a different design. A former girlfriend told New York Times has since said that he did.

More recently, reports emerged that he previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women while married. Platner hasn’t directly denied the texts and instead criticized the aide who talked to news outlets and accused the media of running gossip.

The New York Times last week reported about his relationships with previous girlfriends, one of whom said Platner twisted her arm during an argument and locked her in a room. Platner’s campaign disputed the allegation.

Voter Annette Babcock, from Sullivan, said she’s met him a few times and likes that he’s not an established politician. His recent controversies didn’t dissuade her from supporting him.

“The Republicans don’t have much moral high ground to stand on when they’re criticizing him for what he’s done when Trump is a convicted felon,” she said.

Governor and 2nd House District races to be decided by ranked choice
No candidate won a majority of the vote in either primary for governor or in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District, so the races will go to ranked runoffs. Those tabulations could take more than a week to determine winners.

Democrats are choosing gubernatorial candidates between Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson; former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Hannah Pingree; energy executive Angus King III; and former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah.

In the 2nd Congressional District, former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, former U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud are on the ballot for the Democrats. The winner will face former Gov. Paul LePage, a Trump ally.

On the Republican ballot for governor, voters are choosing between former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Bobby Charles; healthcare executive Jonathan Bush; former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason; University of Maine System trustee Owen McCarthy; former Paris, Maine, selectman Robert Wessels; and business owners David Jones and Ben Midgley.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A war of words erupted between Israel and Turkey on Wednesday after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned that Ankara would respond forcefully if Turkish interests were harmed in the Middle East, prompting sharp criticism from Israeli leaders.

Speaking Wednesday, Erdoğan claimed that Israeli military actions in Syria and Lebanon have reached a point where they pose a threat to Turkey. He warned against what he described as Israeli initiatives in the eastern Mediterranean and said Turkey would react strongly if Turks or Turkish Cypriots were targeted.

Erdoğan also said Turkey’s security interests extend beyond its borders, citing cities including Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut, and pledged not to remain silent in the face of actions against neighboring countries. He further criticized discussions surrounding a so-called “Greater Israel,” saying Turkey would oppose such ambitions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a blistering statement, accusing Erdoğan of supporting Hamas, repressing political opponents and lacking standing to criticize Israel.

“The State of Israel and the IDF will continue to act forcefully against Iran and its proxies, which threaten the Middle East and the entire world,” Netanyahu said.

Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar also condemned Erdoğan’s remarks, accusing the Turkish leader of hypocrisy and warning against any direct confrontation with Israel.

The exchange comes amid ongoing tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara over the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, as well as competing strategic interests in the eastern Mediterranean.

Erdoğan’s comments appeared to reference reports that Israel, Greece and Cyprus have discussed expanding security cooperation in the region, including the possibility of a joint military framework.

Separately, Turkish officials have continued to make statements regarding Jerusalem. Turkey’s interior minister recently declared at a ruling party gathering that he hopes to one day see the “liberation of Jerusalem,” remarks that drew criticism from Israeli officials.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of the Gaza war, with leaders in both countries frequently exchanging accusations over regional security and military operations.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday charged seven people and two building companies with offenses including manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud over the city’s deadliest fire in decades.

The massive blaze engulfed seven apartment buildings and killed 168 people on Nov. 26, 2025. Former residents and relatives of the dead have been waiting for answers for months after the fire shattered the close-knit community of Wang Fuk Court, which housed thousands of people in the suburban district of Tai Po.

In a statement on Wednesday, authorities said police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption charged the suspects with 25 counts including money laundering, attempting to pervert the course of public justice and tax evasion.

The two companies charged are consultancy firm Will Power Architects Company, and Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., the main contractor involved in a major renovation project at Wang Fuk Court that was taking place when the blaze happened.

The seven defendants played different roles in the renovation works, authorities said. They included the directors of the two companies and a registered inspector of Will Power.

The defendants told the court they understood the charges, and most appeared calm. Lists of victims’ names were read out from the charge sheets in court — the first such disclosure to the public. The hearing will resume in September.

Multiple alleged wrongdoings
Senior police superintendent Basil Tang told reporters that they found the people in charge of the renovation project and the relevant companies were seriously negligent in monitoring the materials used in the project and the procedures involved. Tang pointed to issues such as the use of non-fire-retardant scaffolding netting and foam boards.

“The above work arrangements are suspected of seriously affecting the building’s fire safety, causing the fire to spread rapidly, and also obstructing escape routes, resulting in massive casualties,” he said.

Hazel Law, principal investigator of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, said they would not rule out further law enforcement operations.

“We suspect that some people, for their own personal gain, not only failed to fulfill their professional responsibilities, but even used suspected corrupt practices, fraud and other illegal acts to achieve their purposes,” Law said.

Tang said Will Power directors Ng Yeuk and Wong Hap-yin, Prestige director Ho Kin-yip, alongside the two companies, were charged with manslaughter.

The companies and some of the defendants were also charged with conspiracy to defraud.

Authorities allege the conspiracy goes beyond the fire site
In one of the fraud allegations, authorities alleged that the two companies and some defendants conspired together to defraud the apartment owners of Wang Fuk Court by concealing previous litigation records of Prestige and inflating the score given to the firm in a tender analysis report.

That eventually led to Prestige being awarded the renovation project at a contract worth more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars (over $38 million), they said.

Their alleged wrongdoings went beyond the Wang Fuk Court. Authorities also alleged some of the accused conspired together to defraud the government by falsely claiming that the registered inspector of Will Power had carried out his duties in inspecting and supervising 86 building maintenance projects.

Tang on Wednesday said police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested 35 people when they looked into the cause of the fire and potential corruption issues involving the renovation project.