While Jalen Brunson is leading the Knicks through one of their biggest playoff runs in years, there’s another part of his story that’s been getting attention lately – his relationship with his Jewish wife, Dr. Alison “Ali” Marks.

They go way back as high school sweethearts. The two met in the Chicago area as teenagers and basically grew up together. Long before NBA arenas, contracts, and Madison Square Garden, it was just the two of them as a loving couple. As Brunson’s basketball career continued to rise, their relationship remained a constant, surviving the challenges that often come with life in professional sports.

Ali Marks comes from a Jewish family background, something that’s been mentioned in recent profiles, highlighting how her roots – her Jewish family, especially, her late father, has been shaping her life. Brunson has spoken respectfully about that part of her story, especially when talking about how close she is to her family.

In 2022, Brunson proposed back at their old high school gym, the same place where a lot of their early memories started. They got married the following year at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago (July 2023), and they even signed a ketuvah, the Jewish marriage document. 

Today, Ali works as a doctor of physical therapy and is often seen at Knicks games supporting Brunson, sometimes with their Jewish daughter. The two welcomed their first child in 2024. The couple named their daughter, Jordyn James, after Alison’s late Jewish father.

And as Brunson’s basketball career keeps reaching new levels in New York, one thing has never changed: the family that has been by his side from the start.

Photo Credits: “In Style” & Ali Brunson (IG)

Former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski says President Donald Trump asked for his opinion on Iran during a private Oval Office meeting this week, just hours after an American Apache helicopter was reportedly brought down by an Iranian drone.

Speaking at a conference in Washington, D.C., Braslavski, 22, recalled his emotional White House meeting with Trump, which came months after he was freed from 738 days of captivity in Gaza as part of a U.S.-brokered hostage deal.

According to Braslavski, Trump raised the helicopter incident during their 15-minute conversation and appeared concerned about the escalation with Iran.

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“He asked me what I thought,” Braslavski said. “I told him, ‘You should bomb Iran right now.’”

Braslavski said Trump responded by asking if he was comfortable with such a move.

“He said, ‘You don’t mind, right?’ and I told him, ‘I support you 100 percent.’”

The former hostage traveled to Washington to personally thank Trump for helping secure his release. He also credited Jewish Breaking News Editor-at-Large Eddie Devir for helping arrange the long-awaited Oval Office meeting.

Braslavski said the encounter was deeply emotional.

“He had his hands open and welcomed me,” Braslavski recalled. “I shook his hand, kissed his hand, and told him, ‘You are my hero. Thank you.’”

Trump had previously hosted a group of released hostages at the White House, but Braslavski was too weak to attend at the time due to the severe physical and emotional toll of his captivity.

On October 7, 2023, Braslavski was working security at the Nova music festival when Hamas terrorists launched their brutal attack. Despite being off-duty, he remained at the scene for hours helping festivalgoers escape and preventing terrorists from abducting victims before ultimately being taken hostage himself.

During his visit to Washington, Braslavski also met with Senator John Fetterman, a vocal supporter of Israeli hostages. Fetterman told attendees he had displayed posters of Braslavski and other captives in his office throughout their imprisonment.

“In the Bible it says you must show gratitude to those who help you,” Braslavski said. “John Fetterman is one of the people I owe a thank you.”

After losing a leg and an arm while defending Israel, Alon’s life changed in a moment. One day he was serving, and the next he was starting over in a hospital bed, trying to understand what the rest of his life would even look like.

Later, came surgeries, recovery rooms, and long stretches of rehab that tested him in ways most people will never see. But he kept going. 

And this week, that journey reached a powerful moment.

Alon walked onto the graduation stage at Tel Aviv University and received his degree with excellence. It wasn’t just an academic milestone; it felt like something bigger than that. A moment that represented years of effort most people in that room will never fully know.

His message to the world was that, “Nothing can stand in the way of your will to succeed.”

His story isn’t about what was lost. It’s about what he refused to let end there. It’s about rebuilding, slowly, quietly, and choosing not to stop, even when the easier option would’ve been to.

And standing there on that stage, it was clear: this wasn’t the end of a journey. It was proof of how far he’s already come.

Mazel Tov & Am Yisrael Chai!

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Images: @AlonKaminer1

The New York Knicks are just one win away from an NBA Championship, and the city is alive with excitement. For fans, it feels like something special is finally within reach. But alongside the celebration, there’s also a moment of reflection. We remember Captain Omer Neutra hy”d.

Image Credit: The New Yorker

Omer was a proud New Yorker, an American-Israeli soldier, and a passionate Knicks fan. Basketball was something he loved deeply. He followed the team closely, wore Knicks gear with pride, and shared that passion with family and friends who knew him best.

Like so many fans, he was part of the rhythm of Knicks basketball – the highs, the lows, and the hope that always comes with a new season.

On October 7, 2023, Omer was taken hostage during the Hamas attack on Israel. After a long period of uncertainty and immense pain for his family and community, his body was later returned and brought home for burial.

As the Knicks make this historic run, it’s hard not to think about everything he is missing. The late-night games, the playoff tension, the group chats, the celebrations after big wins. These are the moments fans live for. Omer hy”d should have been here for all of it.

Sports have a way of connecting people across distance and time. They become part of our stories, our friendships, and our memories. For Omer, the Knicks were part of his story too.

So as New York stands on the edge of a championship, we carry his memory with us in this moment as well. May the memory of Captain Omer Neutra hy”d be a blessing. 🧡💙

Today, June 12, would have been Anne Frank’s 97th birthday.

Anne was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. She quickly became one of the most lasting voices of the Holocaust. Despite dying at the early age of 15, Anne’s writings have reached millions of people all around the world and educated countless generations of the horrors of hatred, antisemitism, and discrimination.

Facing increasing persecution from the Nazi regime, Anne’s family moved to Amsterdam in search of safety. However, when the Nazis took over Holland, they were forced into hiding. Thus, for over two years, the Franks along with four other people lived in hiding inside an annex located above the building where Otto Frank had his business.

Throughout this period, Anne wrote in a diary, describing her experiences, worries, problems, and even hopes and aspirations. With the help of her writing, Anne left behind an insightful first-hand account of what it is like to be in hiding in some of the darkest times of human history. Although she faced unimaginable hardships, Anne showed an incredible amount of wisdom and resilience through her writings.

The Secret Annex was raided in August 1944, and its inhabitants were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. Both Anne and her sister Margot ended up in Bergen-Belsen, where they both died early in 1945, a few weeks before their liberation. Anne was only fifteen. Anne Frank’s father was the only member of the direct family who survived the war.

Otto Frank went back to Amsterdam following the war and got back his daughter’s diary that had been kept safely by Miep Gies, one of the brave people who assisted in hiding the Franks and other Jews. Realizing how important his daughter’s words were, Otto went ahead to ensure the publication of the diary. Anne Frank’s Diary is among the best-selling books of all time since its publication in 1947. It has been translated to more than seventy languages around the world.

Anne Frank’s influence in the world remains undiminished over seven decades after her death. Apart from being evidence of the atrocities during World War II, her diary is a testimony of hope and bravery in times of despair.

Perhaps no quote better captures Anne’s spirit than her famous words:

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Today is Anne Frank Day which occurs annually to celebrate Anne’s birthday and remember the six million Jewish people who were killed during the Holocaust. Though Anne’s life ended early through terrorism, her message lives on inspiring hope in even the darkest of times.

A video posted to social media by Casey Babb, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and policy adviser to Canada’s former minister of defense, shows a young man identified only as Omar saying he will kill as many Zionists as he can.

The video appears to have been shot in midtown Manhattan.

“Omar, are you going to go kill Jews?” the man taking the video asks the masked, keffiyeh-clad youngster, who also sports a Hamas headband.

“I’m going to kill Zionists,” the youth says.

“You’re going to kill Zionists?” the man asks. When Omar replies in the affirmative, the man asks, “How many Zionists do you want to kill?”

“As many as I can,” Omar replies.

After some back and forth in which the man twists Omar’s brain into knots by telling him he is an Arab, a Jew and a Zionist all rolled into one, he warns the young man that he will get into a lot of trouble for threatening to kill Jews, because despite his mask he can still be identified.

“What you just did now on video is one of the dumbest things you ever did, because I’m going to post it,” the man says. “It’s going to go viral; it’s going to get ID’d; and then you’re going to get arrested for what you just did.”

Babb warned that the development of young people threatening violence will exact a high price if left unchecked.

“A young man in New York City casually looks into the camera and states that he’s going to kill as many Zionists as he can,” Babb wrote in his social media post. “We can’t allow this to be a normal, acceptable occurrence. If we do — we’ll end up paying a very, very high price.”

A massive fire broke out at a Jewish-owned events warehouse Thursday night near Golders Green, London, consuming most of the building and inflicting about £3 million in damage.

The incident is being investigated but is not deemed suspicious.

The London Fire Brigade deployed 25 engines and 150 firefighters to fight the blaze and evacuate about 70 residents due to heavy smoke.

Uzziel Sassoon, the owner of the events business SVS Productions, said that most of the warehouse was destroyed, but thanked the community for the messages of support he received.

The fire follows a frightening wave of arson attacks on London’s Jewish community, including one in which four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer ambulance group Hatzola were torched. Nevertheless, a fire at a London grocery store recently was also not due to arson.

After his latest detention, Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef was released from Israeli prison Thursday without charge after two and a half years of detention.

Yousef is the father of Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as the Green Prince. Mosab became disillusioned with Hamas and worked with Israeli intelligence against the terror group from 1997 to 2007, eventually writing about his experiences in a memoir titled Son of Hamas. While working for the Shin Bet, Mosab provided intelligence that helped thwart terror attacks such as suicide bombings, helped Israel find Hamas cells, and helped lead Israel to the arrests of senior officials, including the repeated arrests and incarcerations of his own father.

Yousef was arrested in October 2023 in the territories after the Oct. 7 attack, during a sweep of the territories in which dozens of Hamas terrorists in the region were arrested and imprisoned. Upon his release, he was taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where he appeared to have a hand injury. It’s unclear how he incurred the injury.

Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef is wheeled out of a Ramallah hospital after his release from an Israeli prison. (From a post on X)

Yousef’s son Oweis confirmed that his 71-year-old father was released near Hebron and taken to the hospital.

The Green Prince himself posted a press release on X about the incident:

“Mosab Hassan Yousef warns Sheikh Hassan Yousef against any attempt to revive Hamas in the West Bank and ignite an Intifada,” the press release stated. “Sheikh Hassan Yousef has been released yesterday from Israeli prison on humanitarian grounds due to his poor health. He is one of the most prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank and one of its original founders. His influence on the Palestinian street remains significant.”

Yousef is seen greeting friends and relatives after his release. (From a post on X)

“After nearly 30 years in and out of prison, one would hope he would finally rest and take care of himself,” the press release continued. “However, if he attempts to revive Hamas, rebuild its infrastructure, or activate its sleeping cells in the West Bank, he must fully understand the consequences and not take advantage of this humanitarian gesture.”

The press statement adds that the actions of those who serve the Hamas leadership living in luxury abroad are not serving the “exhausted and suffering Palestinian people.”

“He should look at Gaza, Lebanon, and Tehran and think very carefully before allowing Hamas to exploit his influence and set the West Bank on fire,” the statement warned. “There will be no more mercy, and he will bear direct responsibility for the consequences.”

“This is the reality, the same man who stood with armed Hamas militants now lies weak in a hospital bed,” the press release concluded.

British police have released footage of the arrest of Johannes Kongsnes Natland, a 19-year-old Norwegian accused of flying to the UK to carry out a paid killing for the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organized-crime gang prosecutors describe as “used by the Iranian regime.”  

The bodycam video shows armed officers raiding his hotel room in Huddersfield. Natland, wearing only boxer shorts, walks out with his hands up, then mimes shooting at police before being pinned and handcuffed. Police found £2,000 in cash, a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and 12 live rounds in the room.  

Prosecutors say Natland flew in from Stavanger, was directed to hidden cash, then to a dead-drop near a tree where guns and ammunition were waiting. Court messages allegedly referred to an “assassin,” a recruiter called “Generalen,” and a handler using the name “Agent 47,” with €25,000 said to be “in the pot.” The intended target has not been publicly identified.  

Natland has pleaded guilty to possessing the firearms and ammunition but denies conspiracy to murder. The wider picture is bigger than one teenager: Britain and the U.S. have sanctioned Foxtrot and its leader, Rawa Majid, over Iranian-backed violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.

The Knicks are one win from ending a 53-year title drought, and New York is vibrating again. After erasing a 29-point deficit against San Antonio and winning Game 4 on OG Anunoby’s putback in the final seconds, the Knicks now lead the Finals 3-1. But beneath this run is a deeper New York story, Jewish players, coaches, broadcasters and executives have been tied to the franchise from the very beginning.

It starts with Ossie Schectman. Long before the NBA became a global machine, Schectman, the son of Jewish immigrants, scored what is remembered as the first basket in league history as a member of the original New York Knicks. That opening-era roster reflected the Jewish city game that helped build basketball in New York, with Schectman joined in the franchise’s early chapter by names including Leo Gottlieb, Ralph Kaplowitz, Nat Militzok, Hank Rosenstein and Sonny Hertzberg.

Dolph Schayes sits just off that Knicks line, but still inside the Jewish New York basketball universe. A Bronx-born NYU star and one of the NBA’s earliest superstars, Schayes was pursued by the Knicks before signing with Syracuse, where he became a Hall of Famer, 12-time All-Star and champion. That near-miss is part of the same story: Jewish New York was feeding the pro game before the NBA knew what it would become.

No figure gave that story a championship form like Red Holzman. Born to Jewish immigrant parents and raised in New York, Holzman became the head coach behind the Knicks’ only two NBA titles. His teams in 1970 and 1973 were not built on flash; they were built on ball movement, defense and the Garden’s belief that the right pass could become a citywide religion.

Then came Marv Albert, Brooklyn-born Marvin Aufrichtig, whose voice became inseparable from the franchise. From 1967 to 2004, Albert called the Knicks through glory, heartbreak and playoff madness, turning “Yes!” into one of the most recognizable calls in American sports. For generations of fans, his sound was the Garden.

Then comes Ernie Grunfeld, a Romanian-born Jew and son of Holocaust survivors who played for the Knicks in the 1980s and later helped lead the franchise from the front office, and through Amar’e Stoudemire, whose arrival in 2010 helped revive the franchise’s modern relevance before his journey took him to Israel, Israeli citizenship and a completed conversion to Judaism.

Finally Leon Rose, the Jewish former super-agent who took over a broken Knicks operation in 2020 and rebuilt it into a Finals team. Rose’s own path runs through Jewish community basketball, the J.C.C. Maccabi world and the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame; his roster now stands one win from delivering New York its first championship since the Holzman era.

That is why this Knicks moment hits differently. It is Brunson, Anunoby, Towns, Bridges and a Garden crowd that sounds possessed. It is also Schectman’s first basket, Holzman’s bench, Albert’s voice, Grunfeld’s front-office climb, Stoudemire’s Israel chapter and Rose’s rebuild. The Knicks’ Jewish connection is not a side note. It is part of the franchise’s spine.

In the heart of Jerusalem, just steps from Mahane Yehuda and the light rail, stands one of the city’s strangest landmarks: the Clal Center, a massive concrete complex once meant to drag the capital into a sleek modern future. Instead, it became a local legend for all the wrong reasons.

Built as Jerusalem’s first upscale indoor shopping center, Clal was supposed to be the city’s commercial engine, a multi-level mall, office tower, banks, government offices, a cinema and dozens of stores packed into one ambitious urban machine. The idea was bold for its time. Jerusalem, still reshaping itself after the Six-Day War, was watching developers dream bigger, taller and more modern than the old Ottoman and British-era cityscape around them. But Clal never became the future. It became the maze.

Its spiraling half-floors confused shoppers, its elevators skipped levels and its layout often left visitors disoriented. The open-air atrium at the center of the project was eventually covered after Jerusalem’s winter weather made the design impractical, leaving the interior dim and yellowed rather than bright and inviting. Over time, the building’s ownership structure only compounded the problem. With too many private owners and no clear authority capable of reimagining the property, maintenance became difficult and large-scale improvements proved nearly impossible.

Then came the decline. As newer developments emerged and Malha Mall pulled shoppers away from downtown, offices emptied and storefronts went dark. The building gradually acquired an almost mythic reputation as one of Jerusalem’s great architectural failures, complete with an urban legend about a body hidden in its concrete foundations, a story police dismissed and later investigations debunked. Still, the nickname stuck. For many Jerusalemites, Clal became the city’s “cursed” building. Yet the strangest thing about Clal Center is that it refuses to die.

Inside the concrete labyrinth there is still life. Small offices continue to operate, niche businesses occupy forgotten corners and even the Davidka Guesthouse has found a home within a structure many locals spend years trying to avoid. It is exactly the kind of place tourists rarely visit but residents somehow never stop talking about. The biggest surprise, however, sits above it all.

Perched on the roof, Muslala, a Jerusalem arts and sustainability collective, has created one of the city’s most unexpected green spaces. Known as HaMirpeset, the rooftop garden and cultural center features workshops, events, urban agriculture, seating areas, art installations, beehives and even rooftop camping. It feels almost impossible that this quiet oasis overlooking the city exists atop one of Jerusalem’s most criticized buildings.

Some owners reportedly want the building demolished and replaced with something cleaner, newer and more profitable. They may eventually get their way. Jerusalem is changing rapidly, with towers rising, rail lines expanding and old neighborhoods being reshaped by a new generation of development.

Until then, Clal Center remains standing, part failure, part time capsule, part punchline and part miracle. For a project that was supposed to represent Jerusalem’s future, its greatest achievement may simply be that it survived long enough to become something nobody originally imagined.

JBN has learned that the long-running and highly publicized divorce dispute between Adeena Cohn and Raphi Stein has been resolved, bringing an end to one of the most talked-about get-refusal cases in the Orthodox Jewish community.

The Vaad Harabbanim D’Gittin confirmed the development in a rare public statement, saying it was “pleased to confirm that a complex divorce which has drawn significant communal attention in recent months has been brought to a successful resolution.”

Supporters of Adeena alleged that Stein had refused to grant her a get, a Jewish religious divorce document, for approximately five years, leaving her an agunah, or “chained woman.” The case sparked the viral #FreeAdeena movement, led by activists and influencers including Adina Sash, better known as “Flatbush Girl.”

The campaign drew widespread attention through rallies, LED billboard trucks, and social media activism, while some of its more provocative tactics such as a viral social media movement where ultra-Orthodox women post photos baring parts of their skin to protest the issue, however insiders say what really got the get is that the civil case was resolved as well as askonim and Rabbonim in the community.

The Vaad said it was commenting only because of “the unusual degree of public attention this particular matter attracted” and noted that the resolution was achieved privately, “with unwavering fidelity to halacha, sound legal judgment, and respect for the dignity of everyone involved.”

The organization wished both parties “bracha and hatzlacha as they move forward with their lives.”

JBN has learned that the long-running and highly publicized divorce dispute between Adeena Cohn and Raphi Stein has been resolved, bringing an end to one of the most talked-about get-refusal cases in the Orthodox Jewish community.

The Vaad Harabbanim D’Gittin confirmed the development in a rare public statement, saying it was “pleased to confirm that a complex divorce which has drawn significant communal attention in recent months has been brought to a successful resolution.”

Supporters of Adeena alleged that Stein had refused to grant her a get, a Jewish religious divorce document, for approximately five years, leaving her an agunah, or “chained woman.” The case sparked the viral #FreeAdeena movement, led by activists and influencers including Adina Sash, better known as “Flatbush Girl.”

The campaign drew widespread attention through rallies, LED billboard trucks, and social media activism, while some of its more provocative tactics such as a viral social media movement where ultra-Orthodox women post photos baring parts of their skin to protest the issue, however insiders say what really got the get is that the civil case was resolved as well as askonim and Rabbonim in the community.

The Vaad said it was commenting only because of “the unusual degree of public attention this particular matter attracted” and noted that the resolution was achieved privately, “with unwavering fidelity to halacha, sound legal judgment, and respect for the dignity of everyone involved.”

The organization wished both parties “bracha and hatzlacha as they move forward with their lives.”

Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, whose late father was Jewish, made a huge splash, for both good and ill, by appearing in an ad for a luxury apartment building project in Herzliya, Israel.

The ad shows Paltrow waking up in her New York apartment complaining how hard it is to get up in the morning. “Even my coffee needs a coffee,” she complains. But she says that once she gets to the park for her morning run, “pure energy takes over.”

After emerging from her building, she gets into a taxi and tells the driver, “51 Park.”

“New York?” the driver asks.

“No,” says Paltrow, smiling. “Herzliya, Israel.”

Israel haters slammed Paltrow for filming an ad for a housing project in Israel amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

“Gwyneth Paltrow promotes $10m. penthouses in Herzliya while Gaza burns and Lebanon bleeds,” a poster on X fumed.

“Something deeply unspeakably sinister about this thin, wealthy, white woman looking for any possible opportunity to collaborate with a state committing genocide across at least two states,” wrote another X user.

Although Paltrow did not post the ad, her Instagram posts drew comments that emphasized these points and called her “genocide queen.”

Supporters of Israel, on the other hand, praised her, telling her that she’s on “the right side of history.”

Paltrow had expressed support for the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and has often spoken about her love for Israel. While raised in an interfaith family that celebrated the traditions of both Judaism and Catholicism, she said she had always felt pulled to her Jewish roots, raising her children with Jewish traditions. She formalized that connection years ago by announcing that she was in the process of converting to Judaism, though her current religious status is unknown.

The IDF announced that its forces have established operational control over the Wadi Saluki area in southern Lebanon, approximately 10 kilometers north of the Israeli border, following an extensive operation targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

According to the military, troops from the 7th Armored Brigade and the Egoz Commando Unit completed a mission to clear the area north of the Saluki stream, a region the IDF says was heavily used by Hezbollah for launching explosive drones and rocket attacks against Israeli forces.

The operation is part of Israel’s broader effort to strengthen security in southern Lebanon and eliminate threats to northern Israeli communities, including Metula and towns throughout the Galilee Panhandle.

During the offensive, Israeli ground forces, working alongside the Israeli Air Force, struck hundreds of Hezbollah positions and eliminated more than 50 Hezbollah operatives. Troops also seized a significant cache of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, explosives, and other military equipment, the IDF said.

A professor at the University of Copenhagen came under fire earlier this week for the display of the slogan “Death, death to the IDF” at a presentation he delivered to law faculty.

The university condemned the incident, but declined to disclose the identity of the professor, who has since been identified as Lino Vogt, and to discuss whether disciplinary measures would be taken.

“The University of Copenhagen wishes to clarify that it is unacceptable that the image in question appeared in connection with teaching without an educational context,” a university spokesperson said in a statement.

The Israeli embassy in Denmark also denounced the lecturer’s actions.

“This is a completely unacceptable and deeply concerning behavior! We appreciate that the University of Copenhagen is taking the matter seriously, but we also expect the consequences to match the severity of the actions,” the embassy posted on X.

“A person who incites or encourages violence should not be entrusted with a teaching position or have responsibility for instructing students, who at all times are entitled to a safe and respectful learning environment,” the statement added.

Lino Vogt defended the slogan, which appeared with an illustration of the cartoon character Betty Boop holding a firebomb and wearing a keffiyeh over her face.

In a written reply to an Israel-based outlet, Vogt wrote, “It is fair to question if those who participate in illegal warfare against civilians do not have a responsibility and should not be met by [violent] resistance,” characterizing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

The professor also objected to being called an antisemite, which he said has happened since the incident.

“I find the accusations of antisemitism not only wrong but slanderous,” he complained, even as he slandered the State of Israel. “Do people really think that the IDF is exclusively Jewish? Or that all Jews rally behind the genocide in Gaza? For my part, I would consider the first notion ignorant, and the second frankly … antisemitic.”

A Toronto police officer was killed Thursday morning while executing an arrest warrant for a suspected terrorist linked to a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto as well as other shootings that have been tied to an Iran-backed group.

Constable Marc Pinizzotto, an 18-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, was 43 years old.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the consulate shooting was organized by an Iran-backed terrorist organization called Kata’ib Hizballah.

One suspect was injured and has been hospitalized, while another suspect is still at large. He has been identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi and is considered “armed and dangerous,” according to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw.

“I would ask anyone that would see him to call 911 immediately,” Demkiw said.

No one was killed during the consulate shooting last March, when two men were seen getting out of a car, shooting at the building and then driving off.

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra spoke about this morning’s shooting at a U.S.-Canadian trade conference.

“I don’t know if you’re all aware of it, but a Toronto policeman was killed, I believe, overnight in an investigation that may be linked to the United States,” he said.

“Our thoughts, our prayers are with the family of the police person who was killed,” he added.

The CN Tower will dim for the first five minutes per hour tonight to honor the memory of Constable Marc Pinizzotto. (Credit: The CN Tower)

Hoekstra described the incident as an “example of the close cooperation that we have in law enforcement between the two countries, how we work together and the risks involved in those types of activities.”

Speaking at a press conference, Demkiw paid tribute to the fallen officer before talking about the incident.

“It is with deep and profound sorrow that I must confirm the death of Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, age 43, of our Emergency Task Force,” he said. “Marc was shot in the line of duty while conducting a search warrant early this morning in the area of Black Creek and Trethewey Drive.”

The police chief said he met with Pinizzotto’s family, and “words cannot describe the pain they are feeling.” 

“Marc served the Toronto Police Service for 18 years, including 5 years as a specially trained Emergency Task Force unit member,” he added. “This loss will have a profound impact on the Toronto Police family.”

“The investigation that led to the search warrant where Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto was tragically killed concerned a number of shootings, including the shooting at the United States consulate on University Avenue,” the police chief explained. “There were several search warrants executed this morning.”

After identifying the suspect, Demkiw addressed him directly.

“I urge you to turn yourself in,” he said.

Demkiw said that as details unfold the police will notify the public, then thanked the community for their “incredible outpouring of support.”

“The strength, character, and resilience of our members, and the entire policing family, is needed now more than ever.  We will lean on each other as we navigate our way through this devastating tragedy. A hero in life, not death,” he concluded.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has canceled planned U.S. strikes on Iran, saying negotiations have advanced to the highest levels of the Iranian government and that a deal to end the conflict has been agreed upon in principle.

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In a post on Truth Social, Trump said discussions and final details have been approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.

Trump added that while the scheduled strikes and bombings have been called off, the naval blockade will remain in place until the agreement is formally finalized. He said details regarding the signing ceremony will be announced shortly.

The announcement marks a dramatic development amid heightened tensions in the region and comes as diplomatic efforts continue among multiple countries involved in the negotiations.

The Israel Democracy Institute published a poll earlier this week by the Viterbi Family Center showing a sharp drop in Israelis’ confidence in President Donald Trump’s commitment to their security.

The percentage of Israelis who believe that Israel’s security is one of Trump’s main considerations barely shifted from November 2024 to March 2026, rising by one percentage point, from 63 percent to 64 percent. Just two months later, in May, that percentage took a nosedive to 41 percent.

(Credit: The Israel Democracy Institute)

During those two months, Israelis also lost confidence that a U.S.-Iran deal will accomplish the goals Israel had hoped to achieve in its war against Iran.

The percentage of Israelis who believe that the deal will eliminate the nuclear project dropped from 63 to 56; that it will eliminate the ballistic threat dropped from 64.5 to 32; and that it will topple the Iranian regime dropped from 55 to 28.

The survey also found rising discontent with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with 35 percent supporting another run for the highest office in the land and 61 percent opposing.

A video that surfaced Wednesday, more than a year after a meeting of the Washington State Human Rights Commission, made a splash when a human rights commissioner complained about Jews.

Commissioner Luc fils Jasmin, a pastor from Spokane who had been appointed by then-governor Jay Inslee, questioned the need to define antisemitism.

“This word antisemitism has been around since the Jews got trampled by Hitler, and it seems like the Jewish people keep on crying, and crying, and crying and crying, always crying over the antisemitism,” Jasmin said. “Today, there are many other groups who are subject to mistreatment, or even subject to mistreatment by the Jewish, and they’re not crying so much. Why is antisemitism carrying on until the century 2000, and everybody’s folding down to that?”

“Wherever I’ve been throughout my life, it’s Jewish always crying, and now they’re trying to get the Human Rights Commission to write special conditions for them,” he added, repeatedly using the word “Jewish” as a noun rather than an adjective.

“We are under duress,” he declared dramatically.

His comments were so egregious that another commissioner, known for her anti-Israel activity on social media, pushed back hard.

“We’re not under duress or anything like that,” Commissioner Han Tran fired back. She then explained that the commission had consulted with “local Jewish scholars to provide input on how they frame antisemitism” to ensure the commissioners understood “what antisemitism really means.”

Jasmin had a problem with that, saying he wanted a resolution for “these people the Jewish are killing by the millions over there, the Palestinians and the Arabs.”

When Tran pointed out that the commission had already adopted a resolution against anti-Arab violence, Jasmin said, “The Arabs was really being attacked and that was the right resolution, but the Jewish are attacking people and that’s different.”

Tran said that Jasmin’s comments showed why the need to define antisemitism is important, and she warned him not to conflate all Jewish people with the Israeli government.

“People need to understand that it is the Israeli government that is attacking,” she said. “I think it would be false to say that Jewish people are attacking.”

The previous chair of the commission, Jeff Sbaih, cautioned that antisemitism is rising.

“It’s getting worse,” he said. “We are entrusted with enforcing the discrimination law, to investigate the discrimination and to root it out.”

Ultimately, the commission adopted a resolution defining antisemitism in April 2025, defining it as discrimination against Jews but adding that criticism of the Israeli government does not constitute antisemitism.

A bipartisan push to create legislation aimed at securing Jewish institutions and fighting antisemitism is proceeding through the House, following the failure of the Antisemitism Awareness Act to pass the Senate last year despite support from Jewish groups.

Introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) Wednesday, the proposed companion bill to the Senate’s Jewish American Security Act will accomplish the following:

• The bill will increase funding to $1 billion for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides funds to secure institutions, and will extend that funding to Jewish institutions and law enforcement.
• The Department of Education will appoint an antisemitism coordinator.
• The bill will force social media platforms to account for their online management of antisemitism.

New York Rep. Mike Lawler. (Credit: Mike Lawler)

Jewish groups threw their support behind the bill, joining Lawler and Goldman at a press conference in Washington, D.C., with representatives from such well-known organizations as the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the American Jewish Committee.

CEO and president of the Jewish Federations of North America Eric Fingerhut expressed his support for the bill in a statement.

“Jewish communities across the United States are facing a real and growing security crisis, and the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans can gather, worship, and live openly and safely as who they are,” he said.

Goldman pointed to the car-ramming attack against Temple Israel in Detroit, Mich., last March to explain the importance of the bill, saying that it should not be the responsibility of synagogues to pay for their own security.

New York Rep. Dan Goldman. (Credit: Dan Goldman)

“We should not have to pay a Jewish tax to be able to go to synagogue, and this will not only increase the funding, but it also expands the range of areas that can be funded by the Nonprofit Security Grant to include, very clearly, security personnel and other types of security that have not currently been included and that are now clearly essential,” he said.

Lawler concurred, pointing out that he never has to worry about security at his church.

“I can walk into my church without passing a security guard stationed outside,” the Catholic lawmaker said. “Jewish Americans don’t have that luxury, and it’s outrageous, and it should anger each and every one of us.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended an event Wednesday to celebrate 250 years of U.S. independence at the “aptly named” Liberty Bell Park.

The event was hosted by the Jerusalem Embassy and featured live music, dance workshops, food vendors, and activities and games for kids, and all of which contributed to an American vibe.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion pose with a cake celebrating 250 years of U.S. independence. (Credit: Mike Huckabee)

The ambassador thanked Jerusalem’s mayor, Moshe Lion, for joining the celebration. Photos show the two officials holding a large rectangular cake emblazoned with the number “250.”

“Deeply grateful to Mayor Moshe Lion and the wonderful people of Jerusalem for joining the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to celebrate 250 years of American independence at the aptly named Liberty Bell Park,” Huckabee wrote on X alongside photos of the event.

A massive emergency response from various agencies converged on the entrances to underground tunnels to help extract a group of 71 schoolgirls and their chaperones in Nyack, N.Y., Wednesday.

The group, belonging to Toras Emachu in Monsey, N.Y., was enjoying a field trip to Memorial Park. As they explored the park, they entered the Nyack Creek culvert in the southwest corner and walked through the tunnel system, reaching downtown Nyack, where they became lost and could not find their way out.

Someone aboveground heard them and called 911, resulting in Orangetown Police, the Nyack Fire Department, the Nyack Community Ambulance Corps, Ramapo first responders, Hatzolah EMS of Rockland County, Chaveirim of Rockland County and other emergency response agencies rushing to the spot to help the teens find their way out.

While some were treated for dehydration and exhaustion, no injuries were reported, and everyone was accounted for.

Nyack Mayor Joe Rand, who was at the scene, explained what happened and praised the emergency responders for their quick response.

“Some young girls, some kids, they were in the park,” he said. “They got into the culvert of the creek. And they started exploring and then they ended up not really knowing where they were and they got a little alarmed.”

“As far as I know from the police, everybody’s been accounted for,” the mayor continued. “Nobody’s missing.”

“So I just want to say how grateful I am to the OPD, Nyack Fire Department, the Nyack Community Ambulance Corps, and other first responders for their fast action and for working together so well, and how happy I am that no one was hurt,” he added.

President Donald Trump delivered one of his bluntest warnings yet to Tehran after another night of U.S. strikes inside Iran, telling Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst that if the regime refuses a deal, “We’ll bomb the s— out of them.”

The warning came during a call from the Situation Room, where Trump was joined by Vice President JD Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as Washington weighed its next move. The message from the administration is clear, Iran is dragging its feet at the negotiating table while U.S. forces are showing that the regime no longer controls the skies over its own country.

According to Trump, the latest U.S. strike wave included 49 Tomahawk missiles fired at targets inside Iran, with some reportedly hitting sites roughly 40 miles from Tehran. U.S. fighter jets also struck positions along Iran’s southwestern coast, while CENTCOM said American forces targeted Iranian surveillance capabilities, communications systems and air-defense sites that threatened U.S. forces and commercial shipping.

Trump also said Israel was not involved in the strikes, a point the administration appears eager to stress as Washington tries to frame this as a direct U.S.-Iran showdown. The strikes followed Iran’s aggression near the Strait of Hormuz, including the downing of a U.S. Army Apache, and came as Tehran continues using the waterway as leverage over global energy markets.

Iran responded with denial and defiance. State media rejected Trump’s claim that senior Iranian officials contacted him to ask for the bombing to stop, calling it false. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed attacks on U.S. military targets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, though early reports suggested the retaliation was largely intercepted or limited in impact.

U.S. forces have completed a new round of strikes inside Iran, according to U.S. Central Command. CENTCOM says U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets targeted Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites at the Commander in Chief’s direction. The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” the command said. Officials say the targets posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial shipping operating in the region.

At the center of the standoff is a proposed deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and force Iran into nuclear limits the U.S. says are non-negotiable. For Trump, the military pressure is the leverage. For Tehran, the question is whether it can keep stalling while absorbing deeper strikes on its military infrastructure.

The ceasefire is still technically alive, but barely. The U.S. is now pairing negotiations with direct force, and Iran’s room to maneuver is shrinking. The regime can keep playing for time, but Washington’s message has changed sharply, come to the table, or the next wave may hit harder.

Just a couple of weeks before camps are scheduled to open for the summer, eJewish Philanthropy reported Wednesday that two brothers who support dozens of camps, many of them for Jewish children, are facing major financial problems, throwing the camps into fear and uncertainty about their future.

The brothers, Michael and David Shabsels, have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for their company, Simad Holdings. The two men, along with their company, own 22 overnight camps and eight day camps throughout the northeastern United States. Tuition for these camps generally ranges between $8,000 and $10,000, but some can cost more than $17,000.

Parents of the roughly 20,000 kids served by these camps can breathe easy for this summer at least, as camps will continue to operate.

“I really don’t know anything,” a representative from Camp Achim in New York told eJP. “I just know camp is moving forward as planned.”

The financial issues could affect the Shma camps in New York, as well as Camp Lavi in Pennsylvania, Blue Star Camps in North Carolina, Camp Mesorah in New York and New Jersey and Camp Malka in New York.

Filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn’t mean the camps have to close down immediately. The filing gives time to business owners to correct course and resolve issues. In this case, the Shabsels brothers have until Oct. 2 to right their ship. However, many in the camp industry worry that if they fail, they may decide to sell off camp properties to pay their debts, drastically affecting the future of the camps.

A cascade of financial problems led to the bankruptcy filing. According to court documents, the Shabsels brothers owed half a billion dollars. In addition, a missed payment to bondholders revealed that $34 million had gone missing.

The Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported that insiders accused the brothers of pledging double assets.

“It seems that this is a case of a company owner who came here to raise debt by lying,” a source told the paper.

On top of lawsuits against the brothers that have piled up over the decades, a criminal investigation has also been launched into their financial activity.

Nevertheless, camp directors are telling families not to worry.

“Everything is good,” a Blue Star Camps employee told eJP. The camp is “absolutely financially healthy.”

“There is a lot we don’t know about the camps affected, but what we do hope for is a positive resolution so campers and families aren’t impacted,” said Jamie Simon, CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

Protesters stormed a McDonald’s in Germany, yelling at patrons that their patronage supports genocide.

Video footage shows a woman shouting, “What’s it like to eat at a place that backs genocide?”

“Tastes good, doesn’t it?” she added mockingly. “You’re putting your money into weapons that murder kids!”

“No other places to eat, huh?” she demanded. “Keep it up, keep it up; support genocide and killing kids in Palestine and Lebanon,” she added sarcastically. “And best of all, donate to Israel.”

(Credit: Hen Mazzig)

Off camera, a man shouted, “Donate to child murder. Bloody patties, the patties are filled with children’s blood,” echoing the ancient medieval blood libel that Jews kill Christian children to eat their blood in their Passover matzo.

The video ended with protesters shouting, “Free Palestine, free Lebanon, boycott McDonald’s.”

McDonald’s maintains a policy of neutrality on the conflict but has been associated with Israel due to its ownership of its franchises there.

Jewish advocate Hen Mazzig, who posted the video, pointed out that this performative behavior accomplishes nothing but inciting anti-Jewish hatred.

“Screaming age-old antisemitic slurs at random people eating lunch does not help Palestinians,” he wrote. “All it does is incite deadly hatred against Jews.”

The accusation of eating the blood of Palestinian children in this protest shortly follows a vicious assault on a Jewish subway commuter in New York City in which a woman, later identified as Diana Smith and arrested, shouted about Jews eating kids before pulling the commuter to the ground, beating her, choking her and pulling out a tuft of her hair.

A landmark hotel beside MetLife Stadium is being reborn just as the Meadowlands prepares for its biggest global spotlight yet.

P3 Properties, the New Jersey real estate firm founded by Orthodox Jewish developer Harvey Rosenblatt, has acquired the former Sheraton/Hilton Meadowlands at 2 Meadowlands Plaza in East Rutherford, most recently known as the Park Hotel, and is transforming it into World of Blue, a 21-story, 427-room independent hotel and event venue. P3’s own portfolio lists the deal as a $32 million acquisition, with the property carrying a prior loan of roughly $70 million.

P3 is pushing a reported $100 million redevelopment that includes major work on HVAC, elevators, building systems, guest rooms, interiors, meeting spaces and public areas. The hotel’s own site now markets 35,000+ square feet of event space, 22 event spaces, 427 rooms, a restaurant, a speakeasy bar, an indoor pool and a location just 0.3 miles from MetLife Stadium.

MetLife Stadium is set to host eight FIFA World Cup matches, including the final, while the NYNJ Host Committee projects more than 1.2 million visitors and $3.3 billion in regional economic activity tied to the tournament. P3 is trying to own one of the most valuable hospitality doorsteps in America at the exact moment the world is coming through it.

World of Blue is being pitched as more than a place to sleep. P3 is aiming at corporate hosts, sponsors, VIP travelers, private events, watch parties and large-scale gatherings, with Rosenblatt calling it “a hospitality command center.” That matters because the property sits near MetLife, American Dream, Newark Liberty International Airport and major highways, a rare convergence point for sports, business, tourism and events.

There is also a clear Jewish community angle. World of Blue is advertising a glatt kosher events operation, a Shabbos elevator, a Shabbat-observant floor and what it calls the largest kosher-capable ballroom in the New York metro area outside Manhattan. The Horizon Ballroom is marketed as seating up to 1,200 for a plated dinner, making the property a potential heavyweight for Jewish weddings, Shabbos programs, bar mitzvahs and large communal gatherings.

The firm says it has more than $2 billion in assets under management across more than 20 properties in seven states, with a focus on buying underperforming properties and rebuilding their value through hands-on ownership. World of Blue now becomes the most visible version of that strategy, a once-familiar hotel tower turned into a branded destination, timed for the biggest sporting event the region has ever hosted.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the early morning arrests of seven people Wednesday on a 10-count indictment for attacks on and harassment of leaders at the University of Michigan and businesses in the eastern district of Michigan.

Patel wrote that according to the indictment, “a group of college-aged adults engaged in a coordinated campaign of violent, criminal acts seeking to pressure University of Michigan leaders and other businesses in the Eastern District of Michigan to cut off all ties with Israel.”

(Credit: U.S. Department of Justice)

Some of the acts that were committed included breaking windows by throwing jars of chemicals through the windows of homes in which children were sleeping, leaving threatening notes, spray-painting “Free Palestine” and “Intifada” on houses and other acts of vandalism.

Patel alleged in his statement that the perpetrators deliberately chose the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel to commit their most visible crimes, targeting on Oct. 7, 2024, the Bloomfield Township Jewish Federation and vandalizing the home of the president of the University of Michigan, with the latter act committed by an employee of the university.

(Credit: U.S. Department of Justice)

The criminal acts took place for about a year, from March 2024 to April 2025, according to the statement.

Patel praised the Detroit FBI and its partners for conducting “a thorough, detailed investigation of this case” and charging those involved “for their alleged role in conspiracies to transmit threats in interstate and foreign commerce.”

The Department of Justice stated that eight conspirators had been indicted.

“In America, we rule by law, not by fear,” said Jerome F. Gorgon Jr., U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. “These alleged threats and attempts to terrorize government officials, businesses and the Jewish Federation are anti-American. We will counter intimidation with justice.”

Violent protests swept through Belfast, Northern Ireland, following the brutal stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie, who lost an eye when a Sudanese immigrant pinned him down and attempted to behead him before bystanders intervened. Gruesome video of the attack went viral and triggered a wave of anti-immigrant protests overnight.

Hundreds of masked protesters stormed immigrant neighborhoods and torched homes and vehicles, burning people out of their homes. Police said that many of those targeted were Black.

Hundreds of masked protesters swept through Belfast, targeting homes of immigrants.

The 30-year-old assailant crossed into Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum, and was granted a five-year stay. He appeared in court Wednesday, facing charges of attempted murder, threatening to kill a radiographer and possessing a knife. He refused the offer of legal representation via a translator.

“I’ve lived on my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was a horrific one,” Anselme Shima, a Congolese immigrant who became a Belfast resident 10 years ago, told Reuters. “We don’t know what to do. I’m scared. Seeing this, I’m wondering if I’m next.”

Protesters torched homes in Belfast.

Top-ranking politicians slammed the actions of the protesters.

“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein declared.

“Taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong,” said Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionist Party.

“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote in a statement on X. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.”

Police rescued immigrant families from burning homes.

Other politicians called for a review of the open-border policy between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which is an independent country. The policy formed part of the peace process between the two entities that ended the conflict in Ireland known as “The Troubles,” which killed thousands of people.

The victim’s family called for calm in the wake of the horrific stabbing.

“We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, ​and peaceful protest is the only way forward,” the family said in a statement. “We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country … ​We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility.”

Diana Smith, the 45-year-old Black woman who assaulted a Jewish Orthodox woman on the C-train in Manhattan, appeared virtually for her court appearance from the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, wearing a purple hospital gown.

Smith, who pleaded not guilty to charges of felony assault, harassment and criminal obstruction of breathing as a hate crime, had been known to police before, having had six run-ins with law enforcement over disturbing behavior. Prosecutors requested $30,000 bail, but Smith’s defense attorney requested she be released on her own recognizance because she has no money for bail. The judge ultimately set the bail at $10,000.

Diana Smith (from a post on X)

The victim, who asked not to be identified, told The New York Post in an interview that she had only been on the train for one stop when Smith boarded and immediately began the confrontation.

“‘You could always see the reflection of a Jew,'” the victim quoted Smith as saying before turning toward the Montreal native and giving her a sinister smile.

“I decided in that moment I really did not want to show fear in the face of that, so I stared at her right back down, and I said, ‘So you see my reflection?'”

“And she said, ‘Yeah, and I smell it on you too,'” the victim said.

At that point, the woman, who now lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, began recording the incident.

The footage begins with Smith shouting inside a subway car full of commuters, “Jews are eating kids!”

She leans toward the victim with a creepy grin and says, “You’re a Jew; I can smell the kids,” as the woman repeatedly says, “Don’t touch me.” 

According to later reports, Smith knocked the 23-year-old nurse to the ground, beat her, choked her and pulled out a fistful of hair. Video footage shows other commuters pushing her back and shouting, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“It’s okay for her to eat kids?” the woman yells. “But I can’t choke her down?”

“I was just assaulted,” the shocked victim says in a trembling voice.

Smith knocked the phone out of her hands at that point.

Subsequent photos show the woman’s red scalp and a missing tuft of hair.

The young woman exited at Canal Street and reported the attack to police. Passengers on the subway pressed the emergency button, alerting officers, who intervened and apprehended Smith.

Smith’s post-assault behavior was equally unhinged. Manhattan ADA Sarah Csanadi said in court Monday that Smith ranted to police, “I am sick of Jewish people eating kids and then playing in my face and acting like I don’t have my own rights on this land.”

“My father is a moor from Jamaica, West Indies, and he owns the land that we are on right now,” she added bizarrely and unhistorically.

In her weirdest and strangest statement yet, she added, “The disgusting part is that we are not eating the kids in our hamburger meat.”

Police have charged the assailant with hate crime assault, hate crime criminal obstruction of breathing and hate crime aggravated harassment. The victim was admitted to the hospital with minor injuries, including a concussion.

“When I had to identify her, a ton of people were like, ‘Oh, we saw what happened, are you OK?'” the victim said in the Post interview, explaining that commuters intervened only when it was too late. “And that was extremely triggering for me because of course I’m not OK. I kept just thinking, I’m not in Nazi Germany.”

“I don’t think New York is protecting Jews. I don’t think Mamdani not going to the Israel Day Parade is helping,” she added. The assault occurred the same day as the Israel Day Parade.

In a development many Jews find terrifying, Nazi tattoo candidate Graham Platner won Tuesday’s primary election in Maine. The Democrat will face off against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for the Senate seat in the general election.

The two already began the sparring.

“Susan Collins may have started her career decades ago in Washington with good intentions, but she has become just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves,” Platner said during his victory speech. “She got elected promising to protect Roe versus Wade, only to turn around and put on a justice, but a justice of Supreme Court who overturned it. She lied to us.”

“Mainers aren’t looking for bitter campaigns, grand promises, or angry speeches riddled with lies,” Collins countered. “They’re looking for results. They want affordable health care, safe communities, good-paying jobs, strong schools, and someone who will show up and do the work.”

The race is worrying Jews who feel that Platner’s Nazi tattoo should have been disqualifying, signifying an ominous normalization of antisemitism within the Democratic Party, with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) blasting his own party for putting Platner forward.

Support for the Democratic Party among Jews, a traditionally Democratic bloc, began to slip after Oct. 7 as antisemitism rose on the left.

Platner is a veteran and an oyster farmer whose business has drawn scrutiny. His financial disclosures list his mother’s restaurant as his sole customer, casting doubt on his portrayal of himself as a hard-working, blue-collar type. Growing up in an affluent household with a mother who owns an upscale restaurant and his attorney father has also challenged this narrative.

Worse yet, his campaign got off to a rocky start when it was revealed that he sported a Nazi Totenkopf (deaths-head) tattoo, which he claimed not to have known had Nazi origins. He has since had it inked over with a Celtic symbol, but his former campaign manager, Genevieve McDonald, said he had always understood the implications of the tattoo. Platner’s former girlfriends and acquaintances also confirmed her account.

Platner’s candidacy has also been troubled by allegations of physical abuse of a former girlfriend and a sexting scandal during his marriage.

“I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret, that I live with and I continue to learn from,” Platner said Tuesday, referring to these issues. “It is my job to earn your trust, faith and support … Redemption is not just some simple or easy destination.”

Outgoing president of Colombia Gustavo Petro posted two words to show his contempt for the right-wing candidate for president, Abelardo de la Espriella, who will be running in the country’s June 21 election.

The two words were “Heil Hitler,” posted along with a local outlet’s op-ed in support of Espriella, who is promoting such Israel-friendly initiatives as restoring diplomatic ties with Israel and opening an embassy in the Jewish state. The left-wing president had actively cut ties with Israel in 2024.

Heil Hitler https://t.co/IbRBgwUY3N

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 7, 2026

Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Coalition of Latin American Legislators Against Antisemitism collected the signatures of 24 lawmakers from 14 Latin American countries appended to a statement denouncing Petro’s antisemitic post.

June 8, 2026: 24 lawmakers from 14 Latin American countries have signed a declaration condemning Colombian President Gustavo Petro's use of the Nazi slogan "Heil Hitler."

🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇷 🇪🇨 🇬🇹 🇭🇳 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇩🇴 🇺🇾

The declaration was issued by CAM's Coalition of Latin American… pic.twitter.com/m6Hq4a14LQ

— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) June 9, 2026

“The use of references to Nazism must not become a rhetorical tool to discredit political or ideological positions. Democratic leaders have a responsibility to promote a respectful public debate that is conscious of the weight of words,” the statement said, warning that “Heil Hitler” is one of the most popular symbols of Nazi ideology among Jew haters.

Espriella will run against Iván Cepeda, who has vowed to continue Petro’s anti-Israel policies. Petro lost the national election in May, when the other two candidates garnered 40 percent of the vote.

Iván Cepeda, left, and Abelardo de la Espriella. (Photo by Luis Acosta and Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)

Petro has insisted that he is not an antisemite but that his policies against Israel reflect only his opposition to the Israeli government’s military actions and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. With his “Heil Hitler” post, he will have a harder time making that argument.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.Y.) blasted a Maine Democrat for saying that a Nazi tattoo is preferable to an Israeli tattoo.

At a campaign event for Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has come under fire for his Nazi Totenkopf (death’s-head) tattoo, a woman who has been identified as Laura Dobson answered a reporter’s questions about the Nazi tattoo.

“I think people are making as much of it as they can because they don’t have a lot of substance around anything else,” the woman said. “And if they did, we’d hear about it, believe me.”

“They are trawling for dirt,” she added.

In this now-infamous video, a woman who has been identified as Laura Dobson says she prefers the Nazi tattoo to an Israeli flag tattoo. (Credit: Caroline McCaughey’s X account)

Then Caroline McCaughey from The New York Sun asked her, “So if he has, like, an Israeli flag tattoo … would that be a deal breaker?”

“For me?” the woman responded. “Honestly? Yeah. Israeli? Yeah. Because I don’t support genocide.”

Dobson ran as an independent against Susan Collins in 2008, sought a seat in the Maine House of Representatives and served as co-chair of the Cranberry Isles Municipal Advisory Commission.

StopAntisemitism is the one who identified the woman in the video as Laura Dobson.

“Meet Maine resident Laurie Dobson,” the group posted on X alongside the now-infamous video. “She can overlook Graham Platner having a Nazi tattoo on his chest … But had it been an Israeli flag tattoo? That would be a dealbreaker. Suddenly, he’d be unfit for office.”

Gottheimer was incensed by his own party’s normalization of antisemitism.

“Are you kidding me? A tattoo of the Israeli flag is worse than a Nazi symbol? This should not be welcome in the Democratic Party!” Gottheimer wrote on X.

Lawmakers on the opposite side of the aisle jumped on board.

“Today’s Democrat party: Nazi? Great! You’re my guy!! Jewish? Hell no!” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sneered. “Utterly tragic.”

“I couldn’t agree more with Rep. Josh Gottheimer,” wrote Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), alongside a video of a Fox interview with Gottheimer.

A woman who shouted “Jews are eating kids” on a New York subway and assaulted a young Jewish woman the previous weekend has been arrested and identified as Diana Smith.

Smith is a New York creative with the pseudonym “Lädy Millard,” who serves as a creative director for Block Realty Investment Coin.

The victim filmed the incident, which shows a Black woman shouting inside a subway car full of commuters, “Jews are eating kids!”

She leans toward the victim with a sinister smile and says, “You’re a Jew; I can smell the kids,” as the woman repeatedly says, “Don’t touch me.”

The video shows the deranged behavior of Diana Smith and the assault on a subway passenger. (Credit: Combat Antisemitism Movement)

According to later reports, Smith knocked the 23-year-old nurse to the ground, beat her, choked her and pulled out a fistful of hair. Video footage shows other commuters pushing her back and shouting, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“It’s okay for her to eat kids?” the woman yells. “But I can’t choke her down?”

“I was just assaulted,” the shocked victim says in a trembling voice.

Subsequent photos show the woman’s red scalp and a missing tuft of hair.

The victim was admitted to the hospital with minor injuries, including a concussion.

This photo shows the tuft of hair pulled out of the victim’s head. (From a post on X)

According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), which posted the video of the attack on social media, the young woman exited at Canal Street and reported the attack to police. Passengers on the subway pressed the emergency button, alerting officers, who intervened and apprehended Smith.

Police have charged the assailant with hate crime assault, hate crime criminal obstruction of breathing and hate crime aggravated harassment.

“I kept telling myself: I am not in Nazi Germany,” CAM reported the victim as saying.

“Antisemitism has now moved from just words to actual violence. We have tracked 193 incidents of antisemitism in New York City this year through May 31 and that equates to more than one per day.”

Smith’s LinkedIn profile.

“Antisemitism has now moved from just words to actual violence,” CAM Chief Government Affairs Officer Lisa Katz told CBS News. “We have tracked 193 incidents of antisemitism in New York City this year through May 31 and that equates to more than one per day.”

Urging the public to take action, CAM stated on its website: “CAM has launched Report It, a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent. Download it today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it.”

A man approached three Jewish men on a street in East Haven, Conn., and yelled antisemitic slurs at them. Smelling of alcohol, he shouted “get out of my city,” “baby killers” and “go back where you belong,” also asking if they liked “genocide,” according to the victims. Police also alleged that he shoved “a fourth person, who was trying to intervene, threw a rolled-up newspaper at them, then pointed at the yarmulke one of the victims was wearing and slapped it off his head, causing it to fall on the ground.”

The incident took place on Crown Street.

The victims helped the New Haven Police Department identify the perpetrator, 36-year-old Paul Smith of East Haven. After confirming the victims’ accounts with video footage, police arrested the assailant Monday and charged him with intimidation due to bias in the second degree and disorderly conduct.

“This behavior will never be tolerated in New Haven,” said David Zannelli, chief of the New Haven Police Department.

Rabbi Meir Posner, the director of Chabad at Yale, who was one of the victims, said in an interview with the New Haven Independent that he had been walking with a recent Yale graduate when they ran into a third man, another Chabad community member, and stopped to chat. He said that a loud and aggressive man approached them and started yelling abuse, egged on by two people who had accompanied him.

“It was very clearly directed at us,” he said, since both he and one of the other men wore a yarmulke and tzitzit.

“I think New Haven is a great city,” Posner said, praising the police for their rapid and successful intervention. “I think that Yale is a great place with great people as well,” and the incident marks “a dark moment in an otherwise bright city.” 

“It is disturbing that there are people that feel the need to express themselves in that way and that harbor such feelings,” he added. “There was nothing rational or reasonable about this person’s behavior,” nor of the other two “instigators.”

“It makes me feel like the best response is to respond with irrational kindness and goodness, in the same way that hate can be irrational,” the rabbi concluded.

In a post on X, the ADL warned that this incident did not take place in isolation.

“This is not an isolated incident,” the group wrote. “Our latest audit recorded 203 physical assaults against Jews in 2025, the highest number ever recorded since ADL began tracking in 1979. Those responsible must be held accountable.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it had charged a man with plotting to target synagogues for attacks.

Mohamed Sagha, 22, who lives in Wayne in Passaic County, N.J., believed he was communicating with a member of the terrorist group ISIS, when in reality he was talking to an undercover agent. From December 2025 to June 2026, the would-be terrorist relayed plans for “potential attacks on targets within the United States, including places of worship.”

According to court filings, “he was contemplating carrying out an attack of his own, possible on a National Guard location or on a Jewish place of worship” near his home and planned to travel to areas in Syria where ISIS operates in secret.

The DOJ also said that he went so far as to purchase a virtual private network to be used as an encryption tool for the person he believed to be working for ISIS.

“Those who seek to advance the objectives of foreign terrorist organizations should expect a swift and coordinated response from federal law enforcement,” said Robert Frazer, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

“Based on my training and experience, had Sagha been communicating with an actual ISIS member and not a confidential source, he would have provided members of a terrorist organization with a tool capable of enhancing their operational security and ability to communicate and operate online with reduced risk of identification, thereby facilitating their planned acts of terrorism,” an FBI special agent wrote in the complaint.

An eight-month-old baby became the first to receive an experimental gene therapy treatment for a serious genetic disorder in which a missing gene causes intractable epilepsy, in another medical miracle story coming out of Israel this month.

In addition to epilepsy, the disorder causes developmental delays and, frequently, premature death. While the mutation is found worldwide, it is particularly prevalent among Yemeni Jews.

From left to right: Dr. Dror Kraus, Dr. Naama Orenstein and Prof. Rami Aqeilan. (From a post on X)

The groundbreaking research on the WWOX gene was laid by Prof. Rami Aqeilan of the Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research at the university’s Faculty of Medicine in a pioneering collaboration between Jewish and Arab scientists. Dr. Naama Orenstein and Dr. Dror Kraus of Schneider Children’s Medical Center performed the surgery in May, injecting healthy copies of the WWOX gene directly into the infant’s brain neurons. The baby is now home and doing well.

“What began as a scientific effort to understand the biological function of a gene has now become a potential treatment for children suffering from one of the most severe forms of epilepsy,” Aqeilan said.

A Sudanese immigrant attempted to behead a man on the streets of Belfast in Northern Ireland Monday. Pinning him down on the floor, the immigrant stabbed the victim in the neck, face and back before bystanders rushed the perpetrator and struck his head with a hurling stick.

Police were called to Kinnaird Avenue at about 10:30 p.m. and arrested a man for attempted murder. They at first believed him to be Somali but later confirmed he was from Sudan. The victim, who police said was in his 40s, sustained serious injuries to the face, neck and back.

“Last night’s brutal attempted beheading in Belfast is appalling,” said Chris Philp, shadow home secretary. “The government must ensure full details about the suspect’s nationality and immigration status are released. Total transparency is required.”

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT: A Sudanese immigrant attempts to behead a man on a street in Belfast before bystanders intervene. (From a post on X)

“If it turns out this man is an illegal immigrant, it would provide further evidence that the government’s lack of border control is endangering the public,” he added.

Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, appealed for calm, while declining to comment on the attempted murderer’s immigration status. He said that it’s “innocent people who suffer” when tensions are inflamed.

“The horrific attack in Belfast last night is sickening,” said Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer. “I have absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.

Men with knives dance in a park in Belfast in a video that claims they are celebrating the attempted beheading of a Belfast resident. (Credit: Turning Point UK)

The leaders of various political factions in Northern Ireland issued a joint statement, saying they stand “united in our condemnation of the horrific incident in North Belfast last night.”

“There is no place in our society for this kind of brutality,” they said in their statement. “Our immediate thoughts are with the victim and his family, and we hope he makes a full and complete recovery. Our thoughts are also with those eyewitnesses to the incident, as well as those brave members of the public who intervened.”

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party in Great Britain and a staunch supporter of Israel, also weighed in.

“I’m absolutely horrified. It is a horrific incident,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything about who the attacker might have been, but I think a lot of people will start wondering yet again, is this someone who should not have been in our country? Have there been failings around our borders?”

Another video posted to social media claimed to show men with knives dancing in Belfast following the incident, in apparent celebration of the attempted murder.

A fifth suspect in the London Hatzola ambulance arson case was charged in the torching of the ambulances in Golders Green in March.

Subhan Ahmed, a British citizen from Walthamstow in northeast London, was “charged on Monday, 8 June, with assisting an offender, contrary to section 4 of the Criminal Law Act, 1967,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. “Ahmed has been bailed with strict conditions and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 16 June.”

Damage to the ambulances from the arson attack is seen in this photo. (From a post on X)

The other four defendants are charged with committing arson, destroying or damaging property and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, according to police. They attended a hearing at the Old Bailey on April 24 and are being held in custody until their trial next January.

On March 23, four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer ambulance group Hatzola were torched in what appears to be a targeted hate crime in Golders Green, London.

At 1:35 a.m., three individuals set fire to the ambulances, while a fourth accomplice waited in a getaway car. Gas canisters in the vehicles exploded, causing damage to nearby buildings and a synagogue and resulting in about £1 million worth of damage.

The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command investigated the case. Authorities are probing a possible link to an Iran-backed group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, that has claimed responsibility for the ambulance arson attack and several other recent attacks in London.

A U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most dangerous military flashpoints, with both crew members safely rescued and President Donald Trump saying no one was injured.

“The pilots are fine. Nobody injured,” Trump told reporters in New York, adding that the administration would issue a report on the incident. For now, the central question remains unanswered: whether the Apache was brought down by Iranian fire, suffered a mechanical failure, or went down because of another operational problem.

The crash comes as U.S. forces are operating in an increasingly hostile Gulf environment, where Iran’s regime has been trying to squeeze one of the world’s most critical maritime routes. U.S. Central Command has been using attack helicopters, fighter jets, and drones around Hormuz as Washington pushes back against Iranian threats to shipping and attempts to restrict traffic through the waterway.

Apache helicopters fly low, close, and exposed. In the Strait of Hormuz, that means operating inside a crowded battlespace filled with Iranian drones, coastal weapons, small boats, radar systems, and constant risk of miscalculation. Even with the crew safe, the loss of an Apache near the strait sends a clear signal: the U.S.-Iran standoff is still sitting on a live wire.

CENTCOM recently said U.S. forces shot down Iranian attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the same area. Those interceptions came after another wave of Iranian drones was also destroyed near the strait, underscoring how aggressively Tehran has been testing American and allied red lines.

051021-F-2828D-284
A U.S. Army AH-64D Longbow Apache, 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, Fort Campbell Ky., provides ground forces with air support from Forward Operating Base Speicher Iraq, Oct. 21, 2005, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway) (Released)

The 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, the “Expect No Mercy” Battalion, is the premier attack helicopter battalion in the United States Army. Its lethal fleet of 24 Ah-64D Longbow Apaches is currently conducting combat operations in Northern Iraq, caring on a long tradition of excellence among Army Aviation.

1-101st first gained notoriety during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when it fired the first shots of the Gulf War during Operation Normandy, destroying key Iraqi radar sites and creating a safe corridor for US aircraft to commence the air campaign. The battalion again proved itself during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-2004, conducting several mobile strike deep attacks during major combat operations followed by eight months of quick reaction force (QRF), reconnaissance, and VIP security missions during stability and support operations (SASO). After a rigorous 19 months of training and maintenance back at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the “Expect No Mercy” battalion deployed to Iraq for its second OIF tour.

Since arriving in Iraq, the battalion has conducted an aggressive Relief-in-Place/Transfer-of-Authority (REP/TOA) with 8-229th Aviation Regiment from Fort Knox, Kentucky. The battalion is on track to fly over 1000 combat hours in October, and is already making an impact on operations in Iraq. Initial combat missions involved teams of two “No Mercy” aircraft along with one 8-229th aircraft conducting local area orientations (LAO) to familiarize aircrews with the environment, geography, and unity on the ground. By no means was an LAO an administrative mission though: while on orientations, aircrews participated in numerous reconnaissance

The timing is also sensitive because Israel and Iran have just stepped back from another direct exchange of fire, after Iranian missile attacks and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Tehran is still trying to link the Iran front to Israel’s fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning of renewed escalation if Israel continues targeting the terror group.

UN Watch, a watchdog that scrutinizes the U.N. and reports its misdeeds, posted a snippet of an interview Monday of notorious antisemite Francesca Albanese in which she explains what antisemitism is and, of course, gets it all wrong.

The interviewer asked the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the territories about accusations against her of antisemitism.

“You have been called an antisemite as well,” the sympathetic interviewer said. “As a result of your work, you’ve had death threats; your family has all manner of appalling threats leveled against them, too. How do you respond to all of this? How do you look to the future?”

“I know that the accusation of antisemitism is paralyzing,” Albanese responded. “I’m European, and I come from a country who has been visibly, ostentatiously, responsible for the Holocaust — part of the Holocaust. And again, there are so many crimes that have been committed during Nazi fascism.”

Francesca Albanese explains what antisemitism is in an interview. (Credit: UN Watch)

Albanese went on to explain that antisemitism includes all Semites, including Arabs, a widely debunked explanation.

“And so, I do know, I do know very well what is antisemitism,” she said. “It’s the — and again, first of all, it’s broader than hate against Jews. It’s hate and discrimination against Semite people, including Arab people. Look at antisemitism is very real against Jewish people and against Arab people.”

“In Europe it’s still real,” she added. “And there is a rise of antisemitism.”

As the interviewer pointed out, Albanese is widely viewed as an antisemite.

At a forum in Doha in February, Albanese gave a video speech wherein she identified Israel as the “common enemy” of humanity. In 2025, she made comments accusing American Jews of faking antisemitic incidents, accusing Israelis of using dogs to rape Arabs and accusing the “Jewish lobby” of subjugating Americans.

In February 2024, she tweeted at French President Emmanuel Macron that Jews on Oct. 7 were “not killed because of their Jewishness, but as a reaction to Israel’s oppression.” In August of that year she compared Israel’s campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust. And in July, she reposted a photo comparing Israel’s prime minister to Adolf Hitler.

Albanese’s comments sparked a furious backlash even among European countries, leading Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany — and even her native country, Italy — to demand her resignation. The United States went further, sanctioning the U.N. official in July 2025.

Popular musician Dave Matthews apologized to his audience from the stage after a previous performance saw audience members shouting antisemitic slurs.

In that past performance, which took place on May 30 at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Matthews used his stage as a soapbox from which to opine about Gaza, prompting an enthusiastically antisemitic response from the audience.

This was not the first time Matthews used his massive platform as a performer to share his political views. He has often criticized Israel from the stage and appeared at performances carrying signs accusing Israel of genocide.

At a performance in North Carolina, Matthews apologized to the Jewish community, reading from prepared remarks on June 5 at Coastal Credit Union Music Park in Raleigh.

“I have a deep respect and love for, all of my life that I can remember, and an admiration for the culture and history of the Jewish people,” Matthews said.

No “group of people has contributed more to the advancement and the evolution of understanding of each other and the world around us and the universe,” he added, referencing Albert Einstein, George Gershwin and Hannah Arendt.

“It breaks my heart that my opinions, borne out of deep commitment to nonviolent resolution and resistance, can be twisted to serve any hateful or racist or bigoted ideas,” he said. “I am so sorry for any misunderstanding or pain I might have caused. My intention is to help bring an end to the seemingly endless violence in the world.”

Matthews added that he found out about the Oct. 7 attacks during a friend’s bar mitzvah.

“It was interrupted by the horror and the violence on the other side of the world, an ongoing horror,” he said.

“But the violence born out of that day against the Palestinian people is no less horrific and multiplies the death and the suffering over and over and over,” he added.

Rami Feinstein, a musician who runs a support group for Jewish Dave Matthews fans who are upset by his rhetoric, was having none of it.

In a post on Instagram, Feinstein wrote what Matthews’ apology should have said. He wrote that Matthews should have taken full responsibility for the harm his rhetoric caused and understood how biased his views were from the beginning, when he failed to publicly say anything about Hamas’ attack on Israelis, speaking only of Gazan suffering for four months, until under pressure he finally condemned the attack. He should have explained why the accusation of genocide is false and apologized for using that libel against the State of Israel.

Feinstein went on to say that he should have expressed his understanding of how uncomfortable he made his fans at every performance, using his stage to hector Israel.

“I will speak more thoughtfully,” Feinstein wrote Matthews should have written. “And I will also work to ensure my Jewish fans and all of my fans feel welcome at my shows again.”

“I am sorry, and I will do better,” Feinstein concluded on Matthews’ behalf.

President Donald Trump arrived at Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday evening, the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.

Trump is occupying a box at the arena with other administration officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Seated with him as well are his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and granddaughter, Kai Trump, as well as Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

Chants of “USA! USA!” filled the arena just before the performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but the New Yorkers in attendance booed the president when his image was caught on the in-arena Jumbotron during the singing of the anthem. Once the anthem was over, the audience took up a chant in favor of the Knicks, who are playing against the San Antonio Spurs.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also in attendance, in a standing-room-only section that he is sharing with local lawmakers.

In an interview with CNN Sunday, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, broadcast a plea to the government and people of Israel: End the war, which will ultimately fail to deliver your objectives.

War “will never provide you with security and safety,” he said, directly addressing the Israelis. “We are ready, we are willing, we are committed. Are you? If you are, let’s sit and talk.”

“We are fed up and we want to live in peace,” the president said. The Lebanese people “deserve to live in peace and in dignity. They deserve not seeing their homes being destroyed every five to 10 years.”

“They [Israel] can invade the whole country, they can flatten the whole country, but they will never be able to achieve their objective,” he added, without explaining how Israel should instead react to Hezbollah’s indiscriminate drone and missile strikes against Israel.

While Beirut and Jerusalem have engaged in direct talks, Aoun has not yet spoken directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that would not happen until an agreement to end the war is reached. He cautioned that such an agreement would not be a full-fledged peace deal but would be more like a non-aggression pact.

“We need to end the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel. Forever. And this (pact) could be a path forward for a just and lasting peace,” he said.

The Lebanese leader said that normalization of ties would be established only when Israel implements a two-state solution to resolve its own conflict with Arabs in Gaza and the territories.

Aoun also accused Iran of using Hezbollah as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States, to the detriment of the Lebanese people.

Israeli officials have argued that despite the president’s apparent desire for peace, his government has shown neither the willingness nor the ability to restrain Hezbollah and seize back its sovereignty over areas controlled by the terror group.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was suspended Monday, with a final decision regarding his status pending.

Karim Khan was accused of sexual harassment of an employee two years ago, and he stepped down in May 2025 amid an investigation into his conduct. The body that oversees the ICC, the Assembly of States Parties, will conduct a meeting to decide whether he will retain his position.

The executive committee of the ICC said it derived its findings from “the report of an investigation undertaken by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the underlying evidence, the advice of an ad hoc Panel of judicial experts, and written submissions.”

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during a press conference at the San Carlos Palace in Bogota, Colombia, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

According to a copy of the report, Khan had “nonconsensual sexual contact with (the aide) in his office, at his private residence, and whilst on mission.” A three-judge panel nevertheless found the evidence inconclusive, and Khan has maintained his innocence throughout.

Khan gained notoriety for issuing warrants for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials. He has since been accused of issuing the warrants to deflect attention away from his personal troubles arising from allegations of sexual harassment as well as of being swayed by Qatar and private British intelligence agencies.

The ICC prosecutor denied Israel complementarity, part of the Rome Statute that says ICC proceedings are a last resort for countries that are willing and able to investigate their own actions and present their findings to the international community. In May 2024, shortly before issuing the warrants, Khan had been scheduled to visit Israel to examine the evidence for himself, but he canceled the trip and instead issued the arrest warrants, prompting scrutiny into his motives.

The company behind ChatGPT said it has confidentially submitted an S-1 filing to the SEC, opening the door to what could become one of the most closely watched IPOs in tech history. OpenAI stressed that no final timing has been set, saying it may still remain private for a while because some parts of its plan are easier to execute away from public-market pressure.

A confidential S-1 is not a launch date. It is the start of the process: regulators review the draft, the company can revise it privately, and the real financials stay hidden until a public filing. But it also means OpenAI is now officially preparing the machinery needed to go public if the market window looks strong enough.

The move lands in the middle of a much bigger race. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, recently filed its own confidential IPO paperwork, while SpaceX is also pushing toward public markets. That sets up an extraordinary test for investors: are they ready to value frontier AI labs not like normal software companies, but like the next layer of global infrastructure?

OpenAI Ceo Sam Altman speaks to journalists after meeting with US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

OpenAI enters the process with enormous momentum and enormous questions. The company recently raised $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion valuation, backed by some of the biggest names in tech and finance. It says it is generating about $2 billion in revenue per month, with ChatGPT, enterprise tools, developer APIs and Codex all feeding into its growth story.

But the public market will not only buy the hype. Investors will want to see the burn rate, compute costs, cloud commitments, margins, customer concentration and whether OpenAI can turn massive demand into durable profits. Running frontier AI is brutally expensive. Training and serving models require huge data-center capacity, advanced chips and long-term infrastructure deals that can strain even the strongest balance sheets.

There is also the governance question. OpenAI began as a nonprofit, later built a capped-profit structure, and has now reorganized into a public benefit corporation still controlled by the OpenAI Foundation. That structure is designed to keep the company’s mission tied to public benefit, but an IPO would put it under a new kind of pressure: quarterly results, public shareholders and constant market scrutiny.

OpenAI is trying to frame the move as optionality, not urgency. Its message is clear: the company wants the ability to go public quickly if that becomes the right path, without committing to ring the bell immediately.

Still, this is a major moment. ChatGPT helped trigger the modern AI boom. Now OpenAI has to prove that the boom can become a public-market business at historic scale.

The next real milestone is the public S-1. That is when the story gets harder to spin and easier to measure. The numbers will show whether OpenAI is simply the most famous AI company in the world, or whether it can become one of the most valuable public companies ever built.

Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) used his time on the floor of the House Monday to deliver an antisemitic rant excoriating Israel for its 1967 attack on the USS Liberty.

This popular antisemitic theory alleges that Israel deliberately attacked an American ship during the Six-Day War, killing 34 U.S. service members and wounding 171 others.

Israel said it mistook the vessel for an enemy ship, took responsibility immediately following the incident, and paid millions in restitution to the families of the victims. The United States concluded that it was also a case of mistaken identity upon investigating the matter.

But Massie, who has blamed pro-Israel groups for his defeat in his state’s primary election, is wading deeper into the morass of anti-Jewish hatred.

Rep. Thomas Massie delivers an antisemitic rant on the House floor. (Credit: Thomas Massie)

“This was an effort to kill everybody on board,” Massie said. “There was no intention of taking prisoners after the 25 grueling minutes of attack on this virtually unarmed ship.”

“None of these distinguished men think this was an accident,” Massie said, referring to U.S. officials who dissented from the official account. “They think it was intentional murder by the country of Israel, either as a false flag operation or because they simply didn’t want anybody observing what they were doing that day.”

He called for another investigation, despite multiple probes by both governments reaching the same conclusion: It was a tragic accident.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said he believes that Massie has chosen to align with the anti-Israel crowd.

“I’ve always had respect for Massie. He was always — in my opinion — wrong about his approach but he was standing on heartfelt principles and had intellectual backing. He’s a nice guy,” Crenshaw wrote on X. “But comments like this make me question his authenticity. The USS Liberty incident is a tragic one, but it’s an incident with a clear conclusion if one uses any objective analysis of the facts.”

“I thought Massie was capable of objective analysis. Perhaps he still is,” Crenshaw continued. “Perhaps we are simply witnessing another example of the irresistible incentive to jump on the bandwagon of grifters that guarantee you a specific kind of social media audience and attention that ultimately results in profits.”

On the other hand, right-wing antisemites welcomed Massie’s words.

“Thomas Massie is doing the Lord’s work,” wrote Stew Peters.

Peters is a podcast host on the extreme right who has suggested that a “final solution” to the Jewish problem lies in deporting all the Jews from the United States.

For years, many parents were told to keep eggs, peanuts and other allergy-triggering foods away from babies until toddlerhood. The logic sounded safe, avoid the food, avoid the allergy.

A new study suggests that advice may have been exactly the wrong direction.

Research published in JAMA Pediatrics found that after infant-feeding guidance changed to encourage earlier egg introduction, the prevalence of egg allergy among 1-year-old children fell by more than 17%. The absolute drop was from 9.2% to 7.6%, but the sharper story was among babies with early eczema, one of the strongest warning signs for future food allergy. In that group, egg allergy fell from 34.6% to 21.9%.

The study, led by researchers in Australia, compared two large groups of infants in Melbourne, one before the guideline shift and one after. The children were tested at around 12 months of age using allergy skin testing, and those with positive results underwent oral food challenges, the standard method used to confirm whether a child is truly allergic.

Close-up on woman holding a carton of eggs at the supermarket – grocery shopping concepts

Earlier guidance had leaned heavily toward avoidance, especially for high-risk children. But over the past decade, allergy prevention has moved toward early, regular exposure in safe, age-appropriate forms. The idea is simple but powerful, when a baby’s immune system meets a food through the mouth early in life, it may be more likely to learn tolerance rather than treat that food as a threat.

This does not mean giving babies unsafe foods or rushing solids too early. Doctors generally advise introducing solids when a baby is developmentally ready, usually around 6 months and not before 4 months. Egg should be well cooked. Peanut should be given in safe forms such as thinned smooth peanut butter or peanut powder mixed into other foods, never whole nuts, which are a choking hazard.

The direct Israel-Iran missile exchange appears to be paused, not resolved. After a day that pushed the region toward a renewed full-scale war, Israel says it is halting strikes on Iran “for now,” Iran says its current operation against Israel is over, and President Donald Trump is publicly pressing both sides to stop shooting while his administration tries to preserve a wider diplomatic track with Tehran.

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

The chain began with Hezbollah. After weeks of attacks on northern Israel, the IDF struck Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s Dahiyeh, the terror group’s stronghold in southern Beirut. Tehran had warned that continued Israeli action in Lebanon could draw Iranian retaliation. It followed through, Iran launched ballistic missiles toward Israel, its first direct missile fire at Israel in two months. According to the IDF, Iran fired 24 ballistic missiles between Sunday night and Monday afternoon. All were intercepted or fell in open areas, with no casualties reported, though fragments damaged homes in Judea & Samaria. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis also joined in, firing two ballistic missiles at Israel; one was intercepted and the other failed to reach the country.

Israel did not absorb the attack silently. Overnight and into the morning, dozens of Israeli fighter jets struck Iranian military targets, including nine air-defense systems in western and central Iran. The IDF said the strikes further expanded Israeli air superiority over Iran. Israeli jets then hit three factories at a petrochemical complex in southwest Iran that Israel says produced critical raw materials for Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iranian media reported damage in Mahshahr; Iranian emergency officials reported injuries but no deaths.

Then came Trump’s pressure. The U.S. president posted that Israel and Iran must immediately stop “shooting” and claimed both sides were looking at an immediate ceasefire while “final negotiations” continued. Israeli officials said Jerusalem agreed to stop its strikes on Iran at Trump’s request, with one official saying the sense was that this round of direct fighting is behind us. Netanyahu later said fire on the Iran front had been halted because Tehran stopped attacking, but warned plainly that if the Iranian regime attacks again, Israel will respond with force.

But this is not a clean ceasefire. The unresolved issue is Hezbollah and Lebanon. Iran is trying to fold Lebanon into the Israel-Iran equation, warning of harsher action if Israel continues operations in southern Lebanon. Israel is rejecting that linkage. Netanyahu said the campaign against Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon will continue, and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that if Hezbollah attacks northern Israel, Beirut’s Dahiyeh will be treated like Israel’s northern communities. In other words: the Iran front may be cooling, but the Lebanon front remains live.

On the Israeli home front, the immediate emergency posture is easing. The Home Front Command is lifting most restrictions starting at 6 a.m. tomorrow, schools are set to reopen nationwide, and most of the country returns to full activity. Communities near Lebanon remain under tighter rules, with educational activity only in or near protected spaces and gathering limits still in place. Ben Gurion Airport remains open, though airline disruption and possible passenger caps remain on the table. Gaza crossings are also expected to reopen after being closed during the missile fire.

A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked an island in the Philippines Monday, cratering buildings and killing at least 32 people, according to officials. The quake was followed by more than 130 aftershocks ranging from 1.3 to 6.7.

The quake struck off the coast of Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines at 7:37 a.m. local time and triggered tsunami alerts that were later canceled. Video footage shows buildings collapsing. About 100 people were injured, dozens are missing, and about 10,000 people were evacuated. The earthquake triggered landslides in some areas, killing 17 in the coastal province of Sarangani, which also temporarily lost power. It also triggered small tsunami waves that reached the coasts of Japan and Indonesia, measuring a few centimeters to one meter.

The Office of Civil Defense said that in General Santos, the city closest to the epicenter, 10 people were killed and 22 are missing.

Small but powerful waves from a minor tsunami reach the coastat Imana Village in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. (From a post on X)

Mindanao, the second largest Philippine island, houses a population of around 26 million.

“The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement, assuring the public that the government was coordinating a response. He also ordered the cancelation of schools; today was the first day of the school year in the Philippines.

Video footage shows terrified students in the Davao Occidental province crouching on the shaking ground while a roof crumples behind them. The school later said that no one had been injured.

Terrified students and teachers “drop, cover and hold on” during the quake in the Davao Occidental province. (From a post on X)

Sitting on the unstable “ring of fire,” the Philippines is susceptible to earthquakes, though they are usually minor and pass without incident.

In a breathtakingly ironic moment, Caroline McCaughey, a reporter for The New York Sun, asked a woman at a Graham Platner rally how she feels about the Democratic Senate candidate’s Nazi Totenkopf (death’s-head) tattoo. The woman said she thought it was much ado about nothing.

“I think people are making as much of it as they can because they don’t have a lot of substance around anything else,” the woman said. “And if they did, we’d hear about it, believe me.”

“They are trawling for dirt,” she added.

Then the reporter asked her, “So if he has, like, an Israeli flag tattoo … would that be a deal breaker?”

A Graham Platner supporter explains that a Nazi tattoo is “trawling for dirt,” while an Israeli flag tattoo would be a deal breaker. (Credit: Caroline McCaughey’s X account)

“For me?” the woman responds. “Honestly? Yeah. Israeli? Yeah. Because I don’t support genocide.”

The woman needs to sit with her statement and reflect on that for a while: A symbol of a real Nazi genocide of the Jewish people is fine; a symbol of a fake genocide of Palestinians is not.

The double standard is astonishing, and Democrats aren’t even pretending. James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist who advised the Bill Clinton campaign, threw his support behind Platner, while openly admitting in an interview that he would find similar behavior among Republicans inexcusable.

The troubles of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for the Senate seat, began soon after he announced his candidacy, when he came under fire for his Nazi Totenkopf (death’s-head) tattoo.

As soon as it became a liability, he had the tattoo inked over. His candidacy has been beset by other scandals, the latest of which involved sexting up to a dozen women who were not his wife.

Iran has announced a halt to its military operations against Israel, signaling a temporary pause in the latest escalation while simultaneously issuing a stark warning over any future Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

According to a statement carried by Iranian media, Khatam al-Anbiya, Iran’s emergency military command, declared that military operations against Israel have ceased. However, Iranian officials stressed that the pause should not be interpreted as a retreat.

Iranian officials also claimed they received messages indicating that Israel is interested in a ceasefire and does not intend to carry out additional attacks. “We are considering our next steps,” an Iranian source said.

At the same time, Iran’s military spokesman warned that any continuation of what Tehran describes as Israeli “aggression” would be met with a far more powerful response.

“We are ceasing fire,” the spokesman said. “But we emphasize that if attacks and hostile actions continue, including in southern Lebanon, more severe, harsher, and decisive measures than before will be taken.”

The statement appears to establish a new Iranian red line: Israeli military action in southern Lebanon could now trigger direct Iranian missile attacks on Israel.

The announcement also had an immediate impact on global markets. Oil prices erased part of their earlier gains after reports emerged that Iran’s armed forces had halted military operations, easing fears of a wider regional conflict.

Despite the pause, tensions remain extremely high, with Iran making clear that it views any future Israeli strike in Lebanon as a potential trigger for renewed direct confrontation between the two countries.

The IDF says it is preparing for several more days of fighting with Iran and is also ready for the possibility of a broader, prolonged conflict.

Since last night, Iran has launched at least 20 ballistic missiles toward Israel. According to the military, the missiles were either intercepted or landed in open areas. Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen also fired two ballistic missiles at Israel this morning, with one intercepted and the other failing to reach Israeli territory.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – JUNE 16: Iran’s ongoing retaliatory attacks with ballistic missiles towards Israel are seen from Tel Aviv, Israel on June 16, 2025. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In response, Israel has carried out two waves of strikes inside Iran. Overnight, dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets targeted nine Iranian air defense systems across western and central Iran. Earlier today, additional strikes hit three factories within a petrochemical complex in southwestern Iran.

The IDF says the operations are being conducted solely by Israel, but with full coordination with U.S. Central Command. American forces have also assisted in intercepting Iranian missiles aimed at Israel.

Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has held three conversations with CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper as both militaries continue close coordination.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter delivered a forceful warning following Iran’s latest missile barrage against Israel, declaring that no sovereign nation would accept such an attack without responding.

“Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel today,” Leiter said. “Each one of those missiles has the potential to level an entire neighborhood and kill hundreds of people. No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an assault, and neither will Israel.”

According to Leiter, Israel is now striking Iranian surface-to-surface missile launch sites as well as additional strategic infrastructure targets.

The ambassador also issued a direct warning to Hezbollah, noting that the Lebanese people have increasingly rejected Iran’s influence and its proxy in their country.

“The people of Lebanon have told Iran and Hezbollah to get out,” Leiter said. “If Hezbollah chooses to open another front against Israel, its command centers in Beirut’s Dahiya district will be hit hard.”

Leiter concluded by stressing that the conflict is not with the Iranian people, but with what he described as a dangerous regime that continues to destabilize the region.

“Everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime,” he said.

Israel launched a new wave of strikes against military targets in central and western Iran late Sunday, hours after Iran fired another barrage of ballistic missiles toward Israeli territory. The IDF confirmed it had carried out operations targeting Iranian military infrastructure as the confrontation between the two countries continued to escalate.

According to reports from Iran, explosions were heard in several locations, including Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz. Additional reports indicated that strikes may have targeted areas near Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, while other impacts were reported in and around central Iran.

Israeli media reported that operations were conducted against a range of military objectives, though Israeli officials have not yet released a full list of targets or a battle damage assessment. Iranian authorities have not immediately provided details on casualties or the extent of the damage.

The latest strikes come amid one of the most serious direct confrontations between Israel and Iran in recent years, with both sides exchanging attacks and regional tensions remaining at a critical level.

Developing story.

A U.S. official told Axios that President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran for launching missile strikes against Israel Sunday, because he believes “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal.”

Netanyahu is reportedly delaying an Israeli response, buying Trump a few more days to pursue a diplomatic solution. According to the official, he initially pushed back but in the end “pseudo-agreed.”

The call was calmer than last week’s, when the president admitted to raising his voice and cursing at the Israeli leader; the official said that he did not yell during Sunday’s phone call.

“We think the president bought a little bit of time,” the official said. “He is pretty adamant that we are close to a deal with Iran. I don’t think anything is imminent in terms of an Israeli strike.”

“We are in a moment in time — that why jeopardize a potential deal when you are in the fourth quarter,” the official added. “The president thinks that we have been in this thing for three months; now is the time to end this thing.”

Separately, Channel 12 News reported that Netanyahu has not officially come to a final decision and is still meeting with his security cabinet. The news outlet said that two U.S. officials told them that the White House had not given Israel the “green light” to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut Sunday morning, which is what prompted the Iranian attacks against Israel.

“We had no part in this,” one of the U.S. officials said.

On the other hand, a Saudi news outlet reported that Israel had informed Washington of the strikes ahead of time.

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced a halt Sunday in humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza until further notice due to the security situation in Israel resulting from incoming ballistic missile fire from Iran.

COGAT said that this should not affect the humanitarian situation, since large shipments of food have been entering the territory that far exceed the nutritional demands of the population.

“Following the missile attacks launched by Iran against the State of Israel, a number of necessary security measures have been implemented, including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice,” COGAT said in a statement on X.

(Credit: Gazawood)

“It should be emphasized that the closure of the crossings will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the statement continued.

“The substantial quantities of food that have entered the Strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to UN methodologies.”

“COGAT will continue to maintain ongoing contact with the international community and will provide updates on any developments in accordance with the security situation assessment,” the statement concluded.

Indeed, Gazawood, an organization whose name is a play on Hollywood and which posts videos exposing the manipulations Gazans use to dupe international media into buying a particular narrative, posted a video on X Sunday showing the owner of a popular shawarma restaurant called Shawarma Fahed looking rather well-fed as he promotes a special for his restaurant. Gazawood commented that such low prices are not available even in Israel.

“1 kilo of shawarma for only 90 shekels!” Gazawood wrote. “(You won’t find a price like this in Israel — not even for half a kilo),” it added parenthetically.

James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist who served as the chief strategist for Bill Clinton’s campaign, establishing the “war room” and the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid,” threw his support behind Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for the Senate seat.

The troubled candidate has come under fire for his Nazi Totenkopf (death’s-head) tattoo, which he inked over as soon as it became a liability, and other scandals, the latest of which involved sexting up to a dozen women who were not his wife.

When pressed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper on whether Carville would be as forgiving of Republicans voting for a candidate who had sported a Nazi tattoo for decades, Carville conceded the point, before quickly pivoting to arguing that defeating Donald Trump is more important.

“What would you say to a Republican who says, if a Republican combat veteran had a Nazi tattoo, you wouldn’t be so forgiving?” Tapper asked.

“It’s true. I would say you’re exactly right,” Carville admitted.

Critics have noted the brazen double standard: supporting actions on his side that Carville would find unforgivable in Republicans and acknowledging and defending that double standard.

In a separate interview, liberally sprinkled with profane language, Carville defended Platner’s behavior.

Graham Platner sports the infamous Totenkopf (Nazi death’s-head tattoo). (From a post on X)

“He’s f—ed up, he’s been shot at, he’s a veteran, he’s a little bit weird, he’s an oysterman,” he said.

“Then his opponent, I can hardly say her name without the utter contempt dripping, Susan Collins, whose spine reminds me of a blueberry jelly from Maine,” he added. “Maybe we need a combat veteran right on that Senate floor who is f—ed up.”

“If you believe, as I do, that the country is in imminent peril — I mean imminent peril — who is most likely to slow this criminal in charge? Susan ‘Blueberry Jelly’ Collins, or five degrees off dead center Graham Platner?” Carville asked. “I think it’s Graham Platner.”

Carville then compared voting for Platner to Franklin Roosevelt’s alliance with Joseph Stalin to defeat Adolf Hitler.

“And you know if Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill could work with Joseph Stalin — who, by the way, well, I’ll tell you this, he was a bad guy, a really bad guy, alright — then I can overlook a tattoo,” Carville added.

Arguing about the importance of winning, the Democratic strategist pointed to Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus.

“Abraham Lincoln had to suspend habeas corpus, why? Because he had to win a Godd— war, OK?” Carville added. “We got to win this.”

Toronto’s “Walk for Israel” parade drew about 60,000 participants Sunday in the largest ever rally in its 57-year history, according to the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

The Federation said the rally was attended by officials at all levels of government and “again transformed the streets of midtown Toronto into a vibrant celebration of Jewish pride, community and connection.”

“This year’s Walk with Israel was a remarkable demonstration of the strength, resilience and unity of our community,” said Ken Tanenbaum, chair of the Federation’s board. “Today sent a clear message: We stand together with pride, strength and determination. We are grateful to be joined by so many friends and allies.”

Video footage shows throngs of people marching at the Walk for Israel in Toronto on Sunday. (Credit: UJA Federation of Greater Toronto)

“This turnout speaks to the deep connection our community feels to Israel and to one another,” he added.

“We walk for peace, justice, pluralism and the right of every person to thrive in a Toronto that is welcoming, tolerant and safe for all,” stated Brad Bradford, a mayoral candidate and member of the Toronto City Council. “To Toronto’s Jewish community: I stand with you, and I will walk alongside you today and every day.”

Toronto City Council member and mayoral candidate Brad Bradford (center, in black shirt) poses with participants at the Walk of Israel Sunday. (Credit: Brad Bradford)

“What we witnessed today was an extraordinary expression of solidarity, Jewish pride and hope,” said Adam Minsky, president and CEO of the Federation.

“Tens of thousands of people chose to come together publicly and proudly in support of our community, our values and our connection to Israel,” he added. “Today was a powerful reminder that hate will not define us. We choose unity over division, connection over fear and hope over hate.”

As protesters leave their designated area, police move in to protect the participants in the rally. (Credit: Caryma’s Protest Mania)

The rally kept Toronto Police busy, with five arrests made altogether thus far and with police assiduously pushing protesters back who attempted to breach the generous buffer zone intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s “Gauntlet of Hate,” when rallygoers were forced to march between rows of protesters shouting incitement and harassment.

Sirens sounded across northern Israel after the detection of an Iranian missile launch. The IDF says all projectiles were successfully intercepted, but warns that additional waves of missiles and rockets could be launched in the coming hours.

Following Israeli strikes in Beirut, the military has reinforced air defenses, increased readiness nationwide, and is preparing for a range of possible scenarios.

As a precaution, schools across Israel have been canceled, and residents are being urged to remain alert and closely follow Home Front Command instructions.

At the “Walk for Israel” event in Toronto that began Sunday morning and is expected to draw about 60,000 participants, police began making arrests early on, with reports that several people were arrested before the event began.

Police push protesters back beyond the buffer zone at Sunday’s “Walk for Peace” rally in Toronto. (Credit: Ross McLean)

Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak, who is Jewish, said that police have assured him that they will not allow a repeat of last year’s “Gauntlet of Hate,” wherein Jews were forced to march between mobs lining both sides of the streets who heckled and harassed them.

“The mobs will not be allowed on both sides of the street at Bathurst and Sheppard to harass and incite the Jewish community,” Pasternak said.

Police arrest a woman in an Islamic Republic burka at Sunday’s “Walk for Peace” rally in Toronto. (Credit: Ross McLean)

Chief Myron Demkiw also issued a public warning that anyone crossing the line into criminal behavior will be arrested swiftly.

It seems like police mean business, with the arrest of a woman for obstructing a police officer at 8:40 a.m. before the Walk began.

A man was arrested at 10:22 a.m. for assaulting a police officer, and a woman was arrested at 1 p.m. for breach of the peace.

Another man was arrested for operating a remote aircraft system.

Cops forced back protesters with flags who were moving toward the protest area. Although police created buffer zones that were several hundred yards wide between the marchers and protesters, some protesters have attempted to breach the perimeter.

In video footage, rallygoers can be heard chanting “Lock her up” and “IRGC terrorists; kick them out” as police arrest a woman in an Islamic Republic burka.

It seems like there is no breathing space between anti-Jewish violent attacks in Canada, with multiple attacks seemingly happening every week. Just one day after the firebombing of a synagogue in Montreal, the window of a Toronto synagogue was smashed overnight in what observers are calling another Kristallnacht.

The incident took place at Mishkan Avraham, a Jewish house of worship on Bathurst Street in North York.

More ominously still, a bullseye sticker was seen on the outside of the synagogue.

“Was this location targeted by somebody leaving a roadmap for antisemites to have Jewish sites to hit?” wrote Joe Warmington, a pro-Israel opinion columnist for the Toronto Sun. “Was the bullseye put there to send a message? Was the broken glass meant to replicate a modern day Kristallnacht?”

“Perhaps we will never know,” he added. “When there have been dozens of antisemitic attacks in Toronto since Oct. 7th, there is only so many things you can dismiss before you conclude there is a crisis here.”

Police are investigating the incident that has left members of Toronto’s Jewish community concerned about safety ahead of the “Walk for Israel” event, which began Sunday morning. The vandalism occurred right near the route of the “Walk for Israel” event, which typically draws tens of thousands of participants.

“Less than a week after the Prime Minister addressed the Jewish community and spoke of the need to rectify Canada’s failing social compact and to protect Jewish Canadians, yet another synagogue in Toronto was targeted and vandalized in what is being investigated as a hate crime,” B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy Richard Robertson said Saturday.

A bullseye sticker is seen on the synagogue’s exterior. (Credit: Ross McLean)

“This incident exemplifies how the approach to combating antisemitism presently being undertaken in this country is not enough – it fails to capture the gravity of the national crisis of antisemitism,” he added.

Toronto Police labeled the incident “Mischief/Damage” on its X account.

“MISCHIEF/DAMAGE: Bathurst St & Glencairn Ave — police responded to reports of damage at a synagogue,” Toronto Police Operations reported. “A window was broken with an unknown object; damage believed to have occurred overnight; no suspect description(s) currently available; no injuries reported; Hate Crime Unit investigating.”

The Bank of Israel quietly bought $801 million in foreign currency during May, a move aimed at cooling the shekel’s sharp rise after it surged to levels not seen against the dollar in more than three decades. The central bank is being careful with its language. It says the purchases were made only to “maintain the orderly functioning of the markets,” not to defend a specific dollar-shekel rate. But the message to traders was hard to miss, if the shekel moves too far, too fast, Jerusalem still has tools

This is not a crisis of Israeli weakness. It is almost the opposite. The shekel has been boosted by foreign investment, strong Israeli equities, a lower risk premium, global dollar weakness, and growing market confidence that Israel can emerge from war with its strategic position strengthened. In normal countries, a powerful currency is a national flex. In Israel’s case, it has become a policy headache.

For consumers, the stronger shekel is good news. It makes imported goods, flights, online shopping, fuel-linked costs and foreign-currency purchases cheaper. It also helps push inflation lower, giving the Bank of Israel more room to cut interest rates. That is why the central bank recently lowered its key rate to 3.75%, while Governor Amir Yaron has signaled that faster easing could be possible if inflation expectations keep falling.

But the same strong shekel is hammering Israel’s exporters. Many Israeli companies earn revenue in dollars but pay salaries, rent, taxes and overhead in shekels. When the dollar collapses against the shekel, their income shrinks in local terms while their costs stay high. That squeeze is already hitting the economy’s most important engine: high-tech. Wix has cited the strong shekel, along with AI, in a major layoff round. Other major Israeli tech and export-heavy companies are under similar pressure.

The numbers show why the pressure is rising. Israel’s foreign exchange reserves reached about $238.7 billion at the end of May, up nearly $3 billion from the previous month. Part of that came from valuation gains on the Bank of Israel’s existing reserve assets. But part came from direct foreign-currency purchases. The central bank went into the market and bought dollars or other foreign currency to absorb some of the shekel’s force.

That matters because the Bank of Israel had spent recent weeks projecting caution. Senior officials said intervention remained in the toolbox, but they did not sound eager to use it. They argued that the shekel’s rise reflected real strength in Israel’s economy, not just speculation. Now the policy has shifted from “we are watching” to “we acted.”

A man counts stacks of Israeli shekel and US dollar banknotes at an informal money exchange stall in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on July 2, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP) (Photo by BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The central bank is walking a narrow line. If it does nothing, exporters and tech companies could keep bleeding competitiveness, pushing some jobs and investment abroad. If it does too much, it risks looking like it is manipulating the currency or fighting a market trend driven by genuine capital inflows.

The next test is whether the dollar-shekel rate stabilizes or traders keep pushing Israel’s currency higher. If the shekel keeps gaining, the Bank of Israel may face the same question again, let the market celebrate Israel’s strength, or step in to stop that strength from turning into damage.

A Turkish minister vowed that Israel would once again come under the control of Turkey, as it had been before the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Turkey became its successor state.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi uttered these terrifying words at a speech at an AK Party council meeting Saturday. Çiftçi had served as governor of the Turkish city of Corum and later the city of Erzurum.

“Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, God willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem,” he said.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi delivers a speech in which he talks about retaking Israel, once a province of the Ottoman Empire. (From his X account)

“Just as in the past, those lands will be ours once again,” he said. “God willing, they will come under our sovereignty and dominion once more. Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at our helm. A world leader,” he said.

“When I was governor, I had a heartfelt plea to the Almighty … The plea I nurtured deep within me was this: O Lord, grant me the governorship of Jerusalem, even if just for a single day,” he added.

The relationship between Israel and Turkey has been marked by turbulence. After the disastrous Mavi Marmara incident, in which Turkish flotilla activists were killed during an interception by the IDF, Israel repaired relations with Turkey. But since Oct. 7, 2023, Turkey has grown increasingly hostile to Israel. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went so far as to say, at a prayer service marking the end of Ramadan, “May Allah, for the sake of his name … destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.”

Dozens of children gathered at an event in Modena, Italy, Saturday to meet with Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh, a Gazan whose family was killed in the war. His translator at the event was Suleiman Hijazi, an outspoken supporter of Hamas.

The eight- to 10-year-olds, who came from several schools in the city as part of an educational event organized by teachers, sang “Free, free Palestine,” while clapping, encouraged by the teachers present.

Hijazi had been under investigation for raising funds for Hamas, under cover of raising funds for Gazan civilians from the Italian public. One of the people who participated in the scheme, Mohammad Hannoun, has been in custody since December. More than just a pro-Palestinian activist, Hannoun is believed to be the head of a secret Hamas fundraising cell in Europe.

I bimbi cantano "Free Palestine", scoppia il caso a Modena. Il sindaco al Giornale: "Non in mia presenza, atto inopportuno. Chiedano scusa" https://t.co/vNUatFAROM

— Tommaso Cerno (@Tommasocerno) June 6, 2026

Modena Mayor Massimo Mezzetti also attended the event. The mayor belongs to the Democratic Party, a center-left party that has engaged in extreme anti-Israel rhetoric and promoted accusations of genocide against Israel and encouraged boycotts of the Jewish state.

The mayor of Modena, Massimo Mezzetti, addresses journalists and residents in Modena a day after a man drove his car into pedestrians, injuring eight people, on May 17, 2026. (Photo by Federico Scoppa/AFP via Getty Images)

The event comes against the backdrop of a car-ramming attack in Modena three weeks ago, when a Moroccan Arab plowed his car into pedestrians, injuring eight people, before leaping out and brandishing a knife. Four passersby tackled and detained him, though one of them sustained minor stab wounds, until security forces arrived.

The mayor said he left the meeting before the slogan was chanted. The meeting had been arranged “to discuss issues of conflicts and peace in the world.”

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh. (Profile picture from his X account)

“During the meeting with Dahdouh, the subject of the conflict with Israel did not come up at all,” he said. “Journalist Dahdouh was invited by the teachers to testify about the meaning of living in a war that erased his family.”

“While I was there, the children did not speak at all about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or about political issues,” he added. “If that happened after I left, I regret it and think it is inappropriate.”

Notorious antisemite Francesca Albanese poses with Mohammed Hannoun, a Hamas supporter. (From a post on X)

The incident sparked a furious backlash and prompted calls for an investigation. Italian political figures are demanding a thorough probe into the incident, with the Education Ministry’s regional office in Emilia-Romagna adding that authorities must “shed light on the case and understand who is responsible.”

“If this is true, it is a serious incident,” Italy’s minister of education, Giuseppe Valditara, said. “If anyone thinks they can turn our schools into places of brainwashing, indoctrination and propaganda, they are mistaken. The Education Ministry will not allow it.”

“While in these schools they do not allow these children to learn to sing the Italian anthem, they prefer to teach them the chant of Free Palestine,” noted former Gen. Roberto Vannacci.

🚨 DEVELOPING: A deadly shooting terror attack is unfolding across multiple communities in central Israel, with security forces conducting a massive manhunt for at least one gunman.

According to reports, the attack began when a vehicle opened fire on civilians near a gas station in the Kochav Yair area before continuing through Tzur Yitzhak, Tzur Natan, and Sal’it. Additional gunfire was later reported near Sal’it, while a security guard was reportedly shot at the entrance to Tzur Yitzhak.

At least one person has been killed and approximately seven others have been wounded. Several victims were initially reported in critical condition, with some undergoing CPR. Two unconscious victims were also reportedly located in Tzur Yitzhak.

Authorities believe the suspect vehicle is an older gray Toyota Corolla. The attackers remain at large.

Large numbers of police officers, IDF troops, emergency responders, and security personnel have been deployed throughout the area. The elite Yamam counterterrorism unit has reportedly been activated, and a police helicopter has joined the search as forces hunt for the terrorists across communities northeast of Herzliya.

Residents are being urged to remain vigilant, avoid the affected areas, and immediately report any suspicious vehicles or individuals.

This is a developing story.

A protest in Ireland outside a hotel Saturday against “genocide” displayed flags of the Iranian regime and signs bearing the slogan “Victory to Iran” alongside a banner proclaiming Israel’s commission of genocide.

A man shouted into a megaphone, “Eliminate the traitors” and “Get the Zionists out of Ireland now,” along with some profanity.

Critics of these protests have noted the hypocrisy of so-called human rights activists who protest Israel’s actions in Gaza but support the Iranian regime, which has engaged in the mass murder of its own civilians and has been brutally suppressing the rights of Iranians for decades.

LANGUAGE WARNING: A man shouts into a megaphone at a protest in Ireland. (Credit: Hen Mazzig)

“Never in my life did I think I would see people posing as human rights activists while cheering on the brutal regime in Iran, but it sounds like Ireland,” Hen Mazzig, a Jewish advocate, posted on X alongside a video of the protest.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Ireland has taken unprecedentedly harsh action against Israel.

• In May 2024, Ireland recognized a Palestinian state, along with Spain and Norway. Other European countries would follow suit over the course of the war. Israel retaliated by recalling its ambassador to Ireland and closing its embassy in Dublin.
• In January 2025, Ireland joined South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
• In June 2026, Ireland banned National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entry into the country.
• Ireland led a move within the European Union attempting to suspend or amend the EU-Israel Association Agreement over Israel’s actions in Gaza as well as Judea and Samaria.
• Ireland has boycotted Israeli products and companies.

Israel’s new Mossad director, Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, made one of his first public stops at the Western Wall, and the message he left there was short, ancient and unmistakably Israeli.

Gofman prayed at the Kotel with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, asking for success in his new role and for the protection of the State of Israel, IDF soldiers and Israel’s security forces. Before leaving, he placed a personal note between the stones, then signed the Western Wall Heritage Foundation guestbook with a line from I Samuel 15:29: “Netzach Yisrael lo yeshaker” — “The Strength of Israel will not lie.”

The timing made the moment heavier. Gofman has just taken command of the Mossad, becoming Israel’s 14th spy chief after replacing David Barnea, who led the agency through some of the most sensitive years in Israel’s modern security history. Gofman enters the post after serving as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary and after a long IDF career, including a direct role in responding to the Hamas-led October 7 massacre.

His first message as Mossad chief was not a speech, threat or policy paper. It was a verse. At the Wall, where Israeli leaders often come before moments of national weight, Gofman chose words that speak to endurance, resolve and the belief that Israel’s story is not dictated by its enemies.

For a man now entrusted with Israel’s most secret war against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other threats, the message was brief. But it said plenty.

An IDF soldier was killed in an incident in southern Lebanon on Friday, the military announced.

The slain soldier is named as Sgt. Ohad Yaari, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Rehovot.

According to the IDF, Yaari was killed by a suspected accidental firearm discharge during operations in southern Lebanon.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation by the Military Police.

An IDF officer who was critically wounded during fighting in southern Lebanon last week has succumbed to his wounds, the military announced.

The fallen officer is named as Capt. Shahar Gamla, 24, an officer in the Egoz commando unit, from Natur in the Golan Heights.

Gamla was severely wounded during combat in southern Lebanon on the night between Thursday and Friday. Despite extensive efforts to save his life, he died of his injuries this morning.

He is survived by his parents, Yishai and Leah, and his siblings, Rotem and Nitzan. His family chose to donate his organs, allowing him to continue saving lives even after his death.

The IDF is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident in which Gamla was wounded.

One of Hadera’s biggest real estate projects is finally moving forward, with the city signing a development agreement that clears the way for a major new mixed-use district near the train station, Route 2 and Mall Hof Village.

The project, known as Tnuport, is planned for a roughly 78-dunam site at one of the city’s most important western entrances. Instead of a sleepy edge-of-city plot, the area is being pushed into a dense urban hub: 724 apartments, a major office tower, commercial space, public buildings, education facilities and large open public areas.

panoramic landscape view Israel shoreline cities towns agriculture fields, wide angle, Mediterranean Sea.

The significance is not just the size. The plan had already been approved, but without a development agreement with the municipality, it could not move properly toward permits. That bottleneck has now been removed. Hadera Municipality and the city’s economic company are expected to lead roughly NIS 50 million in infrastructure planning and development work, including upgrades tied to roads, drainage, electricity and the wider public realm.

The residential side will include five 24-story towers, alongside lower-rise buildings. The business component is also central to the story: the plan calls for a 15-story office tower of around 27,000 square meters, plus thousands of square meters of commercial space. In total, the project is expected to bring roughly 30,000 square meters of employment, office and retail space into the area.

That matters for Hadera. Like many growing Israeli cities, it cannot rely only on adding apartments. A city that wants better services, stronger infrastructure and more local jobs needs commercial anchors. This project is being framed as exactly that: not just more housing, but a new district where residents can live, work, shop, walk and use the train without being dependent on daily commutes into Tel Aviv or Haifa.

The plan also includes around 21 dunams of open public space and more than eight dunams for public and education buildings. The official planning documents describe a neighborhood built around a central public space separated from vehicle traffic, with internal roads and parking designed to serve the residential buildings.

There is also a before-and-after story here. Earlier planning rights for the site allowed just 66 housing units, alongside commercial and public space. The new plan dramatically expands the residential footprint to 724 apartments, turning the former Tnuport industrial/packing-house area into one of Hadera’s most ambitious urban redevelopment projects.

Scenic Tel Aviv coastline seashore promenade with hotels and beaches near Old Jaffa port.

For buyers, investors and residents, the location is the strongest part of the pitch. The site sits near the railway, close to the coast, near existing retail and beside key transport arteries. That combination is exactly what Israeli planning authorities increasingly want: dense housing near transportation, with public space and employment built into the same neighborhood.

But the next stage is still execution. A signed development agreement is not the same as residents moving in. The project still has to pass through permits, infrastructure work, marketing and construction phasing. The key question now is whether Hadera can deliver the public infrastructure early enough to support hundreds of new homes without choking the area.

If built as planned, Tnuport could change the face of western Hadera. It would turn a strategic but underused site into a rail-linked urban district and give the city a new economic anchor at its entrance. For a city trying to move from commuter town to independent urban center, this is the kind of project that can actually shift the map.

A new CNN report is pulling back the curtain on one of the most sensitive parts of Israel’s war against Iran, a covert regional network that allegedly placed Israeli elite forces, Mossad personnel and rescue units around Iran’s borders, including inside Azerbaijan, just miles from Iranian territory.

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN – JANUARY 26: Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hold a joint press conference after their meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan on January 26, 2026. (Photo by Resul Rehimov/Anadolu via Getty Images)

According to CNN, Israel secretly deployed military and intelligence units to several locations in southern Azerbaijan during the war, near Iran’s northern border and roughly 60 miles from Tabriz, a major Iranian city later struck by Israel. The reported force included special operations troops, Mossad operatives and Israel’s elite heliborne combat-and-rescue personnel. What began as a possible emergency rescue footprint for downed Israeli pilots reportedly expanded into intelligence-gathering, drone operations and a forward perch for watching northern Iran.

Azerbaijan shares a long border with Iran, has deep security and energy ties with Israel, and sits beside a sensitive Iranian region with a large ethnic Azerbaijani population. For years, Tehran has feared that Baku’s relationship with Jerusalem could give Israel access to Iran’s northern flank. CNN’s report, if accurate, suggests that fear was not theoretical.

One of the most explosive claims is that Israeli preparations began before the war’s opening strikes, with surveillance equipment and intelligence assets reportedly placed near the Azerbaijan-Iran border. CNN says Israel initially planned some of the operation to coincide with earlier strikes that were later called off by President Trump, but Israel moved ahead with parts of the covert mission anyway as it assessed that diplomacy with Tehran was unlikely to hold.

The report also links the Azerbaijani front to the killing of Rahman Moghaddam, a senior IRGC intelligence figure Israel accused of running overseas operations and helping plan a 2024 assassination attempt against Trump. A day after Moghaddam was killed, drones struck Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, damaging airport infrastructure and wounding civilians. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev blamed Iran and called it an act of terror. Tehran denied responsibility.

That was not the only Iranian-linked threat tied to Azerbaijan. Days later, Azerbaijani authorities said they had foiled an IRGC plot targeting the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Israeli embassy in Baku, an Ashkenazi synagogue and a leader of the Mountain Jewish community. Israel later publicly said the Mossad, IDF and Shin Bet had helped expose a wider IRGC terror network aimed at Israeli, Jewish and Western targets abroad.

CNN’s report says Azerbaijan was only one piece of a larger Israeli regional architecture. The network allegedly included secret facilities in Iraq for logistics and possible search-and-rescue missions, Israeli air-defense deployments in the United Arab Emirates, and a position in Somaliland that could support long-range flights toward Iran. Taken together, the reported sites placed Israel around Iran’s northern, western and southern approaches, extending reach and sustaining pressure far beyond what airpower from Israel alone could provide.

Azerbaijan is fiercely denying the claim. Its Foreign Ministry called the CNN report “entirely baseless,” said Baku had repeatedly rejected the allegations before publication, and demanded CNN issue a retraction. Azerbaijan insists it has never allowed its territory to be used for military or intelligence operations against another state.

Israel has not publicly confirmed the reported deployments. But the picture emerging from CNN and regional reporting is clear, Israel’s campaign against Iran was not just a series of strikes. It was a carefully built regional machine designed to surround the Islamic Republic, reach deep into its territory, rescue pilots if needed, hunt IRGC operatives, and disrupt the terror networks Tehran uses far from home.

For Iran, the message is brutal. Its proxies are being hit across the region, its officers are being hunted, and its own neighborhood may no longer be safe ground.

Israel will open its first-ever embassy in Ljubljana, marking a sharp diplomatic turn after years of strained ties with Slovenia under the previous government.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the move immediately after Slovenia approved a new government led by Prime Minister Janez Janša, a longtime pro-Israel leader whose return to power is expected to shift Ljubljana away from the hostile line taken by Robert Golob’s outgoing administration.

Today, I am proud to announce that Israel will open its first-ever embassy in Ljubljana.

The election of Prime Minister @JJansaSDS marks a new chapter in relations between Israel and Slovenia. After years of the hostility of the previous government- we now have an opportunity to…

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) June 4, 2026

For Israel, this is more than another flag on another building. For more than three decades, Jerusalem managed relations with Slovenia without a resident embassy. Now, after years in which Slovenia recognized a Palestinian state, pushed anti-Israel measures, imposed an arms embargo, and targeted Israeli leaders diplomatically, Israel is moving quickly to plant a permanent diplomatic presence in the Slovenian capital.

Sa’ar instructed Foreign Ministry Director-General Eden Bar-Tal to begin the process of establishing the embassy and selecting Israel’s first resident ambassador to Slovenia. The timing is deliberate: Janša’s government was just approved, and Israel sees a narrow but real opening to rebuild a relationship that had fallen to one of its lowest points in Europe.

The backdrop matters. Under Golob, Slovenia became one of the EU’s loudest critics of Israel during the war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Ljubljana recognized a Palestinian state, backed punitive measures against Israel, and moved against Israeli trade and officials while Israeli hostages were still being held by Hamas. Just before the political shift, an Israir flight to Ljubljana was forced to divert to Zagreb after Slovenian authorities refused landing approval, a move Israeli officials viewed as politically motivated.

Janša’s return changes the diplomatic weather. He has publicly opposed Slovenia’s recognition of a Palestinian state and has long been seen in Jerusalem as a friend of Israel. His government will not erase years of damage overnight, but the embassy decision sends a clear message: Israel is rewarding allies, rebuilding in Europe, and refusing to let hostile governments define long-term relations with democratic nations.

“When Israel’s friends return to power, Israel returns,” Sa’ar said.

For Ljubljana, the new embassy gives Israel direct reach in a Central European EU and NATO member state. For Jerusalem, it is a practical diplomatic foothold and a symbolic reversal. The Golob era pushed Israel away. The Janša era is already pulling it back.

The IDF has cleared for publication that Captain Eitan Shmuel Lemberg, 21, of Mishmar HaShiv’a, an armored corps officer in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade, was killed in combat in southern Lebanon.

According to the IDF, Lemberg was operating with Israeli forces north of the Litani River on Wednesday afternoon when Hezbollah terrorists launched an anti tank missile at an Israeli tank during an operational mission.

Captain Lemberg was fatally wounded in the strike. Military officials notified his family shortly after the incident.

Eitan Lemberg HY”D

Following the attack, the IDF carried out extensive retaliatory strikes in the area. Israeli Air Force aircraft and artillery units targeted Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and launch positions believed to have been used in the missile attack.

Captain Lemberg served as an officer in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade, known as the “Sa’ar MiGolan” formation.

May his memory be a blessing. 

סרן איתן שמואל למברג נהרג במתקפת טיל נ”ט של חיזבאללה בלבנון

דובר צה”ל התיר לפרסום כי סרן איתן שמואל למברג, בן 21 ממושב משמר השבעה, קצין שריון בגדוד 75 של חטיבה 7, נפל בקרב בדרום לבנון.

על פי צה”ל, למברג פעל עם כוחות צה”ל מצפון לנהר הליטני במהלך פעילות מבצעית כאשר מחבלי חיזבאללה שיגרו טיל נ”ט לעבר טנק של צה”ל.

כתוצאה מפגיעת הטיל, סרן למברג נהרג. הודעה נמסרה למשפחתו על ידי נציגי צה”ל.

בעקבות התקרית, פתח צה”ל בגל תקיפות נרחב באזור. חיל האוויר וכוחות התותחנים תקפו תשתיות טרור ומוקדי שיגור של חיזבאללה, מהם על פי ההערכות בוצע הירי.

סרן למברג שירת כקצין שריון בגדוד 75 של חטיבה 7, המכונה “סער מגולן”.

יהי זכרו ברוך. 🕯️🇮🇱

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Protesters in Brussels, Belgium, set fires and smashed bus stops over proposed educational reforms as demonstrations turned violent, with social media users pinning the riots on Islamists.

Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds as streets were strewn with debris, stores were vandalized, and windows were shattered. Police warned residents to stay away from the city’s main areas.

The proposed reforms that ignited the protests would increase tuition in French-speaking colleges by 35%, bringing them in line with Flemish- and Dutch-speaking universities. The tuition, which is expected to rise from €835 to €1,194 ($1,280) per year, is still considered low by international standards and is well below the cost of even public universities in the United States.

As part of Belgium’s French Community government’s cost-cutting measures, teachers will be required to increase their teaching hours without a corresponding raise in their salaries.

“We will have to work more for the same wages, and working conditions will deteriorate, with more people having larger classes,” a teacher who attended the protest told a local news outlet.

French Community government leader Elisabeth Degryse explained to reporters Thursday that the government had taken these measures to head off a looming €1.9-billion deficit.

A vote by the parliament of the French Community government is expected later today.

Germany for the first time lost the vote for its seat on the United Nations Security Council Wednesday, with its foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, attributing the failure partly to Germany’s support for Israel. The European country had served six terms on the Security Council before failing to secure a seat for another term.

The Security Council consists of five permanent members: the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France. Russia has strongly criticized Germany for its unapologetic pro-Ukraine stance and its staunch support for Israel.

President of the United Nations General Assembly Annalena Baerbock reads the election results at the U.N. Wednesday.

In the wake of the Holocaust, Germany had committed itself to allyship with the Jewish state. In December, following the repeal of a three-month ban on arms sales to Israel, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the time, he said that Germany will not recognize a Palestinian state “in the foreseeable future.” Germany has also cracked down on pro-terror protests and deported a number of activists.

“We have always taken a clear stance on certain issues, and these are positions that not all member states share,” Wadephul said at a press conference, adding that it was “no secret” that Russia had worked to undermine the vote due to Germany’s pro-Ukraine position. Russia has also fiercely criticized Israel at the United Nations.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declares Germany’s staunch and unequivocal support for Israel.

“The fact that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel in the Middle East conflict may also have cost votes,” he said.

Two seats on the Security Council are allocated to the Western European and Others Group, which Austria and Portugal won. While Austria has also supported Israel, its lower profile may have protected it from that perception.

Following a ban on entry to the United Kingdom imposed on anti-Israel commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker, the two anti-Israel pundits will attend an Oxford Union debate via livestream.

The pair had initially traveled to Britain for the purpose of attending the debate live, but were denied entry due to Piker’s outspoken antisemitism and concerns that Uygur, who has used antisemitic tropes in the past, would foment antisemitism.

In a video statement complaining about the ban, Uygur invoked the antisemitic tropes he has been accused of promoting.

After Oct. 7, Hasan outright dismissed allegations of sexual violence by Hamas, calling them “rape fantasies” and “rape hallucinations.”

In a video statement, Uygur invokes the very antisemitic tropes he has been accused of spreading. (From a post on X)

“It doesn’t matter if rapes happened on Oct. 7,” he said in a May 22, 2024, livestream. “It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.” He also said on Twitch that “in a totally just world, regardless of your background, any kind of f—— Zionist tendency should be treated in the same way as being a f—— rabid neo-Nazi … You shouldn’t even let someone be the f—— local dog catcher … if they have exhibited any sort of positive feelings about the state of Israel.”

He has called Orthodox Jews “inbred,” and in a grammatically challenged X post last May, wrote: “there’s no comparison between israel & hamas, one is a militant resistance comprised of orphaned soldiers born into a 77 year occupation, the other is a ethnoreligious supremacist apartheid state w nukes doing a genocide backed by the usa!”

The livestream debate is scheduled for Saturday, June 6.

“This event will not be cancelled,” said Arwa Elrayess, the president of the Oxford Union and the first person of Palestinian descent to hold the position. “The Union will ensure this discussion takes place. Free speech does not require a visa.”

“The Oxford Union was founded on one principle: that ideas are challenged through debate, not silenced by decree,” she added. “We have never turned a speaker away because of their political beliefs, nor have we sought a permission slip from the state. We will not start now.”

LANGUAGE WARNING: This video montage shows Piker engaging in highly inflammatory and blatant antisemitic rhetoric. (Credit: Eyal Yakoby)

Elrayess has herself drawn fire and is now facing calls to resign for comments in a student WhatsApp group in which she defended Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7.

“I think the severity of resistance is often proportional to the severity of oppression,” she posted to the student group.

When challenged by a student, she responded by saying, “Some would argue it’s less than proportional. Have you seen what Israel has put Palestinians through for decades???”

She added that Hamas “are going to be heroes” and that “We’ll see how things unfold as time passes.”

After facing fierce backlash for those posts, she has sought to contextualize her comments, which only served to heighten the criticism of her position among Jewish advocates who said there is no context which could make those comments appropriate.

“Any effort to excuse or explain it away should disqualify someone not only from being the President of the Oxford Union — one of the most prestigious positions at one of the UK’s most elite institutions — but also should render them unfit from holding any position at all,” the Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a statement.

“The University of Oxford must take action to protect its students from extremists and the police should investigate some of these comments, which we are raising with our lawyers.”

Another venue that was supposed to host the anti-Israel commentators, SXSW London, canceled their appearance.

The National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam canceled a scheduled conference on antisemitism last week, forcing its organizers to move the event to a church instead. The museum cited a planned protest by a group that condemned the conference and planned a protest in front of the museum as the reason for the cancellation.

In an interview with a Jewish media outlet, the conservative Jewish Dutch politician who had organized the conference expressed his bewilderment.

“A Holocaust museum is the best place to speak about antisemitism, so I was surprised by the cancellation,” MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen of the Reformed Political Party (SGP) said in the Tuesday interview. “That’s the place to be.”

Anti-Jewish protesters attempt to disrupt a conference on antisemitism. (From a post on X)

He said the museum was concerned about graffiti on its walls ahead of a visit by the Dutch queen and German president.

The museum’s general director, Emile Schrijver, said in a written statement Wednesday that the museum canceled the event because it didn’t want the museum to become politicized, which critics say proves the need for the conference in the first place.

“We will not allow the National Holocaust Museum to become the focal point of a political dispute in the context of a rental event,” Schrijver said. “Protecting the integrity of the National Holocaust Museum should not be a political position; it is our core mandate and one we take seriously.”

The Europe director of the Israel Allies Foundation, Leo van Doesburg, criticized the decision in a sharply worded rebuke.

“How low can a country sink when even the National Holocaust Museum is no longer a place where the fight against antisemitism on university campuses can be openly discussed?” he said.

Ruissen said that about 100 people attended the event at the church as anti-Jewish protesters attempted to disrupt the conference.

On October 7, Roman Gofman was not being spoken about as Israel’s next spy chief. He was a wounded commander on a road in southern Israel, bleeding after fighting Hamas terrorists as Israel was being attacked in one of the darkest days in its history.

Near the Bror Hayil Junction, United Hatzalah volunteer Moshe Weizman was flagged down by a civilian vehicle. Inside was Gofman, then a senior IDF officer and commander of the Tze’elim base, suffering from severe gunshot wounds. Weizman moved him into the ambulance and began an emergency evacuation while trying to keep him conscious. Elishiv Mizrachi, another United Hatzalah volunteer who had already been evacuating wounded people to Barzilai Medical Center in his private car, joined the rescue effort on the road.

Together, under fire and chaos, the two volunteers fought to keep him alive. They did not know they were treating a man who would one day be entrusted with one of the most sensitive jobs in the State of Israel. Their mission was simpler and more urgent: keep him breathing, keep him awake, get him to the hospital.

Less than three years later, that same wounded commander stood at Mossad headquarters as the new Director of the Mossad. And standing beside him were the two volunteers who helped save his life.

The Prime Minister’s Office and Gofman invited Weizman and Mizrachi to the inauguration ceremony in a gesture of gratitude. Gofman embraced them and personally thanked them for saving his life. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also thanked United Hatzalah’s volunteers for their heroism on October 7, saying Israel owes them “a great debt of gratitude.”

The moment was more than ceremonial. It captured something deeply Israeli: civilians racing toward danger, volunteers turning private cars and ambulances into lifelines, and wounded fighters returning to serve the country at the highest levels.

Gofman now takes over the Mossad at a defining moment for Israel’s security, with Iran and its terrorist proxies still at the center of Israel’s strategic fight. But before the secrecy, the operations, and the weight of the office, there was a road in the south, two medics under fire, and a life saved.

Eli Beer, the founder and president of United Hatzalah, summed up the full circle: the volunteers’ mission was to save a life. Today, the life they helped save belongs to a man tasked with protecting Israel and the Jewish people around the world.

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) admonished Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on the House floor in a scathing rebuke, accusing her of supporting terrorism.

Reacting to a proposal she had introduced that would block U.S. forces from entering Lebanon, he said that Hezbollah terrorists are “butchers that you like to hang out with to a certain extent,” addressing her directly.

When she protested, saying his words constituted a personal attack, he added, “You advocate for terrorists on a daily basis,” leading to a shouting match between the two representatives.

Tlaib has repeatedly drawn fire for controversial actions related to appearances with terrorist-linked entities.

In 2024 and 2025, Tlaib delivered talks at the “People’s Conference for Palestine” that featured speakers with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization. As a consequence, the House introduced a resolution to censure her for “celebrating terrorism.”

The Michigan representative was also censured in November 2023 for promoting false narratives about the Israel-Gaza conflict and for using the slogan “from the river to the sea,” which many see as a call for the genocide of the Jewish people in Israel.

Watchdog groups have accused Tlaib of hiring staffers with past ties to Hamas-linked groups and of defending charities that were charged with funneling money to terror groups.

Miller, who is Jewish, has shown himself to be an outspoken advocate for the State of Israel as well as a fierce campaigner against antisemitism. He is a member of the Congressional Jewish Caucus and frequently participates in Jewish community events.

The Ohio congressman has been subjected to death threats and survived a road-rage encounter in which a pro-Hamas agitator held him up and threatened him, while shouting slurs and waving a Palestinian flag. The perpetrator was later [arrested](http://Muslim Doctor Indicted After Attempting to Run Ohio Jewish Congressman Off Road A Muslim doctor in Ohio was indicted this week on multiple charges after attempting to run a Jewish congressman off... By Admin Jul 12, 2025) and charged with ethnic intimidation.

Tlaib asked that Miller’s comments be removed, and in the end, his comments were stricken.

Hezbollah rejected Thursday the ceasefire deal announced in a joint statement Wednesday by the United States, Israel and Lebanon.

Naim Qassem, secretary-general of the terror organization, said in a written statement read on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV that withdrawing Hezbollah fighters from southern Lebanon under fire constitutes surrender.

The withdrawal would mean “surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy’s goals,” he said.

“What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” Qassem added. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation.”

The ceasefire announcement and swift rejection come amid reports of the deaths of one UNIFIL peacekeeper from Serbia and three others, although whether the strike emanated from Hezbollah or the IDF remains unknown.

President Donald Trump has attempted to force a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah because the fighting is impeding progress on a peace deal with Iran, which has said it would not agree to any deal that didn’t include a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The president is seeking a deal to end Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz that sent the global economy into a tailspin amid a sharp spike in oil prices.

Previous ceasefires have failed, as Hezbollah continued its rocket and drone attacks on civilian population centers in northern Israel. The agreements have served only to constrain Israel somewhat in its response.

Members of the ground version of the Gaza Sumud Flotilla (GSF) were arrested May 24 as they crossed into Libya and have been held in detention since then.

While Israel’s brief detention of the flotilla activists sparked international outrage, the world has kept mum about the detentions in Libya.

The group, which calls itself the Global Sumud Land Convoy with the aim of complementing the flotilla via a land incursion, released a statement saying that it had been forced to abort its effort in the face of local violence and arrests.

Activists from the Global Sumud Land Convoy are detained in Libya. (From a post on X)

The GSF said that 200 activists had camped a few miles from the Sirte crossing into Libya when they were encircled by unmarked vehicles, physically assaulted and forced to evacuate. Ten of them were subsequently arrested when they attempted to negotiate with the Government of National Stability.

The GNS Foreign Ministry claimed the detentions were prompted by the activists’ failure to obtain proper entry permits, but insisted they were being treated in accordance with international humanitarian law. The ministry added that despite its sympathy with the cause, entry across the Libya-Egypt border is permitted only to citizens of those countries.

The GSF called on the activists’ countries of origin to intervene on behalf of their citizens, but critics who point to the double standards the international community has imposed on Israel say that if Israel is not involved, the activists will likely see little action taken to procure their freedom in a timely fashion.

Less than 24 hours after Iran delivered a devastating strike to Kuwait International Airport, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter at a press conference in the Oval Office Wednesday how he defines “ceasefire” vis-à-vis Iran, which appears to have violated the tenuous agreement between the two countries.

“Pretty much the way it is,” Trump replied, before adding, “​“That’s a different part of the world. I’d say, in that part of the world, ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

​“It’s not bad,” he added, as some in the room broke into laughter. “But it’s true. I mean, a ceasefire there is much different than a ceasefire in other parts of the world.”

Trump explains the Middle Eastern conception of ceasefire to reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday. (From a post on X)

Later the same day, the United States, along with Israel and Lebanon, announced a new ceasefire deal (similar to the previous ceasefire deal) in a joint statement after the conclusion of a fourth round of talks in Washington.

Middle East analysts point to Iran’s refusal to consider a ceasefire deal that doesn’t include a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon as the catalyst for the Trump-imposed ceasefire, with the president announcing Monday that Israel and Hezbollah would halt all military operations after a tense phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new deal does not substantially differ from previous deals that called for a cessation of hostilities and for the Lebanese government to seize control of areas where Hezbollah dominates. The new deal also calls for a complete cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, and “pilot zones” under the exclusive control of the Lebanese government without any interference by non-state actors.

For the first time in IDF history, a female soldier has completed a dedicated training track in Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s most elite reconnaissance and hostage-rescue unit. The IDF says she passed the preliminary selection process, met the required criteria, and finished more than a year and a half of training inside the unit.

Sayeret Matkal, the IDF’s General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, is built for deep intelligence missions behind enemy lines, counterterrorism, and hostage rescue beyond Israel’s borders. It is the unit behind some of Israel’s most legendary operations, including Entebbe.

The pilot to integrate women into Sayeret Matkal began in late 2024 as part of a broader IDF review of women serving in combat and special units. Her operational role has not yet been finalized; the IDF says it will be determined according to operational needs and the Joint Service Order.

Anti-Jewish incidents are becoming increasingly blatant and hateful.

A Jewish man who entered his hotel bedroom in London discovered a nasty surprise: The television screen had been altered to display a customized message just for him that read “Free Palestine.”

Jewish activist Hen Mazzig posted a statement about the incident Wednesday alongside a video.

“A visibly Jewish man checks into a hotel in London,” he wrote. “The TV greets him with a customized message of ‘Free Palestine.'”

“This comes a mere day after a hotel in Bavaria told customers that Jews were not allowed to stay with them,” he added. “If it happens again tomorrow do we finally get to call it antisemitism?”

The incident in Bavaria that Mazzig referred to occurred Tuesday when an Israeli family attempted to book a hotel through Booking.com. They received a message via the website from Hotel Zum Hirschen, a 120-year-old family-owned hotel in Lam, Bavaria, that read, “Sorry, there are no jews [sic] allowed in our hotel.”

A Jewish guest at a hotel receives a personalized message on his TV screen that reads “Free Palestine.” (Credit: Hen Mazzig)

The family filed a complaint, leading to the removal of the hotel from Booking.com, an apology from the hotel, and the launch of a police investigation.

The hotel wrote directly to the family to apologize, blaming the incident on previous phishing attempts. Employees at the hotel had assumed that the registration was another phishing attempt, responding in anger, the hotel asserted.

“This was nevertheless unacceptable and must not happen in a professional establishment,” a German journalist quoted the hotel as saying. “We and our employees are only human, and sometimes anger gets the better of us.”

Observers say that responding in a viciously antisemitic manner is a strange way to vent anger over a problem that is not Jewish in nature.

Talya Lador, Israel’s consul general to Southern Germany, denounced the incident.

“Are we back in the 1930s?” she asked.

An Israeli family received this message while trying to book a reservation at a hotel in Bavaria. (From a post on X)

“Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. It is not an Israeli problem. It is a danger to democracy in Germany,” she declared.

Jewish German and European leaders expressed their dismay over the display of blatant Jew hatred.

“In the end, it is almost secondary whether the author sent it out of hateful intent or simple thoughtlessness, because either way it describes the reality of many Jewish people, not only Israelis,” said Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.

“The dehumanizing statement ‘No Jews allowed’ cannot be justified under any circumstances, regardless of attempts to place it in context,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “It remains shocking that someone would not only think along these lines but also put it in writing and send it.”

The hotel wrote about the incident on its website, asking the public for understanding after receiving “insults and threats,” it alleged.

“At this point, we would also like to state clearly that we condemn any form of discrimination. Claims that certain groups are not welcome at our establishment are incorrect and do not reflect the facts,” the hotel said.

The fourth round of talks between Israel and Lebanon brokered by the United States concluded in Washington Wednesday, with both sides agreeing to a ceasefire with the following conditions:

• Hezbollah will completely halt all attacks.
• All of Hezbollah’s terrorists will withdraw beyond the Litani River.
• “Pilot zones” will be established, granting exclusive control to the Lebanese government without any interference by any non-state actors.

“The two sides agreed with the guidance of the ​United States to swiftly advance the creation of pilot zones in which the ​Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors,” which will “enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the U.S., Israel and Lebanon said in a joint statement.

“All parties condemned Iran’s attacks on countries in the region, and ongoing activities that undermine stability throughout the Middle East, whether through support for proxies and all other acts of aggression,” the statement added.

Both Middle Eastern countries agreed to another round of direct negotiations to build confidence and resolve other issues.

Middle East analysts point to Iran’s refusal to consider a ceasefire deal that doesn’t include a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon as the catalyst for the Trump-imposed ceasefire, with the president announcing Monday that Israel and Hezbollah would halt all military operations after a tense phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new deal does not substantially differ from previous deals that called for a cessation of hostilities and for the Lebanese government to seize control of areas where Hezbollah dominates.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, who participated in the talks, applauded the results but issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah.

“Today’s talks were another important step in the process to facilitate peace between Israel and Lebanon,” he posted on X.

“But make no mistake: if Hezbollah thinks this outcome gives them immunity — they are wrong,” he warned. “This ceasefire is entirely contingent on a complete cessation of fire towards Israel, and the complete dismantling of Hezbollah and its terror infrastructure.”

Adam Hamawy, an Egypt born doctor who volunteered at a Gaza hospital that the IDF found terror tunnels underneath and once interned with an organization later linked by U.S. authorities to Al Qaeda, emerged victorious Tuesday in the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s deep blue 12th Congressional District.

Hamawy, a vocal critic of Israel, was endorsed by several prominent progressive figures including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders.

Hamawy’s past has drawn scrutiny. In 1994, he interned in Bosnia with the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity later identified in the September 11 Commission Report as part of a network that allegedly provided support to terrorist activities connected to Osama bin Laden. Federal authorities later alleged the organization was used as a front to help establish Al Qaeda operations in Europe.

Hamawy has never been charged with any terrorism related offense and has denied any wrongdoing. His campaign has described criticism of his association with the organization as politically motivated.

Questions have also been raised about Hamawy’s relationship with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the radical cleric known as the Blind Sheikh, whose followers carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Hamawy testified as a defense witness during Abdel Rahman’s trial and challenged testimony from a government informant. Court records show he also argued that some of the cleric’s remarks were being taken out of context by prosecutors.

The Democratic nominee was also backed by political streamer Hasan Piker, who held a pre election rally on his behalf. Piker has repeatedly compared the IDF to Nazis and has faced criticism for remarks about Orthodox Jews.

With New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District considered safely Democratic, Hamawy is widely expected to become the district’s next member of Congress.

The House voted to limit the president’s war powers in Iran in a rare break from President Donald Trump Wednesday. Democrats have repeatedly forced votes on the issue, but as more members of the GOP have expressed reservations about violations of the War Powers Act, supporters of the resolution were able to whip up enough votes for it to pass.

The resolution passed 215 to 208. Representatives Thomas Massie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett and Warren Davidson crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats to help pass the measure.

Massie, an isolationist who has frequently criticized Trump for his policies regarding the Middle East, lost his primary to a Trump-backed candidate, Ed Gallrein, in May.

“People are tired of this,” Massie said after the vote. “They’re tired of $5 gallon gas and $6 gallon diesel, and fertilizer we can’t afford to put on our fields in Kentucky.” The war powers vote therefore “sends a good message that the people’s House, which represents the people, is tired of this war.”

“There’s a law on the books,” Fitzpatrick said, referencing the War Powers Act. “I don’t see what’s complicated about it. Bring it to Congress, debate it on the merits, and have this vote. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.”

The War Powers Act stipulates that after 60 days of hostilities, the president must obtain congressional authorization to continue military operations against a foreign power. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said that he believes the 60-day clock reset when the ceasefire was established.

California State Sen. Scott Wiener won his state’s primary Tuesday to replace Sen. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), taking 41 percent of the vote compared to San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan’s 28 percent. A far-left candidate, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Saikat Chakrabarti, who had campaigned with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and failed to make the ballot, nevertheless garnered a small percentage of the vote, at 15 percent as of Wednesday morning, with 50 percent of the vote tallied.

Scott Wiener drew fire from Jewish leaders in California during his campaign for reversing himself on calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, a label he rejected in a Jan. 11 interview with The Atlantic. But hours later, seeing that this position would harm his candidacy, he posted a video statement in which he said he had changed his mind.

A coalition of Jewish groups released a statement saying that his video remarks were “both incorrect and lack[ing] moral clarity.” 

As a result, he broke with the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, stepping down from his role as co-chair.

JOINT STATEMENT: ON SENATOR SCOTT WIENER'S USAGE OF THE TERM "GENOCIDE"

We are deeply disappointed that Senator @Scott_Wiener posted a video in response to last week’s congressional debate that accuses Israel of committing genocide. We recognize that Senator Wiener has been a… pic.twitter.com/L0icDaaLj4

— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) January 12, 2026

Human remains discovered in Kibbutz Kfar Aza have reopened one of the most painful unfinished stories from the October 7 massacre, the search for Maj. Nirel Zini, the Givati officer murdered by Hamas terrorists alongside his partner, Niv Raviv, in the young couples’ neighborhood of the kibbutz.

The remains were found in Dor Tzair, the same neighborhood where Nirel and Niv lived and where terrorists stormed their home. Israeli reports say a skull fragment or jawbone was located and transferred to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification. Investigators are now checking whether the remains belong to Nirel, whose head was severed by the terrorists and has not been found since the massacre. A partially burned phone was also reportedly found at the scene.

For Nirel’s family, this is not simply another discovery in the ruins of Kfar Aza. It is the latest chapter in a search they say they were largely forced to lead themselves. His father, Amir Zini, has said the family spent months combing through debris, bringing in equipment, sifting rubble and handing over findings to forensic officials, while begging state authorities to take responsibility.

Nirel was 31. He was a Givati officer who had served for roughly a decade, survived a near-fatal injury during operational activity in Hebron, and returned to military service before he had fully recovered. He later left the IDF with the rank of major because of the lasting damage from that wound. Before he was murdered, he worked in the family carpentry business and was preparing to study law, hoping to help wounded soldiers and veterans battling the system for recognition and care.

He and Niv had met during their army service. They had been together for years, built a life in Kfar Aza, and were planning a future. Nirel had intended to propose just days after the massacre. Instead, when Hamas terrorists reached their home, he held the safe-room door with a knife in his hand and sent his family one last message asking them to pray. As the house burned and the terrorists closed in, he reportedly tried to draw them away from Niv in the hope that she would survive. Both were murdered.

Their bodies were found only days later, after they had first been listed as missing. But according to the family, they were not told at the time of burial what had happened to Nirel’s body. Months later, during a briefing at Lahav 433, they learned that he had been decapitated. His father has since accused the state of failing the family twice: first by failing to protect Nirel and Niv, and then by leaving the family without clear answers, official ownership of the search, or the dignity of a full burial.

Kfar Aza was one of the hardest-hit communities on October 7. Dozens of residents were murdered, 19 were abducted to Gaza, homes were burned and fighting continued for days. The IDF later acknowledged a deep failure in its mission to defend the kibbutz. But behind the numbers is the story of one family still looking for one missing part of one murdered son.

The forensic identification has not yet been completed. If the remains are confirmed to be Nirel’s, it could bring his family a measure of closure after an almost unbearable search. If not, the search continues, and so does the demand that Israel account for every victim of the massacre, down to the last fragment.

Earlier this week, a subway commuter attacked a Jewish woman for eating kids.

Video footage shows a Black woman shouting inside a subway car full of commuters, “Jews are eating kids!”

She leans toward a Jewish woman and says, “I smell the kids” as the woman repeatedly says, “Don’t touch me.”

Details of the assault are unclear in the footage, but other commuters push her back, shouting, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“It’s okay for her to eat kids?” the woman yells. “I can’t choke her down?”

A video shows a Black woman assaulting a Jewish woman for “eating kids.” (From a post on X)

“I was just assaulted,” the shocked victim says in a trembling voice.

Subsequent photos show the woman’s red scalp and a missing tuft of hair.

The incident occurred just days before the New York Police Department released data showing a 71% increase in hate crimes in May compared to the same period last year, with Jews garnering a staggering 60.3 percent of incidents, despite forming only 10 percent of the population of New York City.

Out of a total of 98 hate crimes, 60 targeted Jews, followed by the next-highest category, unspecified religion, with 12 incidents. Muslims suffered the fourth-highest number of hate crimes, at five incidents, which means that 12 times more hate crimes targeted Jews than Muslims. Third, at 10 hate crimes, was sexual orientation, with 11 combined for all other groups.

Critics of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani who have said that his actions against protecting Jews, such as vetoing a bill that would create buffer zones around schools and reversing his predecessor Eric Adams’ protections, would make Jews less safe can point to these statistics as proof that their assessment was correct.

While New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch can rightly take a victory lap for the extraordinary drop in crime during the first five months of 2026, crime in one category surged: hate crimes against Jews.

“NYPD ANNOUNCES FEWEST MURDERS, SHOOTING INCIDENTS, AND SHOOTING VICTIMS IN RECORDED HISTORY FOR THE FIRST FIVE MONTHS OF THE YEAR,” the NYPD’s website screamed, followed by a series of headlines touting major successes: “Major Crime Declined 10.6% Citywide and More than 6% in Transit in May,” “Set New Record Low for the Fewest Shooting Incidents and Shooting Victims in May,” and “Safest Start to the Year in Public Housing in Recorded History with Fewest Murders, Shooting Incidents, Shooting Victims, and Robberies.”

In a statement, Tisch said that the NYPD’s focused and strategic approach is delivering results.

“Across our city, the NYPD is delivering on its mission to keep New Yorkers safe,” she said. “With record lows in murders, shooting incidents, and shooting victims … New Yorkers across every corner of our city are benefitting from a police department that is focused and strategic.”

(Credit: NYPD)

But the news for Jews is not so promising. Flagged at the very bottom of the report were May’s hate crime statistics, with Jews garnering a staggering 60.3 percent of incidents, an increase of 71 percent from May 2024, despite forming only 10 percent of the population of New York City.

Out of a total of 98 hate crimes, 60 targeted Jews, followed by the next-highest category, unspecified religion, with 12 incidents. Muslims suffered the fourth-highest number of hate crimes, at five incidents, which means that 12 times more hate crimes targeted Jews than Muslims. Third, at 10 hate crimes, was sexual orientation, with 11 combined for all other groups.

Critics of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani who have said that his actions against protecting Jews, such as vetoing a bill that would create buffer zones around schools and reversing his predecessor Eric Adams’ protections, would make Jews less safe can point to these statistics as proof that their assessment was correct.

Moshe Spern, President of the United Jewish Teachers, reacted on social media to these shocking statistics.

“When the mayor spreads attacks on Jews & Israel, hosts antisemitic activists like Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion, defends his wife’s antisemitic posts, and runs a fake ‘office to combat antisemitism that exists only on paper … what did he expect?” he fumed.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Federal authorities arrested Jamshid Ghomi, a dual U.S.-Iranian national living in Newport Coast, on a criminal complaint accusing him of building a years-long pipeline that moved American technology into Iran, including to the regime’s nuclear and military establishment.

Ghomi, 63, is the founder, owner and CEO of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., a Tehran-based computer networking company. Prosecutors say he used the company to acquire U.S.-origin networking, security and encryption equipment for Iranian customers without the required authorization from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

According to the Justice Department, Ghomi’s company supplied American-origin equipment to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the agency tied to Iran’s nuclear program, including centrifuge and uranium-enrichment work. Prosecutors also say the company supplied equipment to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics and affiliated defense-electronics entities.

The alleged supply chain ran through familiar sanctions-evasion routes. DOJ says Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts for hundreds of purchases, directed goods to intermediaries in the UAE, and later negotiated directly with suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska while routing the equipment through a UAE front company and on to Iran.

Federal investigators allege the scale was massive. From 2014 to 2018 alone, Ghomi allegedly arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, using freight forwarders and Dubai-based intermediaries to hide the true destination.

Prosecutors say he knew the exports were illegal and took steps to conceal them, including keeping his name off shipping paperwork, omitting invoices from shipments headed to Iran, and hiding U.S.-origin equipment inside larger shipments. In internal correspondence, Ghomi and alleged co-conspirators reportedly referred to Iran as “Motherland.”

DOJ alleges Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account, falsely reporting the funds to the IRS as a foreign inheritance. Prosecutors say the proceeds helped fund his Orange County mansion, which federal officials described as worth $35 million and said they will seek to seize.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli accused Ghomi of “aiding our declared enemies” by selling American-origin computer networking parts to Iran while earning millions in violation of U.S. sanctions law.

Ghomi is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted. DOJ stressed that the complaint is an allegation, not evidence, and that Ghomi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday that if necessary, the United States and Israel would resume military operations against Iran, but ultimately he would leave the decision to escalate in President Donald Trump’s court. He also confirmed that the two leaders speak every two days.

“I think there’s a tactical game that is being played,” Netanyahu said. “Iran surely knows what [Trump] has said, that if necessary, there will be a full-scale return to military action. It’s the president’s decision, Israel is ready, and the U.S. forces are ready.”

Netanyahu talks about regime change in an interview Wednesday. (From a post on X)

Although the prime minister said that Iran had been “enormously weakened,” he stopped short of predicting regime change.

“You can’t quite predict when a regime like that goes under,” he said. “You didn’t predict it in a number of cases: Not in Romania, and not in the fall of the Berlin Wall; and nobody predicted it, but it happened. Why? Because the cracks were propagating underneath.”

This video purports to show an Iranian strike on Kuwait International Airport Tuesday night. (From a post on X)

“In fact, you have enormous cracks right now in Iran, and you can’t predict when it’ll happen,” he continued. “But I said yesterday in a public forum here … ‘Look, I believe that ultimately these cracks will propagate and the regime will fall, and we’ll do our best.’”

“I think that we have to help the Iranian people to bring down this regime, and that hasn’t changed; but it’s not going to happen, you know, exactly at the moment of our choosing,” he added.

A four-month-old baby left in a hot car in Kfar Chabad, a town located southeast of Tel Aviv, was discovered unconscious and showing signs of heatstroke by paramedics who were called to the scene Wednesday when residents noticed the infant had been left in the car for an extended period, according to Magen David Adom.

The baby was taken to Shamir Medical Center for emergency care and remains in critical condition.

“When we arrived, we were led to the baby who was unconscious, after being in a closed vehicle for a long time,” a medic from MDA said.

“We performed an initial medical assessment of the baby, and noticed that he was very warm to the touch,” the medic added.

Wednesday marked the first day of a heat wave that struck Israel and nearby countries, with temperatures above 86°F in central Israel, where Kfar Chabad is located.

As temperatures continue to rise, the Israel Meteorological Service issued heat advisory warnings, including severe heat warnings for the Jordan Valley and Judean Desert and moderate heat warnings for the eastern Galilee.

Last year, four deaths resulting from prolonged enclosure in hot cars were recorded, with a total of 41 such deaths since 2009.

Last month, a routine school drop-off in Los Angeles ended in tragedy when a four-year-old child who was left in a car died from heat exposure.

Iran’s attack on Kuwait was not just another failed shot at a U.S. base. Kuwaiti officials now say Iranian drones struck Terminal 1 at Kuwait International Airport, killing one person, wounding more than 60, and causing severe damage to the passenger terminal and other vital facilities.

Photos from the scene show fire damage inside the airport, with debris across the terminal after the strike. Flights were suspended and incoming aircraft diverted, before Kuwait Airways began limited operations from Terminal 4 after safety checks.

CENTCOM says Iran also fired missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, but two missiles aimed at Kuwait fell short or broke apart, while three launched at Bahrain were intercepted by U.S. and Bahraini air defenses. U.S. forces also downed Iranian drones aimed at civilian vessels and struck an Iranian military ground-control station on Qeshm Island.

The IDF struck down another one of the terrorists Monday who abducted Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel, and Or Levy as they were hiding in a bomb shelter on Oct. 7.

As Yousef Ayesh Awad Ramadan sped away on his motorbike, a precise, targeted strike obliterated him in a cloud of dust.

Ramadan served as deputy commander of a Hamas Nukhba terrorist cell, an elite special operations force within the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The unit is composed of highly trained special operations fighters who carry out infiltrations, raids and ambushes.

Israel has said that this unit led the Oct. 7 attack against Israel in 2023.

The terrorist who abducted Israeli hostages from a bomb shelter in Re’im on Oct. 7 disappears in a cloud of smoke after a targeted strike. (Credit: IDF)

Ramadan did not confine himself to the single evil act of abducting innocent civilians. According to the military, he participated in the infiltration of Israel on Oct. 7 and the massacre of Israelis. He also organized and led attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians throughout the war, posing a constant threat.

In a stunning strike in April, the IDF eliminated in one fell swoop three Hamas terrorists who had also been involved in the abduction of these same Israeli hostages.

At the time, a cell of Hamas terrorists attempted to infiltrate the Israeli-controlled portion of Gaza to attack Israeli troops operating in central Gaza. As they approached the Yellow Line, the demarcation line between the Israeli- and Hamas-controlled sections of Gaza, IDF soldiers targeted and struck them, wiping out the entire cell.

Yousef Ayesh Awad Ramadan, a terrorist from the elite Nukhba unit, was eliminated by the IDF Monday. (Credit: IDF)

The IDF identified Ali Sami Mohammad Shakra among those killed. He was a Hamas Nukhba platoon commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre and helped abduct the hostages from the bomb shelter in Re’im.

Mohammad Mabhouh, a regional company commander in Hamas’ al-Bureij Battalion, and Mohammad Fuad Jaser Sayyid were also killed. Both were involved in holding another hostage, Avinatan Or, in captivity in Gaza.

The IDF said it also killed other Nukhba terrorists who had launched rockets toward Israel. The Nukhba unit of Hamas is an elite special operations force within the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The unit is composed of highly trained special operations combatants who carry out infiltrations, raids and ambushes. Israel has said that this unit led the Oct. 7 attack against Israel in 2023.

Ali Sami Mohammad Shakra, eliminated by the IDF in April, poses during an abduction of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. (Credit: IDF)

The IDF vowed to continue to operate to remove any threats to Israel’s security.

“IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the military said in a statement.

The IDF announced the elimination of Yousef Ayesh Awad Ramadan, a deputy commander in a Hamas Nukhba terrorist cell who participated in the October 7 massacre and the abduction of hostages from the infamous Re’im Junction bomb shelter, later known as the “Death Shelter.”

According to the IDF, Ramadan infiltrated Israeli territory during the attack and took part in the kidnapping of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel, and Or Levy from the shelter after Hamas terrorists stormed the area.

The shelter became one of the most harrowing scenes of the October 7 massacre. Approximately 50 festivalgoers fleeing the Nova Music Festival crammed into the small roadside shelter as Hamas terrorists surrounded it, firing into the structure and repeatedly hurling grenades inside. At least 11 grenades were thrown into the shelter during the assault.

Among those trapped inside was 22 year old Aner Shapira, who repeatedly picked up the grenades and threw them back outside, saving countless lives. Shapira successfully threw back seven grenades before an eighth exploded in his hand, killing him. His extraordinary actions have since become a symbol of heroism in the face of unimaginable terror.

Video of hero Aner Shapira HY”D throwing back a grenade eight times

During the attack, Hersh Goldberg-Polin suffered a devastating injury when a grenade explosion severed his left arm below the elbow. Despite the wound, he managed to apply a tourniquet to himself before being abducted into Gaza.

The attack on the shelter left at least 16 people murdered, several others seriously wounded, and four hostages kidnapped into Gaza: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel, and Or Levy. Cohen and Levy were later released, while Goldberg-Polin was murdered in captivity. Ohel remains among the hostages whose ordeal has become a symbol of the ongoing hostage crisis.

Israeli officials said Ramadan continued advancing attack plans against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians and posed an immediate threat to Israeli forces operating in Gaza. The IDF said his elimination is part of its ongoing effort to bring to justice those responsible for the October 7 atrocities and the kidnapping of Israeli hostages.