NEW YORK (VINnews) – Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani on Monday signed legislation making outdoor dining on New York City roadways a permanent, year-round option for restaurants.

The law eliminates a previous requirement that restaurants participating in the city’s Dining Out NYC program dismantle roadway dining setups from Nov. 30 through March 31. The seasonal restriction did not apply to sidewalk cafes.

The city Department of Transportation will develop rules allowing restaurants to temporarily winterize roadway dining setups while maintaining access and safety requirements.

“Outdoor dining transformed our city once before, and now we are making sure it has a permanent place in New York City,” Mamdani said.

The legislation, Intro. 0655, was sponsored by City Council Member Lincoln Restler, who said the seasonal requirement had created unnecessary costs and discouraged restaurants from participating.

“Outdoor dining is great for local restaurants, great for the hospitality sector workforce and great for all of us to be able to enjoy a meal on the streets of New York City,” Restler said.

The measure is part of Mamdani’s broader effort to ease regulations on small businesses. City officials said year-round outdoor dining will allow restaurants to serve customers throughout the year while adding activity to city streets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man refusing to eat food while jailed on charges he shot two National Guard troops near the White House, killing one of them, can be fed against his will under a judge’s emergency order.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed Saturday to order “nonconsensual” nutrition and medical treatment for Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was rushed to a hospital in July after he stopped eating. Mehta said federal Bureau of Prisons medical staff can feed Lakanwal intravenously or through a medical tube to save his life.

Redacted court filings haven’t specified a reason for Lakanwal’s refusal to eat, but prosecutors noted that courts have held that prison officials can involuntary feed “hunger-striking prisoners.”

Justice Department prosecutors asked Mehta to order the emergency life-saving measures for Lakanwal. Their written request wasn’t immediately made public in online court records.

Defense attorney Shelli Peterson declined to elaborate Monday on Lakanwal’s medical condition and care. A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office also declined to comment.

The Justice Department hasn’t announced whether it will seek the death penalty in the case. “That is a very weighty decision,” Pirro said last year.

The order authorizing Lakanwal’s involuntary feeding expires Oct. 28 but can be renewed.

Lakanwal, an Afghan national who resided in Bellingham, Washington, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the November 2025 shooting that killed West Virginia National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.

Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were deployed to Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, which began last summer. Lakanwal ambushed the Guard members outside a subway station three blocks from the White House, according to prosecutors.

Another National Guard member heard gunshots and saw Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired a gun and screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” according to a police report. Lakanwal was shot during the confrontation and made his initial court appearance from a hospital bed last year.

OKLAHOMA CITY (VINnews) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has told President Donald Trump that his state would “proudly welcome” Jewish families who lawfully come to the United States seeking safety and opportunity, citing a surge in antisemitism that he said is especially disturbing in Canada.

In a July 22 letter to Trump, Stitt wrote that reports of increasing violence, intimidation and discrimination against Jewish communities since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel were “deeply troubling.”

“It is especially disturbing to see such ugly hostility in western nations that otherwise hold themselves out as bastions of tolerance and civility, such as Canada,” Stitt wrote. “No one should be forced to live in fear because of their faith.”

The governor said Oklahoma has a “strong and vibrant Jewish community, especially in Tulsa,” that has contributed to the state since before statehood and is prepared to receive new neighbors.

“Should Jewish families lawfully come to the United States in search of safety and opportunity, I want you to know that Oklahoma would proudly welcome those who choose to make our state their home,” the letter said.

Stitt thanked Trump for what he called “steadfast leadership in confronting antisemitism and defending religious liberty.” Copies of the letter were sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

The letter has drawn renewed attention this week after Christian lawmakers and faith leaders urged the Trump administration to create a lawful, expedited pathway for Jewish Canadians who say they no longer feel safe. Advocates working with families have said more than 2,000 Jewish Canadians have expressed interest in relocating.

Jewish and Christian leaders in Tulsa have already offered to help receive families. Local groups, including Tulsa Tomorrow and the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, have run a relocation assistance program known as Lech L’Tulsa, offering matching relocation grants, exploratory visits and immigration-legal support for eligible Canadian households.

Canadian Jewish organizations have documented record levels of antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, including harassment, vandalism, threats and attacks on schools, synagogues and businesses. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said more than two-thirds of religion-motivated hate crimes in Canada last year targeted Jews, who make up about 1% of the population.

Stitt’s letter does not create a new immigration category. Any move would still have to follow federal law. Trump recently amplified calls for an expedited legal pathway, and Oklahoma has been cited as one potential destination if such a process is created. Nebraska has also been mentioned as a possible partner, according to reports.

Oklahoma’s Jewish population remains small compared with coastal states, but Stitt has previously said the state’s emphasis on family, faith and entrepreneurship aligns with Jewish communal life and that antisemitic street intimidation common in some large cities “doesn’t happen in Oklahoma.”

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  When a missile struck the tank of Uri Asher during the Iron Swords war, the Israeli state responded exactly as it was built to respond. Uri, severely wounded and having lost a leg, received devoted military and medical care. The system knew who he was, what he was owed, and how to deliver it.

His parents, however, Uri’s caretakers, received nothing.

“While Israel’s heroes receive institutional accompaniment, their families often find themselves without an appropriate response,” reads the mission statement of Advot, the organization Moshi and Yocheved Asher founded after discovering that their experience — a second, invisible campaign of uncertainty and daily coping conducted entirely without support — was not unusual at all.

It was standard.

They met family after family of wounded soldiers dealing with pain, anxiety and functional collapse, and all of them were outside the circles of assistance.

That is not a gap in a program. It is a structural feature of how Israeli social support is designed, and it explains why the most consequential social work happening in Israel right now is being done by small nonprofits funded by private philanthropy, building parallel infrastructure the state does not have.

It is somewhat shocking that Israeli social support runs on two tracks that do not meet nor connect.

The first is the statutory municipal welfare system— professional, licensed, and calibrated specifically for these types chronic cases. Its social workers were carrying caseloads beyond  capacity before October 7. The war added an enormous number of newly disrupted households without adding a proportionate number of social workers, and the arithmetic has not improved.

The second is community goodwill, whose capacity the war demonstrated dramatically. Neighborhoods organized meal rotations, childcare, transportation and cash within days, often faster than any government body. But goodwill has a documented life cycle. It surges, exhausts itself, and fades within four to six months — usually just as affected families enter the hardest phase, when the casseroles stop and the actual long-term burden begins.

Between the two falls a category of family the system does not officially recognize: the functioning household, two working parents and a mortgage, struck by cancer, by a serious accident, by a death, or by a father who has spent two hundred days in reserve duty while the family’s income quietly evaporated. Such a family is eligible for little and known to no agency.

These families do not vanish. Some recover on their own. Others decline slowly over three to seven years until they finally cross the eligibility threshold and arrive at municipal welfare as full cases — at a human cost that cannot be recovered and a fiscal cost several multiples higher than early intervention would have required.

Shlomo HaMelech described the condition three thousand years ago. Ki im yipolu, ha’echad yakim es chaveiro; v’ilo ha’echad she’yipol, v’ein sheini l’hakimo — “For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to the one who falls with no second to lift him” (Koheles 4:10).

Yad Tamar and the argument for infrastructure

Yad Tamar, now operating in 47 Israeli communities, was built specifically on that seam, and its history explains the approach.

It began roughly fifteen years ago at the bedside of a young woman named Tamar, as a telephone hotline for families confronting cancer. That hotline still runs and accompanies approximately 1,800 families a year. About eleven years ago the organization made a decision that separates it from most of the Israeli nonprofit sector: it stopped expanding services and started building infrastructure.

What Yad Tamar installs in a community is designed to remain after its staff have moved on — a local community team, a corps of trained volunteers, a mapped inventory of every real resource available in that town, formal referral channels running in from the municipal welfare department, and a purpose-built application for coordinating crisis response and long-term support.

The operational framework organizes help into three concentric circles: family and close friends; formal services and community resources; and trained volunteers drawn from the community itself. Staff map and mobilize each circle, then build a written support plan with the family that connects every identified need to a specific named resource rather than a referral into empty space. It is, in effect, an attempt to manufacture the sheini in advance, before the fall — and to make sure he is still standing there two years later.

The organization reports 3,500 families supported annually and roughly 2,800 volunteers nationwide. Its footprint is unusually broad and tracks no single constituency: the Gaza envelope, the north, the communities of Judea and Samaria that absorbed disproportionate losses in the war, and substantial infrastructure inside Druze society.

Two elements of the model deserve scrutiny rather than applause, because they are where the claim will actually be tested.

The first is the economic argument. Each community built is supposed to make the next one cheaper and faster, as training protocols, materials and municipal relationships become transferable. That is a flywheel claim, easy to assert and hard to prove. Yad Tamar’s answer is scale: an increase from a NIS 5 million annual budget (about US$1.5 million) to NIS 7.5 million (about US$2.2 million), which it says would double its entry pace to 30 new municipalities in a single year. Whether per-community cost actually falls at that speed is the number a serious funder should demand in writing.

The second is measurement. In partnership with Social Finance Israel and the Joint Distribution Committee, the organization developed a model tracking outcomes rather than outputs — family functioning over time, prevented decline into welfare dependence, community resilience. That is a materially harder standard than the volunteer-hours-and-families-served reporting that dominates the sector. It is the right standard. It is also young, and outcome data of this kind takes years to become persuasive.

The stated five-year objective is a formal national partnership with the Ministries of Welfare and Health. The strategic logic is that the government already channels resilience and community budgets through municipalities, meaning a philanthropic shekel spent building the infrastructure unlocks public shekels to operate it.

What makes this a systemic story rather than a profile is that other organizations, working on entirely different problems, have arrived at an identical architecture.

Advot, the Ashers’ organization, is headquartered in Kedumim and organized around a single premise: a soldier cannot be rehabilitated without strengthening the people around him. Its work spans emotional and social accompaniment, individual and group support, legal and financial guidance, rights-realization assistance, respite activities, and the recruitment and deployment of volunteers. It has also built an AI-driven support agent, developed by families of the wounded together with technology firms, to deliver information and guidance discreetly at any hour — a recognition that the families who need help most are often least able to sit in an office and ask for it.

One of Advot’s stated areas of activity is legislative amendment and government support. The organization is lobbying to change the law precisely because the law does not currently see the people it serves.

MOSHE, founded in 2017 by Gal Nissim-Emanuel after the suicide of her brother Moshe Uri Nissim, describes itself as the first organization in Israel functioning as a community-based emergency response system for suicide prevention. Its method, called ROOFING, rests on the same premise as Yad Tamar’s circles and Advot’s family focus: build a protective human circle around the person at risk by mobilizing those already in his life, rather than routing him into a system with no room. The organization reports 1,778 interventions supporting some 17,500 people, 129 trained volunteers, and 7,600 community resilience agents trained nationwide.

Three organizations. Three different presenting problems. One identical conclusion: the state cannot reach these people in time, so the community must be trained, structured and equipped to reach them instead. V’hachut hameshulash lo bimheirah yinatek — a threefold cord is not quickly severed (Koheles 4:12). The verse comes two pesukim after the warning about the man who falls alone, and the sequence is not accidental. Shlomo HaMelech moves from the danger of isolation directly to the durability of a structure built of more than one strand.

What these organizations have built is impressive, increasingly measured, and probably necessary. But the underlying fact is that Israeli civil society is now constructing at private expense a layer of social infrastructure that in most functioning states is a public responsibility. Philanthropy is being asked to fund the prevention of a problem the public system will otherwise absorb later at far greater cost — and asked precisely because the public system has demonstrated that it will not.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced that Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa has been officially nominated as the next chief of Central Command.

The military said Defense Minister Israel Katz approved IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s recommendation to appoint Bar Kalifa to the post. He is slated to assume the role in 2027, “subject to an operational situation assessment.”

Bar Kalifa currently heads the Personnel Directorate. He previously commanded the 36th Division during months of fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Zamir also announced a broader round of senior appointments, including three new brigadier generals and 11 new colonels. Two brigadier generals and 23 colonels are moving to new positions at the same rank. Another 19 senior officers are being sent to studies between assignments.

The full list of appointments remains pending Katz’s approval.

MIAMI (VINnews) -Gabriel Groisman, the former mayor of Bal Harbour, Florida, who has become a prominent national voice in the fight against antisemitism since leaving office, announced Monday that his new book, “The Jewish Fight for America,” will be released in December by Gefen Publishing House.

Groisman said the book grew out of three questions he is frequently asked: What is happening to Jews in America, how serious is the situation, and what can be done about it?

Some exciting news.

My book, The Jewish Fight for America, is coming out this December with Gefen Publishing House, Ltd.

I'm scheduling launch events across the country, December through the Spring. If you can fill a room, I will come. DM me.

Thanks for the support! pic.twitter.com/B03gfpXlMD

— Gabriel Groisman (@GabeGroisman) August 31, 2026

Groisman said the book grew out of three questions he frequently receives: “what is actually happening to Jews in America, how serious is it, and what can we do about it?!”
The book will examine what Groisman describes as urgent challenges both within and outside the Jewish community, including growing apathy and assimilation, political and ideological divisions on the left and right, the increasingly complicated political landscape and the fight against antisemitism.

He also plans to explore the role of Israel in Jewish identity in the diaspora and makes the case for why American Jews should be invested in the future of the United States.

“The book will take the reader through the fights we must urgently take on internally against growing apathy and assimilation, against the dangerous ideologies on the left and on the right, the fraught and delicate political landscape, the fight against antisemitism, the fight to keep Israel as an integral part of the Jewish identity in the diaspora, and finally why we must fight for America,” Groisman wrote.

Groisman served as mayor of Bal Harbour from 2016 to 2022 and gained national attention for his advocacy against antisemitism and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel. Since leaving office, he has continued to speak nationally about antisemitism, Israel and Jewish identity.

The book is scheduled for release in December, with launch events planned across the country from December through the spring.

“If you can fill a room, I will come,” Groisman wrote, inviting communities and organizations interested in hosting an event to contact him.

He said the cover, preorder links and bulk preorder pricing for organizations will be announced soon.

TEL AVIV — Israel and Greece signed a roughly €3 billion ($3.5 billion) defense agreement Monday under which Israel will build a multi-layered air defense network for Greece, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

The program, known in Greece as Achilles Shield, is the largest defense export deal in the history of Israel-Greece relations and one of the largest in Israel’s history, the ministry said. It is also the first time Israel will supply another country with a complete defense array against a wide range of threats, including ballistic missiles, aircraft and drones.

The deal was signed at ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv by Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram and Ioannis Bouras, head of Greece’s General Directorate for Defense Investments and Armaments.

Under the agreement, Israel will supply Rafael’s David’s Sling and SPYDER systems, Israel Aerospace Industries’ BARAK MX system, multi-mission radars made by IAI subsidiary ELTA Systems, and a new national command-and-control system developed by Rafael to integrate Greece’s air-defense capabilities.

“Under the deal, Israel will build Greece a comprehensive, multi-layered air defense array, drawing entirely on Israeli-made systems and on the extensive operational experience Israel’s defense establishment has gained during the war,” the ministry.

A supplementary contract worth €26 million was also signed Monday for Rafael’s Drone Dome counter-drone systems. Israel said it will expand industrial defense cooperation with Greece, including knowledge and technology transfers to Greek industry. Greek officials have said local companies are expected to take more than 25% of the work, valued at about €750 million.

Greece has described Achilles Shield as a centerpiece of its military modernization drive and said it will be the first European Union country to field a comparable integrated national shield. Officials have said the system is to be delivered in stages and become fully operational within about 35 months of contract signature.

“This project marks another milestone in defense cooperation between Israel and Greece, a key strategic partner in the Eastern Mediterranean,” the Israeli ministry said. “Greece’s choice of Israeli technology as the backbone of its most ambitious air defense buildup program in the past decade reflects the depth of trust built between the two countries.”cc86b0

MIAMI (VINnews) – Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., is echoing a sentiment that has gained attention among Jewish leaders in South Florida, declaring Florida the best place in the country to be openly Jewish and proud.

“Florida is the best state to be Jewish & proud in the entire USA,” Gimenez wrote Monday on X. “We have ZERO TOLERANCE for anti-semitism, tough law & order, a strong & growing community, & diversity of thought. It’s why Florida is the safest state to be Jewish in America!”

Thanks @RepCarlos!!! https://t.co/txVJzxshfz

— Gabriel Groisman (@GabeGroisman) August 31, 2026

Gimenez’s comments echo those of former Bal Harbour Mayor Gabe Groisman, who said Miami is the best place outside Israel for an openly proud Zionist Jew.

Groisman’s comments were highlighted in an April 2025 Times of Israel article titled “The safest place to be Jewish in America.” The article cited South Florida’s large and growing Jewish community, strong ties to Israel and Jewish institutions as reasons for the region’s appeal.

Gimenez, a Republican who represents Florida’s 28th Congressional District, has been a prominent supporter of Israel and an outspoken critic of antisemitism.

His comments come as South Florida continues to attract Jewish residents and institutions from across the country, particularly from the Northeast.

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NEW YORK (VINnews) – Hundreds of people gathered Sunday evening at The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York, to celebrate Rabbi Marc Schneier’s 36th anniversary as the congregation’s founding senior rabbi and to dedicate a new Torah in his honor.

Schneier was joined by Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber and his father, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor from Vienna and longtime rabbi of Park East Synagogue.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier donated the new Torah to mark his son’s anniversary. Chief Rabbi Ber flew in from Israel for less than 24 hours specifically for the dedication and brought a custom-made Torah cover.

The Torah is dedicated to Rabbi Marc and Simi Schneier and to the memory of Simi’s parents, Rita and Naftali Teitelbaum, who were also Holocaust survivors.

Chazzan Netanel Hershtik, the world-renowned cantor of The Hampton Synagogue, performed with the synagogue choir during the program.

Jewish tradition compares a Torah dedication to a wedding, reflecting the significance and joy of welcoming a new Torah into a community.

“What a night! I am so honored to have celebrated my 36th anniversary at The Hampton Synagogue with the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Kalman Ber, and my father, Rabbi Arthur Schneier,” Schneier said. “There is no place like the Hamptons! Every day, our community makes the ordinary extraordinary.”

Last month, the New York Post spotlighted the Westhampton Beach synagogue as a major gathering place for politicians, business leaders and prominent members of the Jewish community. The Post described the synagogue as an influential political stop in the Hamptons, noting that it regularly attracts prominent elected officials and other high-profile figures.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and former Republican congressional candidate Dan Bilzerian share nearly two dozen donors who gave more than $61,000 combined to their campaigns, according to a Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission filings published Monday.

The candidates sit on opposite ends of the political spectrum. El-Sayed has called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, higher taxes on the wealthy and Medicare for All. Bilzerian supported the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and advocated lower taxes and less regulation. Both have called on the United States to cease all aid to Israel.

Shared donors contributed $23,144.12 to Bilzerian’s campaign and about $38,626.20 to El-Sayed’s campaign, the review found. Their overlapping network includes prominent critics of Israel.

Bilzerian lost the Republican primary in Florida’s 6th Congressional District to Rep. Randy Fine, who is Jewish. The contest drew condemnation from Republican leaders after Bilzerian released a 2½-minute AI-generated advertisement that called Fine a “fat Jew,” depicted him with horns, used the slur “Shylock” and referenced Adolf Hitler with the line, “Should we revisit that Austrian painter’s opinions?” Bilzerian has also said “Jewish supremacy is the greatest threat to the world today.”

El-Sayed has accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians. He has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and has drawn scrutiny over associations with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, from whom he later distanced himself after Piker’s remarks about Jewish Americans.

Among the shared donors is Georgia attorney Ibrahim Awad. FEC records show Awad gave $7,000 to El-Sayed’s campaign around March 2026 and $12,651.88 through a joint fundraising committee supporting Bilzerian in April 2026. On the “Sumud Podcast” in August 2025, Awad compared Israel’s campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust, saying it was “happening in real time right in front of us,” and described Zionism as a “toxic way of thinking” rooted in “supremacy.”

Texas businessman Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq, the child of Palestinian refugees, donated $3,500 to El-Sayed between May 2025 and April 2026 and more than $1,000 through a committee supporting Bilzerian. Mahrouq also gave $400,000 to American Priorities PAC, which was formed to counter the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and has donated to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., both critics of U.S. aid to Israel. In a statement, Mahrouq said a contribution “should not be interpreted as an endorsement of every position taken by a candidate or organization.”

Muhi Khwaja, co-founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation, donated $625 to El-Sayed and $26.68 to Bilzerian. In a November 2023 essay, Khwaja wrote that “the philanthropic world can no longer turn a blind eye to the collective punishment facing Palestinians.”

Neither El-Sayed’s campaign nor Bilzerian’s campaign responded to inquiries from Fox News Digital about the shared donors or their positions on Israel.

El-Sayed, a physician and former Wayne County health director, won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and is running in a closely watched general election. His campaign has separately drawn attention for receiving more than $115,000 from dozens of individuals tied to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates and labeled as such in Florida and Texas.

Bilzerian, a social media personality and poker player, spent more than $1 million of his own money on the Florida race and received about 19% of the vote. Jewish organizations and Republican officials condemned his campaign as antisemitic. Fine, the incumbent, won the primary by a wide margin.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — The national average price of gasoline remained above $4 a gallon throughout August for the first time, making the month the most expensive August on record at the pump, according to AAA.

The national average was about $4.08 a gallon Monday, according to AAA data. The monthly average has surpassed the previous August record of $3.97 a gallon, set in 2022.

AAA said gasoline prices have remained elevated largely because of high crude oil prices and continued uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil shipments.

The elevated fuel costs are putting additional pressure on American consumers at a time when inflation remains a concern. Gasoline prices typically ease toward the end of the summer as demand declines, but AAA said crude oil prices have kept prices at the pump unusually high.

The national average reached $4.10 a gallon earlier this month, the highest level ever recorded for that date, AAA said. The organization said the August monthly average had already surpassed the previous record by Aug. 20.

AAA said gasoline demand has declined, but that has not been enough to offset the effect of higher crude prices. The Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. gasoline demand fell during the weeks cited in AAA’s August reports.

The price surge comes as crude oil markets remain volatile. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed above $90 a barrel Monday, while U.S. benchmark crude also rose sharply.

For drivers, the higher oil prices are translating into higher costs for filling up vehicles, adding to household expenses and raising concerns about broader inflationary pressure.

AAA said the national average is expected to remain elevated as the market responds to developments affecting global oil supplies and transportation.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Surveillance video posted Sunday by Manhattan Shomrim appears to show the assault of a Hasidic Jewish man in Midtown Manhattan the previous Monday.

The incident occurred near 47th Street and Sixth Avenue, according to Manhattan Shomrim. The group said the suspect approached the man, stole his hat and punched him in the temple while shouting antisemitic and derogatory remarks.

🚨 ANTISEMITIC ROBBERY/ASSAULT IN MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
On Monday, a Jewish man was walking near 47th Street and Sixth Avenue when he was approached by a perpetrator who stole his hat and then punched him in the temple. During the attack, the perpetrator was shouting profoundly… pic.twitter.com/k2xECvD998

— Manhattan Shomrim Safety Patrol (@msspshomrim) August 30, 2026

The suspect fled the scene but was later arrested after the NYPD responded to the incident. Manhattan Shomrim said the NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the case.

The suspect was released without bail, according to the group, but is expected to face assault and antisemitic hate crime charges.

Manhattan Shomrim thanked the responding officers and its volunteers for assisting the victim and urged anyone who witnesses an antisemitic attack to call 911.

1 ARRESTED FOR ROBBERY & HATE CRIME ASSAULT IN MIDTOWN

A big thank you to the @NYPDnews 18th PCT & Hate Crimes Task Force for their great work.

If you see something, say something – 24/7 HOTLINE (212-430-2024) pic.twitter.com/uMwpcr19BC

— Manhattan Shomrim Safety Patrol (@msspshomrim) August 25, 2026

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A pregame stunt involving two passenger jets flying dramatically low over a sports stadium in South Africa drew huge cheers from the estimated crowd of around 56,000 people, but also sparked a major debate over safety risks.

The flyby by two Embraer jets operated by local airline Airlink happened on Saturday before a rugby game between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.

Flight tracking service Flightradar24 estimated that the lead jet passed just 41 to 46 feet (12 to 14 meters) above the roof of Cape Town Stadium, with the crowd and the top-ranked rugby teams in the world below.

The second jet, which was right behind, flew through a cloud of pink dust that shot up from the stadium roof as part of the pregame show.

Airlink, a sponsor of the South African rugby team, said that the flyby was conducted according to safety regulations.

The airline said that it was carefully planned and rehearsed, with the aircraft traveling at around 150 knots (278 kph or 172 mph), when they went over the stadium. Each jet had three senior captains onboard, Airlink said, operating in the roles of a commander, a co-pilot and a safety officer.

The jets weren’t carrying any passengers.

“Airlink notes the concerns expressed in various social media and online forums regarding yesterday’s formation flyby over Cape Town’s DHL Stadium,” Airlink said on Sunday. “The flight demanded careful planning and rehearsal, as it required navigating at low altitude, at around 150 knots. The South African Civil Aviation Authority and Air Traffic Navigation Services provided valuable guidance, approval and support to ensure a safe flyby.”

South African rugby has a tradition of stadium flybys at big games, starting when a Boeing 747 flew over another stadium in Johannesburg before the 1995 Rugby World Cup final between the same teams, which are fierce rivals.

But this weekend’s flyby was especially low and dramatic, generating global interest after it was shown as part of the pregame broadcast, and sparking a flurry of videos shot by witnesses.

Some aviation experts questioned whether the margin for error was too small.

“Basically, that lead aircraft … was kind of like dodging over the roof and climbing over the one side and dipping below and then climbing over the other side. That was a little bit uncomfortable,” Chris Martinus, president of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association South Africa, told The Associated Press on Monday.

He said if “something adverse happens, you just don’t have options at that kind of altitude.”

Keith Tonkin, an Australian aviation consultant and former military and commercial pilot, said Monday that the Embraer passenger jets — which are small to medium jets designed for regional flights — weren’t designed or intended for that kind of low-level operation and warned against the precedent.

“The bigger picture is that a benchmark has been established and others may expect to do something similar, and that’s not going to end well,” Tonkin said. He added that turbulence or a bird strike at such a low altitude could leave the pilots with too little room to maneuver without hitting the stadium.

Airlink said that the flight data recorded by both aircraft confirmed that their flights were performed within civil aviation safety limits for speed and altitude.

Family getting up: Shacharis: 9:00 am Mincha: 8:15 pm Maariv: 8:45 pm

Family getting up: Shacharis: 8:30 am Mincha: 7:15 pm Maariv: Following Micha

Mrs. Sherry Winograd
Wife

Mrs. Yehudis Sashitsky
Sister

Mrs. Ruchel Keller
Daughter

Mr. Eli Winograd
Son

Mr. Mordechai Winograd
Son

Mrs. Shani Elbaum
Daughter

Family getting up: Shacharis: 7:15 am Mincha: 6:35 pm Maariv: 8:15 pm

Mr. Michael Guterman
Husband

Mr. Jaison Guterman
Son

Dr. Jonathan Guterman
Son

Sitting in Forest Hills
106-16 70th Ave
Forest Hills
Davening times TBA.

Family getting up:

Family getting up:

Mrs. Chaya Kalazan
Daughter

NEW YORK (AP) — The online prediction market platform Kalshi said Monday that it has permanently banned former U.S. Rep. George Santos after concluding the former Republican congressman likely engaged in insider trading when he bet against his attendance at the State of the Union address.

The company announced the ban after saying its compliance department had established reasonable cause to believe Santos engaged in insider trading over his attendance at the address.

The convicted ex-congressman had repeatedly discussed his intention to attend the State of the Union, which came just four months after he was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in a fraud case that led to his expulsion from the U.S. House.

On the eve of Trump’s speech, Kalshi put the odds of Santos attending at close to 75%.

Then, minutes into the speech, Santos posted on X that he had been waylaid at the airport. Immediately, several social media users accused him of running another scheme.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — An Israeli-developed antibiotic gel helped eight of 10 diabetic patients who were candidates for foot amputation avoid the procedure in a small clinical pilot at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, according to the company behind the technology.

GentaGel, an Israeli biotech firm, developed a biodegradable polymer that releases antibiotics directly at the infection site for up to 60 days. The pilot enrolled 10 patients with severe infected diabetic foot ulcers and bone infections who faced amputation or surgical removal of infected bone.

Eight patients recovered without amputation. Researchers also observed wound closure and bone regrowth in those patients.

The findings are preliminary. GentaGel said it is advancing additional studies in Israel and the United States and pursuing a regulatory pathway with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Diabetic foot infections are often hard to treat. Severe cases can lead to repeated surgery, long hospital stays and amputation.

Standard antibiotics are usually given by mouth or intravenously, so only a portion of the dose reaches the infected tissue. GentaGel is designed to keep a high local concentration of antibiotic at the site while limiting exposure elsewhere in the body.

The pilot was conducted with Shaare Zedek through Madait, the hospital’s innovation arm. Dr. Mati Nof, director of the Foot and Ankle Surgery Unit and the study’s principal investigator, said the trial tested whether the treatment could help heal infected bone.

“Based on the findings from the pilot with 10 patients, I became convinced that there is real potential to heal infected bone without the need for amputation,” Nof said.

The technology was invented by Prof. Avi Domb of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a specialist in controlled drug-delivery systems. GentaGel is led by co-founder and CEO Dr. Ariel Orbach and co-founder and COO Eli Lerner.

The company said severe localized infections carry a large medical and economic burden and estimated U.S. treatment costs at more than $20 billion a year. It said the 10-patient results do not by themselves prove how the treatment would perform in a larger population. Follow-up studies are expected to provide more data.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers raced Monday to free hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites that were buried in mud by catastrophic flooding on the Nepal-China border, as the death toll climbed and increasingly desperate families searched for missing loved ones.

The combined deaths in Nepal and China surpassed 900, with more than 4,700 people missing. A private-sector association representing power companies said at least 900 workers were unaccounted for at 12 hydropower projects damaged by the flash floods in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.

About 500 of those workers were believed to be trapped in tunnels. At least one expert said that some workers could have access to oxygen, but others warned that the chances of finding survivors were diminishing.

Some workers managed to call for help when the disaster struck last Wednesday, and others who managed to flee reported to authorities and relatives that many of their colleagues were still in the tunnels, said Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal, or IPPAN.

It was unclear whether rescuers have had any contact with the trapped workers since the initial calls for help.

Six days after the disaster, fears were growing that some might have suffocated, Dangi said.

Giant tunnels are built to control water flow
Rescue efforts were focused on people trapped in the gigantic tunnels built for controlling the flow of water.

“These tunnels are big enough to drive trucks through,” said Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “And from what we understand, they have managed to get oxygen to some of those stuck inside and are trying to rescue them now. It’s a race for time, though, as people need food and water.”

In the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, in the hard-hit Rasuwa district, at least 576 people were missing, Dangi said, adding that around 300 of them were believed to be trapped inside the project’s tunnel.

At the Trishuli-3 Hydropower Project, crews were working to descend about 15 meters (50 feet) into a tunnel in an effort to reach those believed trapped inside, according to Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal’s army spokesman.

Workers shoveling mud from a flood-ravaged power station in Dhading, Nepal, told The Associated Press that the station is a key connection for providing power to over 20,000 people in the region.

Chinese media highlight government efforts to rebuild roads
On the Chinese side, rescue and recovery efforts included rebuilding the road leading to the Gyirong Port border crossing that regulated travel between China and Nepal.

This photo provided by the Nepal Army, shows Nepal army soldiers carrying the body of a victim on a stretcher during a rescue operation at the site of a hydropower project in Upper Trishuli, Nepal, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (Nepal Army via AP)

Trucks carried giant rocks as workers tried to repave a portion of the road, state broadcaster CCTV showed Monday, next to rapidly rushing waters, which have been made more powerful by days of rain. The road is now under 2 to 3 meters (6.6 to 9.8 feet) of water. The repaving effort was just a little over a kilometer (0.62 miles) from the border, CCTV said.

Although some rescue teams have managed to reach the border, that represented only a portion of the force.

Chinese state media coverage has focused largely on the official response, highlighting the deployment of firefighters, the People’s Liberation Army and instructions from top leaders. Little is known about victims on the Chinese side.

Families are desperate for information about missing loved ones
Nepal’s disaster agency said Monday that 903 deaths had been counted in that country, with 4,247 people missing, including 592 foreigners. As of Sunday, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing. Chinese state media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including over 100 Nepalis.

Two days after the disaster, Maraval Nagappan traveled to Nepal to search for his son, who was among the missing. He visited rescue centers and morgues and went as far as 40 kilometers (25 miles) from where his son was believed to have been, but found no sign of him.

His son, Sathya Narayan, had been leading a group of 49 Indian travelers who were returning from Mount Kailash — a sacred site in southwestern Tibet. The group has been missing since floodwaters swept through a Chinese immigration complex where they were waiting to cross into Nepal.

Nagappan, who owns the Chennai-based travel company that organized the pilgrimage, said the group had been expected to complete immigration formalities and leave for Nepal within about two hours. Instead of making the crossing, they were caught in the flood, Nagappan said.

The pilgrimage began Aug. 14. “I haven’t heard from my son since then. I don’t know whether he is alive or dead,” he told AP.

Surveillance footage showed water surging through the immigration complex at the border as people scrambled to escape. Nagappan said some of those seen fleeing were members of his son’s group and were identified by the clothes they were wearing.

Wednesday’s flash floods started after a glacial collapse high in the Himalayan region. Scientists who studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rockfall was so extreme that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.

The rocks and melted water then swelled the rivers in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water that swept buildings, bridges and earth downstream in Tibet and Nepal.

MIAMI (AP) — Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have launched an investigation into a controversial policing tactic that permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting records related to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s controversial strategy of monitoring — yet not seizing — major fentanyl shipments.

The request echoes concerns raised by officials in New Mexico, the epicenter of the fentanyl crisis and where DEA whistleblowers recently reported being ordered to stand down rather than seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills in possible violation of Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities. Last week, the state’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, sued the Justice Department seeking to force it to turn over some of the same records being sought by Republicans on Comer’s committee.

“While DEA agents may not have the resources to intercept every single known shipment, a policy directing them not to intercept significant shipments is unconscionable and undoubtedly resulted in considerable harm and lives lost,” Comer wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The lawsuit and congressional inquiry come two months after an AP investigation found DEA agents repeatedly monitored major fentanyl shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 that were allowed to hit the streets as federal authorities built out criminal cases.

The fentanyl went unseized amid the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history and even as DEA led a public awareness campaign — “One Pill Can Kill” — emphasizing that even a few milligrams of the substance can be lethal. Last year, the White House designated the synthetic opioid a “weapon of mass destruction.”

Comer requested records covering only the Biden administration, citing what he described as its “relaxation of fentanyl risk mitigation protocols” developed during President Donald Trump’s first term. The protocols, Comer said, should have prevented the fentanyl from hitting the streets in such large numbers.

The earlier policy, adopted in 2017, called on agents to “seize or otherwise prevent the distribution” of fentanyl “as soon as practicable.” The department rewrote those rules in 2024 to afford law enforcement far more discretion in whether to take action to prevent fentanyl trafficking, citing “the benefits to be achieved through preserving the investigation.”

AP reporting found the investigative strategy — known as allowing drugs to “walk” — continued into Trump’s second administration during the run-up to the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, a takedown announced in May 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.

As part of that investigation, authorities seized some 3 million fentanyl pills. But even larger quantities went unseized as agents in Albuquerque stood by and watched from helicopters and surveillance vehicles as drug couriers entered hotels with backpacks believed to be carrying as many as 100,000 fentanyl pills.

The entire network could have been dismantled six months earlier, according to a former DEA supervisor who worked on the case and is now among three whistleblowers sounding the alarm about the longstanding practice.

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog this month announced a nationwide review of government policies and wiretap investigations to determine whether federal authorities have used the same tactic elsewhere.

“Our investigations are long term and they are complex and they are done under the guidance of the law,” DEA Administrator Terry Cole said in an interview this month with Fox News welcoming the inspector general’s review. “We will continue to do that, but we need to stay 100% focused on the adversary.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is canceling its planned exhibit honoring British designer John Galliano, which had led to severe backlash in the Jewish community and beyond because of the designer’s past antisemitic and racist statements.

The museum said Monday that the exhibit, which had been planned as the May 2027 spring Costume Institute show launching the annual Met Gala, will be replaced by another show to be announced later.

“Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” Max Hollein, director and CEO of the museum, announced in a statement.

After my numerous and lengthy meetings and conversations with The Met, I am pleased that they have agreed to not honor John Galliano.

From the beginning, I have told them that I strongly disagreed with this decision, and at this rising time of antisemitism, it had served as a… https://t.co/BHo7go5TBg

— Speaker Julie Menin (@SpeakerMenin) August 31, 2026

The designer joined in the statement, saying: “After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry for it.”

Galliano, long recognized as one of the fashion world’s biggest talents for his flamboyant designs, was at the pinnacle of that world for years as creative director of Christian Dior. He was fired from the post when a series of racist and antisemitic comments from 2010 and 2011 surfaced and went viral, leading to his conviction in an antisemitism trial in France.

Dropped by Dior, Galliano spent several years involved in public and private efforts to rehabilitate. He made a comeback in 2014 when he was hired by Paris fashion house Maison Margiela, where he remained for a decade.

He was to become only the third living designer to be the subject of a solo show at the Met’s Costume Institute.

The spring is launched by the annual Met Gala, the most visible event on the fashion calendar. The gala is overseen by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and one of the most influential figures in global fashion. Wintour has been a longtime friend and supporter of Galliano.

The museum had held discussions with Jewish community leaders before announcing the show, hoping to ward off anticipated backlash. But the anger only increased. One of the key critics of the planned show was New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who issued a statement Monday praising the decision to cancel.

“After my numerous and lengthy meetings and conversations with The Met, I am pleased that they have agreed to not honor John Galliano,” Menin said. “From the beginning, I have told them that I strongly disagreed with this decision, and at this rising time of antisemitism, it had served as a gut punch to the Jewish community. This is the correct decision, as the harm and pain this was causing was simply unacceptable.”

An Israeli woman has been reported missing following the devastating floods in Nepal, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday.

Katrina (Katya) Skovitz, 41, who holds Israeli and Belarusian citizenship, has been out of contact since the disaster. She is the second Israeli currently reported missing.

Israel’s consul in Kathmandu and the Foreign Ministry’s department for Israelis in distress abroad are in contact with Skovitz’s family and are working with local authorities and other officials to locate her.

Another Israeli remains missing after being in the area of the Nepal-Tibet border. He was traveling with a group of 77 foreign tourists returning from a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. The group had reached the Gyirong immigration center on the Tibetan side of the border when the disaster struck.

Representatives of the organization accompanying the group spoke with its leader about 10 minutes before the flooding hit. There had been no indication of an impending disaster at the time. Contact with the group was lost shortly afterward.

The scale of the disaster continued to emerge Monday, with Nepalese authorities reporting 903 deaths and 4,247 people still missing.

The floods struck remote mountainous areas along a major route for travelers and pilgrims between Nepal and Tibet, causing extensive damage to roads, bridges, buildings and other infrastructure.

Thousands of soldiers and police officers have been involved in search-and-rescue efforts. Helicopters have been used to reach isolated mountain areas, rescue victims and deliver emergency supplies.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Chairman Yuval Steinitz said that the company is experiencing unprecedented demand for its defense systems, driven largely by a surge in orders from European countries, even as he warned that Israel’s confrontation with Iran may not be over.

In an interview Sunday with Israel’s 103FM radio, Steinitz discussed Rafael’s record second-quarter results, including a major defense deal expected to be signed with Greece, growing tensions with Turkey and the company’s financial challenges.

Rafael reported NIS 5.68 billion ($1.9 billion) in sales in the second quarter of 2026, with the company recording significant growth in both revenue and net profit. Steinitz described the results as particularly striking given the security situation facing Israel.

“These are excellent results under difficult circumstances,” he said, noting that Rafael had operated through the war, fighting involving Hezbollah and attacks targeting its sites in northern Israel.

“It sounds almost like a miracle when you take into account that we had a month-and-a-half war with Iran, as well as fighting on the northern border, and thousands of Rafael employees were called up for reserve duty,” Steinitz said.

He attributed much of the company’s dramatic growth to a sharp increase in international orders. “The enormous growth is mainly in orders from abroad,” he said. “There has been enormous growth in orders from Europe, particularly from Central European countries, but also Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania and Greece.” Rafael has also seen some growth in orders from Asian countries, he added.

Steinitz also addressed the enormous defense agreement expected to be signed tomorrow between Israel and Greece, describing it as potentially one of the largest defense deals in Israeli history. “We’re talking about almost $4 billion, and most of it involves Rafael systems,” he said.

He compared the anticipated agreement to a deal Rafael signed with Romania several months ago and predicted that even larger contracts with European countries could follow. “I expect even bigger deals next year in various European countries with which we are in contact,” Steinitz said. “Europe has finally realized it: There is nothing like Rafael’s technology.”

The surge in European demand comes as governments across the continent reassess their defense capabilities and seek to strengthen air defense, missile defense and other military systems.

The Rafael chairman was also asked about concerns that Israel could face shortages of critical munitions. While declining to provide specific figures, Steinitz rejected what he described as overly pessimistic assessments.

“I cannot go into details and numbers, but I repeat what I have said in the past: In my assessment, there is no scenario in which someone tries to attack us and we don’t have air defense, defense against missiles and rockets, UAVs and cruise missiles,” he said. “There was such defense in the past, and there will be such defense in every foreseeable scenario in the future.”

Steinitz was also asked about the increasingly tense relationship between Israel and Turkey and whether the major Greek arms deal could further inflame tensions with Ankara. “The tension is already high enough, perhaps too high,” he said, adding that Israel had never restricted its defense cooperation with Greece because of Turkey.

“I very much hope that the Turks will restrain themselves, rhetorically as well, but certainly in practical terms, and that we won’t reach some kind of military confrontation with them.”

Steinitz argued that Israel’s actions have been largely reactive. “Israel responds only to provocations, and even that not always,” he said. “It is very clear to any reasonable person who the aggressor is: Turkey, not Greece; Turkey, not Cyprus.” He described the alleged provocations as a recurring pattern.

Turning to Iran, Steinitz offered a notably cautious assessment of the current situation. “I don’t believe the war with Iran is over,” he said. “There is a reasonable chance of another outbreak.”

He added that the Iranian regime is currently under enormous pressure, using the colloquial expression that the Iranians are under “atomic” pressure.

His comments come amid continuing concerns in Israel over Iran’s nuclear capabilities and its ability to rebuild military and strategic capabilities following the recent confrontation.

Despite celebrating Rafael’s strong performance, Steinitz pointed to one major concern: the company’s outstanding government debt. “With all the celebration over the results, I have to point out one cloud hanging over everything,” he said. “The Israeli government and Defense Ministry currently owe Rafael a very large amount — NIS 7 billion. There has never been such a debt.”

Steinitz warned that the outstanding payments could affect Rafael’s ability to maintain its position as a global defense-technology leader. He also argued that the company needs greater flexibility, including privatization measures that would reduce regulatory restrictions.

“For Rafael to continue to be a leading global company in science and technology, it also has to undergo privatization processes that will contribute to its flexibility and remove regulatory restrictions from the company and its employees,” he said.

The comments underscore the unusual position Rafael currently finds itself in: record international demand and soaring sales on one hand, but billions of shekels owed to the company by the Israeli government on the other.

JERUSALEM (VINnews/Amine Ayoub) — American military forces carried out targeted strikes against two Iranian launchers on Larak Island, a key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps position near the Strait of Hormuz that threatened vital international shipping lanes.

In Washington, the tactical victory was framed as a decisive intervention to safeguard strategic maritime commerce, while senior American commanders simultaneously issued urgent warnings against allowing the engagement to spiral into an open-ended regional war. In response, the Revolutionary Guard vowed immediate and severe retaliation against its adversaries.

Yet while Washington calculates its military deployment from across an ocean, the strategic equation for Israel remains starkly unchanged. The United States delivers the kinetic strike, but Israel remains the nation permanently left holding the strategic bag.

This dynamic is neither accidental nor temporary. It is the permanent structural reality of Israel’s geopolitical position. The United States operates as an expeditionary global superpower with the unique luxury of distance, timing and strategic flexibility. It can deploy aircraft carrier strike groups, launch precision strikes from remote platforms and retreat behind continental defense shields whenever political appetites in Washington shift.

Israel possesses no such geographic luxury. It lives in the immediate blast radius of every operational choice made inside the Pentagon. When American munitions neutralize Iranian launchers off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Tehran does not attempt a risky amphibious strike against distant American naval forces. Instead, the Islamic Republic turns to its established playbook of asymmetric coercion, calibrating its violent retaliation against the one target it can reach with immediate lethal precision: the sovereign State of Israel.

This is where the reality of holding the bag becomes an urgent national security warning rather than a convenient metaphor. Every time American forces strike an Iranian military asset, Washington achieves a short-term tactical objective while offloading the long-term risk management directly onto Jerusalem.

The immediate consequence of American military action in the Persian Gulf is not an instant increase in Israeli security, but an immediate spike in Israel’s national threat level.

Israeli air defense systems are forced into high-intensity readiness. Its intelligence services are tasked with tracking imminent proxy counterattacks, and its civilian population prepares for the inevitable fallout of an escalation cycle planned and executed by an ally operating thousands of miles away.

Washington reaps the global prestige of protecting international trade routes, while Israel absorbs the long-term strategic vulnerability. The strategic calculation is further complicated by the internal political dynamics currently unfolding inside Tehran.

Heavy reporting confirms a growing, intense debate within Iranian government circles over the staggering economic price of this ongoing warfare. Years of punitive economic sanctions, soaring inflation and the immense financial drain of maintaining regional terror proxies have generated visible internal friction.

Iranian officials and economic planners are openly questioning whether sustaining an open-ended confrontation with the West is economically sustainable when domestic infrastructure is deteriorating and public discontent is rising.

When details of these budgetary debates surface, it is tempting for Western analysts and Israeli observers to view these economic pressures as tangible evidence that the radical regime in Tehran is nearing strategic exhaustion. Yet confusing economic distress with strategic capitulation would be a catastrophic miscalculation for Israeli security.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps does not measure strategic success through foreign exchange rates, inflation metrics or consumer satisfaction. The ideological core of the Iranian regime remains single-mindedly committed to regional hegemony and the systematic encirclement of Israel.

Throughout its history, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly demonstrated a cold, ruthless capability to force its civilian population to absorb severe economic hardship while continuing to fund its forward military networks.

A single destroyed launcher on Larak Island or a vocal debate in Tehran over economic priorities will not compel the regime to abandon its foundational doctrine. The Revolutionary Guard will simply adapt its operational methods, shift resources and pursue lower-cost asymmetric warfare against Israeli targets.

This harsh reality highlights the grave danger of outsourcing Israel’s long-term strategic deterrence to volatile American political cycles. Foreign policy in Washington is inherently subject to shifting domestic political tides, congressional elections, presidential campaigns and changing global strategic priorities.

An American administration that authorizes precision strikes against Iranian naval targets today can easily choose diplomatic de-escalation tomorrow if global energy prices spike or domestic opposition to foreign military entanglements grows.

If Israel allows its national security posture to become overly dependent on episodic American military actions, it effectively surrenders strategic initiative to foreign political decision-makers whose long-term vital interests do not, and can never, completely align with Israel’s national survival imperatives.

Furthermore, periodic American military interventions risk trapping Israel in an endless cycle of tactical suppression rather than genuine strategic deterrence. Destroying two launchers on a remote island degrades immediate operational capacity, but it leaves the core leadership, industrial missile manufacturing infrastructure and ideological drive of the Iranian regime entirely intact.

Each tactical intervention provides a brief window of breathing room, but functions as a temporary security palliative rather than a permanent strategic cure. While Washington celebrates a localized operational success in international waters, Iran quietly works to replace destroyed hardware, refine its targeting tactics and prepare for subsequent strikes.

In this perpetual cycle of action and reaction, the short-term tactical achievements belong to Washington, while the long-term accumulating strategic exposure is borne exclusively by Jerusalem.

 Amine Ayoub

To escape this structural trap, Israel must reassess its overarching national security posture. Maintaining deep strategic coordination, intelligence sharing and defense integration with the United States remains an indispensable asset for the Jewish state.
However, mistaking American military support for a permanent substitute for sovereign Israeli deterrence is a profound strategic error.

The core foundation of Israel’s national defense doctrine has always rested upon a single fundamental, non-negotiable principle: Israel must always maintain the independent operational capacity and political will to defend itself, by itself, against any combination of threats in the region. Whenever deterrence becomes reliant on external military actions, the core pillar of national independence is weakened.

The Israeli public, carefully digesting news of military strikes in the Persian Gulf, must demand uncompromising strategic honesty from its political and military leadership.
Foreign military victories in the Strait of Hormuz must never serve as a psychological substitute for active, decisive Israeli defense planning.

Israel’s national defense establishment must preserve complete strategic flexibility, ensuring that operational red lines, intelligence collection priorities and force readiness are determined strictly by Israeli security needs rather than American political constraints.

Every military decision and long-term strategic assessment must be subjected to a rigorous standard: Does this posture permanently safeguard the sovereign State of Israel, or does it merely manage an increasingly dangerous and unstable security environment?

The recent strikes on Larak Island serve as a clear reminder of the volatility of the regional conflict. Washington has proven once again that it possesses the military capability to hit Iranian targets when global maritime commerce is threatened, but American forces will not be the ones paying the ongoing strategic price when the regional bill comes due. That heavy burden falls, as it always has, directly upon the citizens and defense forces of Israel.

Recognizing this reality is not an expression of political cynicism or isolationism. It is the fundamental requirement of true strategic maturity. As the regional confrontation intensifies, Israel must remain clear-eyed, fully prepared and uncompromisingly self-reliant. In an unforgiving Middle East, absolute self-reliance remains the only true guarantee of national survival.

NEPAL (VINnews) — A Nepalese school principal is being hailed for his quick thinking after he evacuated around 900 students just 10 minutes before a devastating flash flood swept through the school and surrounding area, potentially preventing a mass-casualty disaster.

Rajendra Dawadi, headteacher of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, received four separate warnings about the approaching flood within just a few minutes at around 9:10 a.m. local time.

Among those warnings was a report from a parent who had arrived at the school to collect his daughter after hearing that a massive flood was approaching. Dawadi told the BBC that the combination of the calls convinced him that he could not afford to wait for further confirmation.

He immediately ordered the students to evacuate to higher ground and instructed buses carrying students to turn around and leave the area. “If we didn’t make a quick decision, if it were 10 minutes later, we all, including the students and me, wouldn’t be able to speak to you today,” Dawadi told the BBC.

A student smiles after locating her bag from a pile extracted from the mud brought in by the recent flash floods, at the Shree Bagheswori Madhyamik School in Galchhi, Dhading district of Nepal Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

He later explained that even if the warning had proved false, losing a single day of classes would have been a small price to pay for protecting the children. “I decided I shouldn’t delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes,” he said.

The decision proved critical. The floodwaters surged through the area with extraordinary speed, destroying buildings and sweeping away the nearby Trishuli market. The school itself was subsequently buried under mud and debris.

The terrifying videos of flood in nepal😢 It looks more dangerous 😔😔😭 pray for 🇳🇵🙏🕉️ #timure #rasuwa #flood #climatechange #disaster pic.twitter.com/X0tOfuVvSz

— Bimal Tiwari (@bmmmlll8) August 29, 2026

Dawadi said a hostel building located only about 100 meters from the river was engulfed almost immediately after the students had been evacuated.

The school has more than 1,600 students in total. Around 900 were at the school and directly evacuated when the warnings arrived, while buses carrying other students were ordered to turn around before reaching the danger zone.

The scale of the destruction has since become clear in images from the area, with much of the school campus buried beneath a vast layer of gray mud and debris.

Among those who narrowly escaped was 16-year-old student Yunisha Amatya. She recalled running with her classmates toward higher ground as the flood approached, describing how the nearby market was swept away before their eyes.

“We survived by just 10 seconds,” she told the BBC. Yunisha said the students rushed along a narrow, muddy route behind the school toward safety. She recalled that the ground was slippery and that students were pushing and jostling as they desperately tried to reach higher ground.

“If there was no grip in my shoes I would have fallen,” she said, adding that people who attempted to escape by another route were apparently swept away.

Her family endured hours of anguish after losing contact with her. Yunisha’s mother, Sabina Kumari Shrestha, repeatedly tried calling her daughter and her husband after hearing that the flood had struck. When she eventually learned that Yunisha had reached safety, the family was still unable to reunite with her immediately.

Yunisha and other students remained stranded for two nights after roads were cut off by the disaster. She was eventually evacuated by helicopter, along with Dawadi, to their home village across the river.

The flooding was part of a catastrophic disaster that struck parts of Nepal and Tibet, with enormous volumes of water, mud, rock and debris surging through valleys. Recent reports have described the disaster as being linked to a major geological event in the Himalayas, with a glacier or mountainside collapse contributing to the sudden release of water and debris.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands remain missing, while rescue teams have been working across devastated communities. The disaster has also severely damaged infrastructure and hydropower facilities in the region.

The destruction has extended to schools across the affected areas. The Guardian reported that dozens of schools were damaged or destroyed, affecting thousands of children.

For Dawadi, the decisive moment came when he had to choose between waiting for certainty and acting on incomplete but increasingly urgent information. The four warnings he received came from different people within minutes of one another, including reports that floodwaters had already swept through an upstream settlement.

The arrival of a parent at the school was particularly significant. “Parents don’t rush without a strong reason,” Dawadi recalled, explaining that the parent’s decision to come and retrieve his daughter convinced him that the threat was genuine.

Dawadi’s actions have since been widely praised as an example of how rapid decision-making can save lives during a natural disaster. He has also suggested that improved early-warning systems could give communities more time to react. Sirens and other systems capable of immediately alerting residents, he said, could make an important difference when floods arrive with almost no warning.

In this case, however, it was a handful of urgent phone calls, and a school principal willing to act immediately, that gave hundreds of children the precious minutes they needed to escape. As the flood destroyed the school they had been sitting in only moments earlier, the students were already on higher ground.

Dawadi’s decision may have turned what could have been one of the disaster’s worst tragedies into a remarkable story of survival.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has released footage of a tense confrontation with Palestinian security prisoners at Damon Prison, declaring that the era of comfortable conditions for terrorists in Israeli prisons is over.

The video, filmed during a recent visit to the northern Israeli prison and released by Ben-Gvir on Sunday, shows the minister speaking with Palestinian women detained for security offenses, including members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.

One of the prisoners complains through a translator about the conditions inside the facility, saying that the prisoners have been deprived of basic amenities and medical treatment. She also complains about raids of their cells and a lack of adequate access to showers and water.

Ben-Gvir responds bluntly, telling the prisoners that the conditions they once enjoyed in Israeli prisons are a thing of the past. “The days of summer camp in Israeli prisons are over,” he says.

זה לא עובד עליי ״ההתבכיינויות״ של המחבלות על התנאים בבתי הכלא, לחטופים שלנו לא היו שום תנאים, אמשיך להוביל מדיניות מינימום של המינימום! pic.twitter.com/4WTESzG5eH

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) August 30, 2026

In another part of the exchange, Ben-Gvir contrasts their complaints with the conditions endured by Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. “Our hostages didn’t have shampoo, and they didn’t have these conditions,” Ben-Gvir says.

He later declares that he is proud of the policy he has implemented since taking responsibility for Israel’s prison system. “I am proud that we have succeeded in bringing the conditions of the terrorists down to the bare minimum,” he says. “We are not apologizing. Anyone who harms Israeli citizens will not receive a summer camp in prison. Terrorists will receive the minimum required by law, and nothing more.”

In the video, Ben-Gvir makes clear that the tougher prison policy is intentional and that he personally takes responsibility for it. “I came to see firsthand the implementation of our policy,” he said after the visit. “I heard from the prison officers and I heard the complaints of the terrorists. We are not apologizing.”

In a social-media post accompanying the footage, Ben-Gvir similarly said that complaints from security prisoners would not persuade him to reverse his policy, arguing that the treatment of Israeli hostages in Gaza demonstrated the stark difference between how Israel treats prisoners and how Hamas treated its captives.

The footage drew an especially strong response from Rom Braslavski, an Israeli who was held hostage in Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Braslavski responded directly to the video, pointing out that the woman complaining to Ben-Gvir belonged to the same organization that had held him captive.

“I was held hostage by her organization,” Braslavski wrote, criticizing her complaints about prison conditions and expressing support for Ben-Gvir’s approach.

His response reflected a sentiment shared by supporters of the minister: that Palestinian terrorists convicted or detained for security offenses should not enjoy conditions that Israeli hostages were denied while being held by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.

For many Israelis, particularly those whose families have been directly affected by the October 7 massacre and the hostage crisis, Ben-Gvir’s refusal to offer what he calls “luxury conditions” to security prisoners is viewed as a matter of justice rather than cruelty.

The video has also triggered fierce condemnation from Palestinian prisoner organizations. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs accused Ben-Gvir of using the women as part of a political spectacle designed to humiliate and intimidate them. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society similarly condemned the filming and publication of the footage, describing it as an assault on the prisoners’ dignity.

Critics of Ben-Gvir’s policy have also pointed to allegations of abuse and deteriorating conditions in Israeli detention facilities, while Ben-Gvir and his supporters maintain that security prisoners are receiving the minimum conditions required by Israeli law.

Since entering office, Ben-Gvir has repeatedly pushed for tougher conditions for Palestinian security prisoners, including restrictions on privileges and other amenities. He has argued that prisoners convicted or detained for terrorism should not receive benefits beyond what is legally required.

The confrontation has become another example of the radically different approaches to the treatment of Palestinian security prisoners.

Ben-Gvir’s critics view his public confrontations and deliberately harsh rhetoric as degrading and dangerous. His supporters see precisely the same conduct as evidence that the minister is delivering on a promise he made to Israeli voters: to end what he describes as a system in which terrorists were treated too generously while Israeli victims and hostages suffered.

His central message remains unchanged: those who attack Israelis should not expect comfortable conditions in Israeli prisons.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Fifteen soldiers from the IDF’s Rotem Battalion of the Givati Brigade have been sentenced to military jail terms after refusing to enter an armored personnel carrier carrying a female paramedic, in the latest escalation of a dispute between religious soldiers and their commanders. Some of the soldiers were sentenced to 10 days in military jail, while others received five-day sentences.

The soldiers, members of the battalion’s hesder platoon, say their refusal was rooted in their commitment to Jewish religious law and that they were unwilling to compromise their religious standards even when doing so meant facing imprisonment. Their fellow soldiers now say the incident was not an isolated confrontation, but part of a series of disputes between the platoon and its commanders that have intensified in recent weeks.

According to soldiers who spoke with Arutz Sheva, the latest incident should be viewed against the backdrop of growing tensions over the accommodation of religious observance within the battalion.

The soldiers maintain that the incident involving the Namer armored personnel carrier was presented to the brigade rabbi as an operational activity. In their account, however, there was no actual combat mission involved and the activity was routine. They argue that alternative arrangements could have been found without forcing them to violate their religious standards.

Their supporters stress that the soldiers are not refusing military service. They are serving in combat units, remain committed to the IDF and say they are prepared to risk their lives for Israel. Their objection, they say, is to being forced to choose between their military duties and religious obligations when they believe a practical alternative exists.

The soldiers say the current confrontation follows another dispute approximately a week and a half earlier. According to their account, the company commander ordered a training exercise on Shabbat involving casualty evacuation and the insertion of an IV line, despite what they say was no urgent operational requirement for holding the exercise that day.

Members of the hesder platoon approached their commanders and asked for the exercise to be postponed. “We asked why such an exercise had to be conducted on Shabbat when there was no professional or operational necessity for it,” the soldiers said. “We did not receive a substantive answer.”

After Shabbat, they approached the brigade rabbi and presented him with the details of the incident. According to the soldiers, the rabbi determined that there was no justification for conducting such an exercise on Shabbat when it did not arise from an operational need.

The soldiers’ friends say the repeated disputes have created a sense among members of the platoon that their religious commitments are being treated as an obstacle rather than accommodated as part of their identity.

“The feeling among us is that there is a deliberate attempt to clash with religious soldiers and members of the hesder yeshiva program,” they said. “Instead of finding solutions and allowing people to serve together with mutual respect, they repeatedly choose confrontation.”

The soldiers emphasize that they have no intention of abandoning their military responsibilities. They say they are willing to fight, serve in difficult conditions and put their lives at risk for the country, but they are equally determined not to abandon the religious principles they have followed throughout their lives.

The dispute also has an operational dimension, according to the soldiers. “The battalion commander has now lost 15 soldiers who were sent to five or 10 days of military detention,” one soldier said. “In the end, you have to ask who will go into battle with him.”

“At a time when the IDF needs every soldier, it is a shame that so much energy is being invested in internal confrontations instead of strengthening cohesion.”

The soldiers say they remain fully committed to the IDF and to Israel’s security. What they are asking for, they say, is mutual respect: the army should accommodate their religious way of life and their halachic obligations whenever there is no genuine operational necessity preventing it.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Hundreds more charedi Israelis reported to IDF induction centers on Monday and enlisted in a range of military positions, as the army continues its efforts to expand charedi participation in military service. After the combat unit draft of charedim took place on Sunday, Monday’s draft focused on the combat support units and technology corps in which charedim can be deployed separately and maintain their way of life.

The enlistment took place amid fierce opposition to charedi military service in significant parts of the charedi community, as well as an ongoing campaign urging young charedim not to enlist.

Asher, a young man from a charedi family who enlisted in the Israeli Air Force on Monday, explained that he made the decision after recognizing that full-time Torah study was not the right path for him. “I’m not really someone who is capable of sitting and studying Torah all day, so I decided to contribute in a different way,” he said.

He emphasized that his family supports his decision. “They are behind me in everything, and that really cannot be taken for granted,” he said.

Asher added that those who are capable of dedicating themselves to full-time Torah study should continue doing so, but argued that those who cannot should consider serving in the IDF. “Those who are able to devote their time to Torah study should continue doing that,” he said. “But those who aren’t should contribute in another way and enlist in the army.”

He also dismissed the protests against charedi enlistment as unrepresentative of the broader community. “It’s just a small group of people. They don’t represent an entire sector. It’s a very, very small percentage that is making all the noise,” he said.

עימותים עם מפגינים מחוץ ללשכת הגיוס: כוחות המשטרה פועלים בשעה זו מול קבוצת חרדים קיצוניים שחוסמים כבישים ומסרבים לפנות את הדרך לבקו”ם@eli_hirschmann pic.twitter.com/yVhG58cRPm

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) August 31, 2026

As the enlistment process began, protesters gathered near the Tel Hashomer induction center, blocking roads and confronting police officers. According to police, officers repeatedly ordered the demonstrators to disperse after they blocked traffic. When the protesters refused, police moved to clear the area.

Jacob Dori Street in Kiryat Ono was temporarily closed in both directions between Levi Eshkol Street and Shlomo Hamelech Street. Following confrontations, police cleared the protesters and traffic subsequently returned to normal.

Some protesters had arrived at the induction center during the night, sleeping in sleeping bags so they could be present in the early morning and attempt to disrupt the arrival of the first recruits. Police and security forces deployed in advance amid concerns that protesters would attempt to interfere with the enlistment process.

Rabbi Karmi Gross of the Derech Chaim Hesder Yeshiva, several of whose students enlisted Monday, criticized the protests and encouraged the new recruits to remain steadfast. “It’s a shame they shout at us,” he said. “This is the future of the Jewish people. This is our future. Not those standing opposite us, but us.”

He called on the recruits to “stand firm in their roles” and to build a bridge between “the world of Torah, the world of the army and the world of employment.”

Speaking about the more extreme protesters, Rabbi Gross said: “They are unfortunate. They don’t know any better. They weren’t educated properly.”

The current enlistment cycle began Sunday, with recruits joining military tracks established under IDF regulations specifically for charedi men. The programs are designed to enable meaningful military service while maintaining a fully charedi lifestyle, including religious observance and appropriate living arrangements.

The defense establishment says the charedi units have become an increasingly significant and active force during the ongoing war. Sunday’s enlistment included young men assigned to combat, technological and logistical tracks. Charedi-oriented combat frameworks include the Hasmonean Brigade, the Hetz company within the Paratroopers Brigade, and the Netzah Yehuda Battalion.

The IDF also operates additional programs, called Kodkod and Maalot Tzur, allowing charedi recruits to serve in professional and combat-support positions.

The enlistment drive comes as the IDF seeks to significantly expand the number of charedim serving in its ranks. According to figures presented by the military earlier this month, 4,298 Hcharedim enlisted during the 2025 recruitment year, which ended in June — an increase of approximately 53% compared with the previous recruitment year, when 2,811 charedim enlisted.

Approximately 69% of recruits during the past year joined dedicated charedi programs, while around 22% of recruits who completed the screening and placement process were assigned to combat positions.

The figures reflect a growing group of charedi men choosing to combine military service with their religious identity, even as the broader charedi community remains deeply divided over the question of enlistment.

For the young men arriving at the induction center, however, the message is straightforward: they believe they can remain committed to Torah and a charedi way of life while also taking responsibility for Israel’s security and contributing to the country through military service.

NEW YORK (VINnews) Conservative commentator Laura Loomer and radio host Sid Rosenberg are sharply criticizing a reported plan for President Donald Trump to meet with the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, after reports surfaced Sunday that the Hasidic leader is expected to be part of a group of rabbis and community leaders invited to the White House.

The meeting is reportedly scheduled for Thursday and is expected to include several prominent Orthodox Jewish religious leaders. The White House has not publicly confirmed the meeting or released an official guest list.

Loomer questioned the decision to invite Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel, New York, citing the Satmar movement’s longstanding opposition to the State of Israel and its political activity in New York.

In posts on X, Loomer accused White House Jewish liaison Martin Marks of putting Trump in a politically difficult position by arranging the reported meeting.

She also criticized Teitelbaum over his community’s past political positions, including its support for Democratic candidates in New York.

Rosenberg was even more forceful, calling the reported meeting a “HUGE mistake” and saying the rabbi “has no right being anywhere near” Trump.

“Come on Marty! You can’t do this! Please!!!!” Rosenberg wrote, directly addressing Marks.

Rosenberg also accused Teitelbaum of repeatedly supporting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and acting against the interests of what he described as “good Jews.”

The reported meeting has drawn attention because Satmar is one of the most prominent anti-Zionist Hasidic movements in the United States. The movement has historically rejected the modern State of Israel on religious grounds.

According to a report published Sunday, the meeting is being arranged as a gathering with several prominent Hasidic rebbes and yeshiva leaders. Its purpose and agenda have not been officially announced, and reports differ over which issues could be discussed.

The reported White House visit comes amid heightened political tensions over the Israeli military draft of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, as well as disputes over government oversight of haredi education in New York.

BREAKING:

White House Jewish Liason Martin Marks appears to be setting President Trump up for a political crisis.

Satmar Rebbe, one of the leaders of the haredi movement that rejects the State of Israel has been invited by Marks to meet with @POTUS on Thursday. @martinjmarks…

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 31, 2026

This is a HUGE mistake!!! This Rabbi is a TERRIBLE guy and has no right being anywhere near @POTUS! This Rabbi sucks off @NYCMayor at every opportunity and has more than once screwed the good Jews! Come on Marty! You can’t do this! Please!!!! I kill this guy and @rabbiindig on my… https://t.co/b95F3FOYYM

— Sid Rosenberg (@sidrosenberg19) August 31, 2026

Why would the White House Jewish Liason invite radical left rabbis who endorsed @ZohranKMamdani and oppose the state of Israel to have an Oval Office meeting with President Trump as Mamdani and his DSA candidates are trying to elect communists and jihadists who are backed by… https://t.co/TUel6LfWKv

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 31, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of people gathered near New York City’s popular Washington Square Park Sunday to judge a Mayor Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest.

The winner, Amadeo Fusca, was the crowd favorite, wearing a jersey for the NBA champion New York Knicks underneath a suit. Fusca also had a haircut and facial hair similar to Mamdani, taking home a $100 prize.

WATCH: Mamdani Lookalike Contest in Washington Square Park in Manhattan draws hundreds of spectators. Winner recieved $100 Cash Prize. pic.twitter.com/4Ix8FvS4jk

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) August 30, 2026

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January, has amassed a large following on social media and among younger residents. The event was sponsored by the social media app, Sonder.

Mamdani’s agenda as mayor is centered on refocusing the power of government toward helping the city’s struggling working class.

Nine participants, many with facial hair similar to Mamdani’s, came dressed in myriad Mamdani style, including the brown suit Mamdani wore while campaigning in 2025, red and black patterned ties, dress shoes, dark blue and black suits, and silver rings. One of the participants showed up shirtless but wearing an apron — a reference to a rap music video Mamdani made in 2019.

Amadeo Fusca, winner of the Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest, reacts with the crowd, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

The men were asked one question in the competition — name their favorite pizza — and the winner was decided by who got the most applause.

Attendees initially gathered in the park, but police told them they had to leave because they hadn’t obtained a permit. So they moved just outside the park for the competition.

It wasn’t the first time Mamdani look-alikes gathered. A similar contest was held in Brooklyn in 2025 when Mamdani was campaigning for mayor.

HOHENFELS, Germany (AP) — On a moonless and rainy night, a group of soldiers emerged from a ramshackle building meant to resemble a church. The alpine terrain loomed over them as they quietly set off for the tree line of the German countryside a short distance away.

The soldiers are members of the Polish special forces and are taking part in an exercise designed only months ago that simulates moving through enemy lines, traversing miles of enemy territory and launching a drone strike on a key enemy location.

Initially designed by the Army’s Green Berets for U.S. special forces, the exercise that began Friday is informed by and simulates many of the challenges that Ukrainian troops have experienced in their conflict with Russia. It is the first time a NATO ally like Poland has undertaken the training, and it comes at a time when tensions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and NATO countries have escalated.

“We’re using lessons learned from Ukraine,” an Army Green Beret officer assigned to the training complex said Thursday. “All of those effects that we’re seeing either Russia or Ukraine having to overcome — we’re doing our best to replicate.”

The Associated Press received rare access to both the training ground and the troops conducting the exercise, which has only been conducted twice before, both times this year, by two different Green Beret teams.

The drill highlights the focus that some parts of the U.S. military have on learning the latest techniques in drone warfare, pioneered by Ukraine during its 4 1/2-year effort to repel Russian forces. It also shows how the U.S., its NATO allies and Ukraine are working together to counter the threat of possible further Russian action in coming years even as the Trump administration has warned of troop drawdowns in Europe.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe went to Moscow this week to warn Russia not to attack NATO countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. Russia has the appetite to conduct sabotage and cyberattacks against NATO countries, but Putin wants to avoid a direct confrontation, according to three Western officials, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

How special forces are learning to sneak behind enemy lines to deploy drones
During the exercise in Germany, a senior enlisted soldier familiar with the training scenario at Joint Multinational Readiness Center Hohenfels — about an hour’s drive southeast from Nuremberg — said the plan is to run it several times a year. The officer said he expects most, if not all, of the 32 NATO nations to express interest in sending their troops to try the exercise.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the U.S. military’s longstanding policy of not publicly identifying individual members of special forces units.

US special forces patrol during a joint military exercise with forces from Poland at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels near Nuernberg, Germany, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Konstantin Toropin)

The scenario, which runs for several days, takes place on a large, 1,100-square-mile (3,000-square-kilometer) plot of land nestled in the Bavarian countryside.

Poland’s special forces will be expected to sneak past a U.S. Army airborne infantry unit, whose soldiers will play the enemy. The U.S. airborne infantry unit will parachute into the closed-off training area at the Army’s Hohenfels base and set themselves up into a front line.

Assuming the Polish forces can make their way past the U.S. Army, they must then move north — through about 60 miles (100 kilometers) of German countryside — to another training area in the town of Grafenwoehr, where they are expected to destroy a simulated target.

In between lie German farms and villages, private and government cameras, as well as a city with a large population, all of which not only pose as obstacles but also create the potential for them to be spotted.

The senior enlisted soldier said that in previous instances of the exercise, the Army Green Berets removed their uniforms “so they can blend in” before adding that “blend in also means don’t get seen by civilians.”

German civilians in the area largely are not aware of the exercise and serve as a reasonable test of how well special forces can blend into the local population. If they fail, reports of suspicious people to police will make it back to the military, which will use them to pinpoint the team.

“This is supposed to be Russia and you’re going to stand out in Russia,” the enlisted soldier added.

Plus, the U.S. Army also will be looking for the Polish forces with drones of their own.

If they’re spotted, “now you have the entire Russian arsenal coming at you,” the enlisted soldier said.

The U.S. Army can either send a military police unit to hunt for the Polish special forces with dogs or direct more drones to the area. In previous versions of the exercise, the U.S. Army had access to more than a hundred drones, the enlisted soldier said.

Troops are able to be “captured or killed” as part of the training.

Countries seek help from Ukraine on drone warfare
While the exercise taps into drones and NATO teamwork, the message of collaboration and the value of drones has been somewhat mixed lately across the military.

President Donald Trump stirred confusion among NATO allies by going back and forth on drawing down U.S. troop levels in Europe, and the administration has launched a force review on next steps. And last week, the Army’s top officer shuttered a unit that specialized in drone warfare.

But overall, there is growing interest in tapping Ukraine for its expertise on modern warfare and, specifically, drones.

In March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was helping five countries in the Middle East and Gulf region counter Iranian drone attacks launched during the war with the United States, while the U.S. and European countries were among those requesting support.

Meanwhile, the number of mysterious drone incursions in Europe have grown, including as recently as this month, when a pair of drones were spotted over a German military base and a drone carrying explosives was found at a key cargo airport in Germany.

(AP) – Google has updated its maps application to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for users in the United States, reflecting a recent order by President Donald Trump that changed the name of the lake, the global technology giant says.

The Google Maps update comes days after Trump’s order amid an escalating trade war with Canada that has led both countries to impose billions of dollars in added tariffs on each other’s goods. It echoes what Google did in 2025 when Trump issued an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Google said in a blog post Saturday that the decision was based on its practice of using names assigned by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, also known as GNIS.

“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in a brief statement. “These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”

Trump’s decision Thursday to rename the lake was met with mockery and indifference in both Canada and the United States. On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded to Trump’s order with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shore: “Lake Ontario. Now and forever.”

The White House, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ford’s office did not immediately comment Sunday on Google’s decision.

The internet company runs a leading search engine and major digital advertising network and is based in Mountain View, California. Its parent company is Alphabet Inc.

FLORIDA (VINnews) — Two Republican candidates who trafficked in antisemitic rhetoric and far-right conspiracy theories were defeated in Florida’s primaries last week, but their vote totals have left many in the state’s large Jewish community uneasy.

James Fishback, a former investment banker running for governor, finished third with 10% of the Republican vote. Dan Bilzerian, a far-right influencer challenging Rep. Randy Fine in the 6th Congressional District, received nearly 19%.

Both lost by wide margins. Jewish communal leaders said the results showed such appeals are not winning strategies. At the same time, they said the campaigns revealed how once-fringe ideas have moved closer to the political mainstream.

“People were very concerned by his campaign, by his campaign rhetoric, the attention that he drew, the support that he had from some of the most nefarious people of our time,” said Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton Synagogue, a modern Orthodox congregation with about 1,000 families.

Goldberg recalled driving his 79-year-old mother to the polls. She remarked that views once considered shameful to express publicly now seemed more common.

Florida is home to more than 500,000 Jews. Recent years have brought additional newcomers, drawn in part by remote-work opportunities and the state’s school-voucher program, which many Orthodox families use for religious schools. Many saw the state as a particularly welcoming place for Jewish life. The primary season challenged that assumption for some.

Bilzerian labeled Fine a “fat Jew,” praised Hitler in campaign material, and previously denied that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. He claimed Jews were behind the Sept. 11 attacks and called for “exterminating Israel.” Days before the vote he posted photos with supporters and the caption, “District 6 understands the jewish problem.”

“He was overtly praising Hitler in his campaign,” said Aiden Harow, 22, of Boca Raton, a recent Yeshiva University graduate.

Fishback presented himself as a critic of Israel rather than of Jews. His record complicated that distinction. He invoked “the great replacement and white genocide,” a theory long associated with antisemitic claims that Jewish elites are orchestrating demographic change. He used the neo-Nazi slang term “goyslop” to describe cafeteria food and continued using it after reporters noted its origins. Campaign messages to some voters opened with “Christ is King,” a phrase far-right activists have used online against Jews.

American Jews have seen the consequences of replacement rhetoric. Far-right marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville in 2017. The 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was preceded by similar claims targeting the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Joshua Sayles, vice president for external affairs at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said no one expected Fishback to win, but “some of his horrible rhetoric is making its way more and more into the mainstream.” He added that he remains “very comfortable” that Florida voters reject extremists.

Alex Hochberger, a Jewish technology strategist in Hollywood, Florida, described the Fishback effort as “an effort to build an influencer platform, not a serious candidacy.” Sid Dinerstein, a former Palm Beach County Republican Party chairman, said the two safest places for Jews are Israel and Florida.

Others were less reassured. Tammy Wagner, a 49-year-old Republican near Fort Lauderdale, said criticizing Israel is one thing. “But being antisemitic… It’s shocking to me that they got any votes. That makes me very nervous about our society.”

The primaries also featured Democratic contests that worried some Jewish voters, including the upset win of state Rep. Angie Nixon, a critic of Israel and Democratic Socialists of America member, in a Senate primary. The GOP races involving Fishback and Bilzerian drew particular attention because of their explicit antisemitic language and associations.

Family getting up:

ALBANY, N.Y. (VINnews) — A prosecutor in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office has accused his supervisor of directing him to pursue potential wrongdoing involving President Donald Trump and people and organizations connected to him, according to an agency-wide email obtained by the Times Union.

Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld, who works in the office’s Investor Protection Bureau, sent the email Friday to hundreds of colleagues. The message was later deleted from the office’s computer servers, and a follow-up message was sent to employees describing the matter as an internal personnel issue, the Times Union reported.

Wiesenfeld alleged that his bureau chief, Shamiso Maswoswe, had instructed him to focus on Trump, Truth Social and Hewlett-Packard despite what he characterized as a lack of a credible basis for pursuing them.

The allegations have not been independently substantiated.

James’ office placed Wiesenfeld on paid administrative leave and rejected his accusations.

“This is a personnel matter,” Alexis Richards, a spokesperson for James, said in a statement provided to the Times Union. She said the attorney general’s office is committed to enforcing New York law and protecting the rights and freedoms of New Yorkers regardless of their political views. The office “strongly” rejected Wiesenfeld’s allegations.

Wiesenfeld, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney who has worked for the attorney general’s office for about two years, could not be reached for comment Saturday, according to the Times Union.

His email accused James’ office of devoting taxpayer resources to politically motivated investigations. He also criticized the office for what he described as insufficient action on alleged fraud involving nonprofit homeless shelters and antisemitic crimes near synagogues.

The episode comes against the backdrop of a yearslong political and legal battle between James and Trump.

James campaigned for attorney general in 2018 while promising to investigate Trump and his business dealings. Her office later brought a civil fraud case against Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization.

A Manhattan judge in 2024 ordered Trump and other defendants to pay more than $360 million after finding them liable for fraud involving financial statements that overstated the value of Trump’s assets.

Trump appealed the ruling. In August 2025, a New York appellate court upheld the underlying finding of liability but eliminated the financial penalty, according to the Times Union.

The political conflict has also extended to Washington.

During Trump’s second administration, the Justice Department pursued a criminal investigation involving James over allegations related to mortgage and bank fraud. The case was ultimately dismissed by federal judges.

James’ defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, had accused the Trump administration of using federal law enforcement for political retaliation because of James’ investigations involving Trump.

Trump and his allies have similarly accused James of using her office to pursue political opponents.

The dispute has involved federal prosecutors in New York as well.

John A. Sarcone III, who served as acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, obtained grand jury subpoenas involving James’ office as part of an investigation into its handling of cases involving the National Rifle Association and Trump’s family businesses.

A federal appeals court ruled this month that Sarcone had not been lawfully appointed to the position when he issued the subpoenas. The court also noted that the grand jury had been discharged in March, meaning the subpoenas were no longer enforceable, according to the Times Union.

Wiesenfeld’s email has added another public dispute to the long-running confrontation between Trump and James.

For now, James’ office is treating the matter as a personnel issue, with Wiesenfeld on paid administrative leave.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — House Republicans say they are preparing hearings and possible subpoenas after New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s response to a congressional inquiry into how thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote, a reply one lawmaker called “snarky” and largely unresponsive.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, told Fox News Digital that lawmakers will “dig in” after Sherrill’s letter failed to answer most of the 12 questions posed in a July 24 inquiry led by Van Drew and Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas.

“We are certainly not giving up and we’re going to really dig in here and do everything we can to get to the truth,” Van Drew said. “We’re not done with this.”

In a video interview, Van Drew described Sherrill’s letter as “snarky, political, abusive, personal.”

“It wasn’t about Donald Trump,” he said. “It’s about making the system be filled with integrity instead of corruption.”

Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in January, has said a Motor Vehicle Commission error between June 2023 and June 2024 — before she became governor — transmitted information that placed about 6,600 people who had identified themselves as noncitizens onto the state’s voter rolls. State officials have said roughly 340 of them voted in at least one election, according to later public accounts of the disclosure. The administration said it has removed about 5,100 names and asked counties to review more than 1,400 others whose status remains unclear.

The Republican letter asked how the breakdown occurred, why it was not caught sooner, which elections were affected and what steps New Jersey would take to prevent a repeat. Van Drew said Sherrill’s reply noted that affected residents were mailed notifications but otherwise sidestepped Congress’s questions and instead criticized President Donald Trump and Republican election legislation.

Sherrill wrote that “Washington Republicans … seem much more concerned with using the issue for political gain than they are with protecting our elections.” She also disputed GOP claims that the SAVE America Act would have prevented the error and raised privacy concerns about expanding the federal role in voter registration.

Van Drew said he is scheduling a subcommittee hearing with expert witnesses and working with Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to compel records from Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, who oversees elections as secretary of state.

“If there’s a complete lack of cooperation after we build up a case, there is a possibility, it’s not definite,” Van Drew said. “But if they’re not, we do, in my opinion, have to look at subpoenas as well.”

Pfluger said Sherrill “spent three pages on political theater and barely a sentence answering our questions,” including whether any contest was decided by fewer votes than the number of ineligible ballots cast.

The White House called Sherrill’s response “laughable,” with spokeswoman Lauren Bis saying Democrats had “denied for years that non-citizens are registering and voting in our elections.”

Sherrill spokesman Sean Higgins said the governor’s letter explained how the state “moved with transparency and accountability to remediate this error from 2023.” He accused Republicans of “playing political games” and noted that a former operative tied to Van Drew’s campaign had been convicted of voter fraud, bribery and blackmail.

An attorney for Caldwell previously told House investigators the state intended to produce at least some responsive records. Van Drew and other Republicans say they still lack answers on the scope of the failure, contractor responsibility and whether any election outcomes were affected.

Van Drew said the goal is to “get in the weeds and make sure this never happens again.”

“If you are an American, you should be voting in an American election,” he said. “If you’re not an American, you shouldn’t be voting in an American election.”

Family getting up: Shacharis: 7:00 am Mincha: 7:00 pm Maariv: 9:00 pm

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Three Israeli soldiers serving in the Givati Brigade were sentenced to 10 days in military prison Sunday after refusing to board an armored vehicle with a female medic, a case that has reignited a broader dispute over religious accommodations for observant soldiers in the Israeli military.

The soldiers, who serve in the Rotem Battalion and are enrolled in the military’s Hesder program, refused to enter a Namer armored personnel carrier as their unit prepared for an operational mission in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli reports.

The soldiers said their religious convictions prevented them from participating in the mission under those circumstances.

The punishment drew criticism from religious leaders and politicians, who accused the military of failing to honor arrangements designed to accommodate observant soldiers.

The Association of Hesder Yeshivas said the soldiers had acted in accordance with the military’s joint-service framework and questioned why they were punished for following religious guidelines.

מישהו בצבא איבד את זה לגמרי. צבא של מדינה יהודית לא מעניש חיילים על כך שהם מתנהגים כיהודים. שמירת תורה ומצוות לא תהיה עבירה בצה”ל. בממשלה הבאה נעם לישראל תשים לזה סוף: חופשי להיות יהודי – גם במדים. https://t.co/Nk0JO0VHwV

— אבי מעוז (@AVI_MAOZ) August 29, 2026

The military offered a different account.

The Israel Defense Forces said soldiers maintaining a religious lifestyle are generally entitled to perform operational duties in gender-segregated settings under the joint-service order, except in unusual circumstances. In this case, however, the military said the soldiers refused to participate in an operational activity and that the mission was ultimately canceled.

According to an Israeli military source cited in reports on the incident, the company commander spoke with the soldiers and explained the importance and urgency of the planned operation. The soldiers nevertheless maintained their refusal.

Military officials also involved the brigade’s rabbi, who reportedly determined that the operational circumstances justified carrying out the mission with the female medic aboard.

The dispute has exposed tensions surrounding the growing role of religious soldiers in the Israeli military, particularly as the country continues to debate the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men.

MK Avi Maoz, head of the Noam party, strongly criticized the soldiers’ imprisonment and accused the military of turning against soldiers who had served in combat.

“You are turning your back on IDF soldiers,” Maoz said in a statement directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense establishment.

Maoz praised the soldiers for their service and said their punishment sent the wrong message to religious communities being encouraged to enlist.

He also urged the soldiers to remain steadfast in their religious convictions despite the sentence.

Rabbi Dror Aryeh, a rabbi associated with a Hesder yeshiva in Sderot, similarly condemned the military’s decision. He called the punishment an abuse of authority and argued that the soldiers had acted according to Jewish law and established procedures.

A group known as Wives of Soldiers for the Sanctity of the Camp also called for the soldiers to be released and for disciplinary action against commanders involved in the incident.

The group accused the military of mistreating religious soldiers and warned that such cases could discourage ultra-Orthodox and other observant Jews from joining the military.

Religious leaders also publicly rallied behind the soldiers.

Rabbi Hagai Lundin, head of a yeshiva in Holon, released a message of encouragement to the soldiers, placing their decision in the context of the Jewish month of Elul and the approaching Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

Lundin said the soldiers had faced a test of whether they would prioritize their religious principles over personal considerations and encouraged them not to be intimidated by the punishment.

The incident reportedly began as the Rotem Battalion was preparing for an operational activity in Gaza. A female medic was assigned to accompany the force inside a Namer armored vehicle.

Three soldiers refused to board.

According to reports, the soldiers were asked whether another member of the platoon would participate in the mission instead. They responded that no other soldier was willing to take the assignment under those conditions.

The refusal meant the planned activity could not proceed as scheduled, according to the military.

Reports also said rabbis at two Hesder institutions — Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner of the yeshiva in Mitzpeh Ramon and Rabbi Shlomo Shushan of the yeshiva in Beit She’an — had instructed students serving with the unit not to board a combat vehicle when a female medic was present.

The case comes as Israel continues to grapple with questions over military service, religious observance and the integration of men and women into combat and support roles.

Hesder combines Torah study with military service and has long provided a framework for religious Zionist men to serve in the IDF while maintaining intensive religious studies.

The military has sought to accommodate religious soldiers while maintaining operational requirements, but disputes have periodically emerged over gender integration, military duties and the boundaries of religious accommodations.

The latest case has quickly become a political issue, with religious leaders portraying the soldiers as examples of religious commitment and military officials emphasizing the need for units to remain operational.

The soldiers are expected to serve their 10-day sentences in military detention.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A major flash flood at the Grand Canyon forced the evacuation of dozens of people and swept large boulders, metal structures and other debris into the Colorado River that runs through it, the National Park Service said.

The flooding in Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the river, happened Saturday afternoon. Torrents of water wiped out footbridges over the creek and significantly altered the landscape, widening the creek bed and creating what appeared to be a new river rapid.

At least 20 people are unaccounted for after flash flooding struck Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, USA, today. pic.twitter.com/eg3w9uIYvu

— Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) August 30, 2026

The park service said it was seeking information about more than 20 people who may be missing or unaccounted for after the flood and asked anyone with details about people hiking or camping in the area to get in touch. It said it was working with the Arizona Department of Public Safety to continue evacuations Sunday.

“This is a reminder of what a dynamic and active landscape Grand Canyon is,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.

Popular tourist spots including the Bright Angel Campground, Phantom Ranch and parts of the North Kaibab trail remained closed on Sunday while park officials surveyed the damage, the park said. Rafting trips on the Colorado River also have been halted for now.

More than 60 people were evacuated from Phantom Ranch, which has a historic canteen and dorms, and is a common spot for rafters to get off and on the river. More evacuations were planned Sunday, the park said. No injuries have been reported.

Erica Viola said she was at Bright Angel Campground when the rain started Saturday afternoon, and she and about 50 other hikers watched the creek rise and then debris start to flow by, including what looked like a bunkhouse. The group was taken by helicopter to safety, ending her adventure two days early, she said.

About half an inch to 1 inch (1 centimeter to 2.5 centimeters) of rain fell within about 30 minutes in the rocky area where there’s a steep drop in elevation, said National Weather Service meteorologist Justin Johndrow in Flagstaff.

“Most of it ran off instantly,” Johndrow said.

He said the flooding happened on the north side of the Grand Canyon, where Bright Angel Creek comes from the North Rim down to the Colorado River, dropping around 6,000 feet (1,828 meters).

More rain and thunderstorms were possible for the area into Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz in the first military action in a month on Sunday, according to a U.S. official, breaking a lull in fighting during an intermittent war that has lasted more than six months.

Forces with the Revolutionary Guard Corps were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements.

The U.S. military last week completed clearing sea mines from the strait’s international shipping routes.

Semiofficial news outlets in Iran reported sounds of explosions near Larak island on the strait. The Guard in a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster noted “the martyrdom and injury of several of our fighters and compatriots.”

The statement said the attack will “result in punishment of the aggressor.”

The fighting comes just days after the Trump administration said it would turn its focus to increasing economic pressure — rather than military action — to try to end its war with Iran. The shifting strategy centers on threats to punish any country or entity that continues to conduct business with Tehran.

The turn to using sanctions as the cudgel of choice comes as the administration weighs diminished munitions stockpiles after months of war, sparking concerns that the prolonged conflict could undermine U.S. military readiness in other parts of the globe.

As the conflict grinds on, Trump’s talk of finding a quick end to the war also appears to be fading. He stressed last week that he’s “not in a hurry” to get Iran back to the negotiating table, and he continues making the case that the Islamic Republic’s leadership is on the ropes.

Trump has consistently emphasized that the U.S. and Israel campaign has been devastating for Iran’s navy and air force. Iranian officials have said the country has suffered $270 billion in direct and indirect damage. Israeli military strikes in the first weeks of the war wiped out much of the theocratic government’s leadership structure.

But Iran has found leverage through its own strikes in the critical Strait of Hormuz where relatively few vessels carrying oil and liquefied natural gas are risking passage. Iran still has enough drones and missiles to fire at vessels transiting the vital energy waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows, effectively controlling much of the traffic in the strait.

Trump has repeatedly declared that the “Strait of Hormuz is open,” saying 24 vessels passed through last week. But that’s a fraction of the roughly 130 vessels that passed through the vital waterway daily before the war began.

Earlier on Sunday, a multinational coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy said commercial traffic through the strait remained at “reduced levels.” And a monitoring agency run by the British military said an unknown projectile struck a tanker ship on Saturday north of Khasab, Oman, in the strait.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said the ship had been moving inbound and no casualties or environmental impact had been reported. It cited unspecified military authorities. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

TEHRAN (AP) – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, urged rulers of Muslim nations to “know your real enemy, understand its plans and confront it,” and called the U.S. and Israel enemies of all Islamic nations, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Six months after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, killing Khamenei’s father and other senior leaders, Khamenei still has not been seen publicly. His comments came in a letter to religious leaders attending a conference in Tehran.

The war has exposed divisions in the Muslim world after Iran struck targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries and restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has opposed the U.S. military presence in the region.

(JNS) – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded a medal of honor on Thursday to Natan Sharansky in Kiyv for his efforts to help Ukraine and preserve the memory of the Holocaust there.

Sharansky, a human rights activist and former Prisoner of Zion, received the 3rd class Order of Merit of Ukraine medal for his work, including as the chairman of the supervisory board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, that institution said.

“There is a great deal of work being done in the archives even during the war. Thousands of names have already been restored—under constant shelling,” Sharansky told staff at the memorial center during a talk with them on his visit to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the institution said. “Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression and Israel’s war against terrorist organizations are different, but we are fighting the same axis of evil. Ukraine and Israel are fighting for the future of the entire free world,” Sharansky continued.

Sharansky, who met Zelenskyy on Aug. 25, according to Sharansky’s office, has received the Order of Merit medal once before, in 2022, for his work to help Ukraine internationally.

A former Israeli deputy prime minister and a longtime statesman, Sharansky is also chairman of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).

Sharansky was born in 1948 in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, which pro-Russian separatists took control of in 2014. His incarceration in the USSR in 1977 for Zionist activism became a symbol for human rights activists who rallied across the world for his freedom. Sharansky was released in 1986.

The Babyn Yar Memorial Center was established in 2016 to build a Holocaust museum in Kyiv. The center’s Names project has led to the identification of thousands of victims whose fates had been previously unknown.

Babyn Yar (“Babi Yar” in Russian) is a ravine on Kyiv’s outskirts where German troops and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police murdered at least 33,000 Jews on Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, in one of the largest massacres of the Holocaust.

LAS VEGAS (VINnews) — Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters is set to tell Jewish Republican leaders Monday that a Democratic takeover of Congress would put the Jewish community at greater risk, as Republicans seek to make antisemitism and support for Israel central issues in the 2026 midterm elections.

The NY Post reports that, Gruters is scheduled to deliver the warning at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Las Vegas. The event runs through Tuesday and is also expected to feature Vice President JD Vance and other senior Republican officials.

In prepared remarks reported Sunday, Gruters argues that a Democratic majority would give greater influence to the party’s progressive wing. He is expected to point to the Democratic Socialists of America and several Democratic lawmakers and candidates whose positions on Israel and antisemitism have drawn criticism from Republicans.

Gruters is also expected to argue that Democratic leaders have failed to adequately confront antisemitism within their party.

Among those he plans to criticize are New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. He is also expected to cite Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

El-Sayed apologized Saturday following criticism over comments he made about an attempted attack targeting a synagogue preschool in Michigan.

Gruters’ remarks come as Republicans seek to use divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel, Hamas and antisemitism to motivate Jewish and other voters ahead of the November elections.

He is expected to highlight Republican candidates he says are strong supporters of Jewish communities, including Rep. Mike Lawler of New York and Michael LiPetri, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi.

Lawler is seeking a third term in New York’s 17th Congressional District and faces Democrat Cait Conley. LiPetri is running against Suozzi in the 3rd Congressional District after narrowly losing to him in 2024.

The Republican campaign comes as the party prepares for what could be a difficult midterm election. Historically, the president’s party tends to lose congressional seats in midterm elections, giving Republicans an added incentive to focus on issues that can energize their base.

Gruters, a former Florida state senator, has made combating antisemitism one of his political priorities. His appearance at the RJC summit gives him an opportunity to frame the upcoming congressional elections as a choice not only over control of Congress but also over the direction of American policy toward Israel and the Jewish community.

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s summit is being held at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas and runs from Sunday through Tuesday.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — More than 1,100 North Americans immigrated to Israel in August, a monthly record for Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that facilitates aliyah from the United States and Canada. Officials said the surge puts 2026 on track to bring more than 4,000 newcomers from North America by year’s end.

The August total includes about 150 olim who landed Thursday at Ben-Gurion Airport on six group flights, with nearly 100 arriving within a half-hour span. The organization said the month capped one of its busiest summer seasons, with more than 2,200 North Americans expected to complete aliyah between June and September on nearly 100 group flights or through processing already underway inside Israel.

About 2,700 North Americans have made aliyah since January, Nefesh B’Nefesh said. If the current pace holds, 2026 would rank among the strongest years since the organization was founded in 2002. In 2025, Nefesh B’Nefesh reported more than 4,100 North American olim, the highest annual figure in four years.

This summer’s arrivals are unusually young. The average age is 29, down from 32 two years ago, and the group ranges from a 5-month-old infant to a 98-year-old. Officials said the summer wave includes about 1,100 singles, 480 families and 250 retirees. Roughly 700 school-age children also arrived, including about 80 who are expected to start first grade next month. About 300 young adults are expected to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces or national service after settling.

“It’s record-breaking for us,” said Marc Rosenberg, Nefesh B’Nefesh’s vice president of diaspora partnerships. “It’s quite a summer. Over 2,300 people are arriving. It’s really been a very busy summer.”

Rosenberg said many parents want their children raised in Israel. “They want to be a part of the project that built Israel. They see a big quality of life here, and they admire what young people in Israel are doing.”

Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, co-founder and executive director of Nefesh B’Nefesh, tied the August arrivals to a larger milestone. The organization recently marked its 100,000th oleh.

“Welcoming hundreds of olim in this record-breaking month reflects the continued momentum of what has already been an incredible summer for aliyah,” Fass said. “As we recently celebrated our 100,000th oleh, it is particularly inspiring to see so many young people choosing to make Israel their home, to build their careers and families here, put down roots and invest their futures in this country.”

Nefesh B’Nefesh works with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Jewish National Fund-USA. Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer called the influx “inspiring,” and Jewish Agency Chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog said the newcomers were choosing “to build their lives here and be part of the future of the State of Israel.”

New olim this summer came from communities across the United States and Canada, with large numbers from New York, New Jersey, Florida, California, Maryland, Illinois, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Texas and Georgia. Popular destinations include Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Modi’in, Ra’anana and Beit Shemesh. About 650 newcomers are settling in communities in Israel’s north and south.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Jewish high school students across the United States have requested hundreds of new Jewish Student Union clubs since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, according to the organization that runs the program.

JSU, a project of NCSY, said it received about 15 to 20 requests a year from teens seeking to start clubs before the attacks. Since then, 473 students have applied through the national system alone. That figure does not include teens who connected through local staff or word of mouth.

JSU now operates more than 515 clubs serving more than 21,000 Jewish teens in public and community high schools in the United States and Canada.

Organizers say the surge comes as many Jewish students report feeling isolated or targeted at school. Students have started clubs, recruited classmates, planned Shabbat dinners and built Jewish community on campuses where none existed.

One New Jersey senior transferred schools this summer and began organizing a new JSU chapter before the first day of classes, recruiting siblings and classmates.

JSU clubs meet in public and non-Jewish private high schools. Staff members support student leaders with programming, food and weekly guidance. The groups are open to Jewish teens of varying backgrounds and some non-Jewish students.

National JSU Director Devora Simon has described the students as choosing to deepen their Jewish identity rather than hide it. She said club requests show teens want more opportunities to find one another and take an active role in Jewish life at school.

LONDON (VINnews) — Britain’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis told Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Friday that the U.K. government’s planned sanctions over Israeli construction in the West Bank’s E1 area would be counterproductive, risk a broader boycott of Israel and inflict harm on both the region and British Jews.

Mirvis said he welcomed the meeting and that the two men share hopes for peace and security in the Middle East. He argued, however, that the intended measures would not change Israeli policy as the government expects and instead “risk inflicting real harm across the region.”

“Given the obvious challenges of defining and implementing such measures, there is a clear danger that they will spiral into a de facto boycott of trade with Israel more broadly, damaging the long-term relationship between our two countries and threatening the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers,” Mirvis wrote Sunday on X after the meeting.

The chief rabbi said many in the U.K. Jewish community would view the sanctions “with deep dismay” at a time when “the vilification of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State has already reached unprecedented levels.” He added that the policy would disproportionately affect British Jews because of their religious, family, charitable and educational ties to Israel.

“Over recent years, we have seen repeatedly that when rhetoric towards Israel escalates, hostility towards Jews is never far behind,” he said.

Mirvis strongly condemned “the reprehensible violence perpetrated against Palestinians by a small number of extremists.” He said the government’s proposals would “only embolden the tiny minority who support such criminality, while penalising countless others who abhor it.”

The government has cited Israel’s tender for homes in E1, between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, as the justification. Foreign Secretary Miliband last week called the tender “an unacceptable and destructive act” that he said threatened the viability of a two-state solution and announced that London would set out “a comprehensive set of measures,” including targeted sanctions on those involved in settlement expansion.

Mirvis noted that successive peace efforts, from Oslo to Camp David and beyond, had envisaged a final agreement in which the E1 area would remain under Israeli sovereignty.

“It is therefore difficult to escape the painful conclusion that domestic political considerations are driving foreign policy, the impact of which is negative both for prospects for peace in the Middle East and for the UK Jewish community,” he said.

The two men posed for a photograph at the meeting, which Mirvis’s office released Sunday.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is expected to sign an order reducing Israel’s fuel excise tax as motorists face a new increase that will match the highest gasoline price on record.

The Energy and Infrastructure Ministry said Sunday that the maximum regulated price for 95-octane unleaded gasoline at self-service pumps will rise 16 agorot at midnight Monday, reaching NIS 8.25 per liter on Sept. 1. That figure equals the previous peak set in September 2012.

The surcharge for full-service pumps will rise 1 agora to 26 agorot per liter, bringing the full-service ceiling to NIS 8.51. In Eilat, which is exempt from VAT, the self-service price will rise 14 agorot to NIS 6.99 per liter.

Energy officials attributed the increase to a roughly 6% rise in international gasoline prices, partly offset by a stronger shekel against the dollar. Those market moves added about 10 agorot per liter. An inflation-linked update to the excise tax added about 5 agorot, and a semiannual revision of the marketing margin added 1 agora.

Smotrich’s planned tax cut is intended to cushion households and businesses from further jumps tied to higher global energy costs and the blockade on Iran. Ministry officials said the size of the reduction is still being finalized so lower prices can reach consumers later this week.

Once signed, the order would apply nationwide and take effect with the next scheduled fuel-price update. Officials said the cut is meant to offset much of the expected additional increase at the pump, not reverse the Sept. 1 adjustment already announced.

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. (VINnews) — State Sen. James Skoufis and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are working on a new financing program they hope will persuade airlines to add routes at New York Stewart International Airport.

The proposed minimum revenue guarantee program would help protect airlines from losses when launching new service at the Hudson Valley airport, which has struggled to attract and maintain commercial routes.

Skoufis, D-Orange County, said he has been working with the Port Authority and Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. since late last year on the proposal.

“I’m as frustrated as the next Hudson Valley resident regarding the lack of flights out of Stewart Airport,” Skoufis said. “That said, there is a major reason to be hopeful this is about to change.”

Under the plan, a fund would cover some of an airline’s revenue shortfall if a new route fails to meet an agreed-upon target. Skoufis said he plans to make a “meaningful commitment” to the fund but has not disclosed how much.

The program is intended to make Stewart more attractive to airlines that might otherwise consider service from larger airports, including Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark.

Skoufis said talks have already begun with a major airline about a possible route connecting Stewart with a major U.S. hub. He did not identify the airline or destination.

The strategy would focus on hub connections, giving Hudson Valley travelers access to destinations around the country without having to drive to New York City’s larger airports.

The Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. is expected to administer the fund, while the Port Authority would help coordinate the effort. Skoufis said federal law prevents the Port Authority from administering the program itself.

CHICAGO (VINnews) — United Airlines said it will restore nonstop service between Tel Aviv and San Francisco on March 28, 2027, operating three flights a week after suspending the route following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the war that followed.

The flights will reconnect Israel with Silicon Valley. United said the route will offer more business-class seats between the two cities than any other airline.

El Al is scheduled to begin the same nonstop service several months earlier, in October 2026.

United described the return as part of the largest international network expansion in its history, which also adds multiple new destinations across Europe and Asia.

The original Tel Aviv-San Francisco route launched in 2016 after strong demand from Israeli technology professionals living in the Bay Area. United has also said it plans to resume other U.S.-Israel services, including Tel Aviv-Newark flights, before the San Francisco route returns.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Metropolitan Museum of Art executives are set to hold an emergency meeting Sunday over growing backlash to the museum’s decision to honor fashion designer John Galliano at next year’s Met Gala, the New York Post reported.

The meeting comes after New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin called the decision a “serious mistake” and urged the museum to reconsider. Menin, the first Jewish speaker of the City Council and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said she was particularly troubled by Galliano’s history of antisemitic remarks.

Galliano was convicted of a hate crime in 2011 after an antisemitic outburst in which he said he loved Hitler. He later apologized, saying he did not remember the incidents and had struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.

My letter to The Met urging them to reconsider honoring John Galliano at the next Met Gala: pic.twitter.com/ZRxhzg4MeY

— Speaker Julie Menin (@SpeakerMenin) August 29, 2026

Menin also raised concerns about a reported 2019 incident involving Galliano that she said was never investigated. A spokesperson for Galliano denied those allegations.

The Met has said it has no tolerance for antisemitism, racism or prejudice and is consulting Jewish leaders and other stakeholders about the concerns. The museum said the planned exhibition will address Galliano’s antisemitic, racist and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011.

The Met has not responded to the New York Post’s request for comment, according to the newspaper.

NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was heckled with antisemitic slurs Saturday while joining protesters outside Madison Square Garden who were demonstrating against a Hindu nationalist leader speaking at the arena.

Lander, a former New York City comptroller and the Democratic nominee for the 10th Congressional District, approached the demonstration opposing Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, an influential Hindu nationalist organization in India.

NOW: Some protesters Confront Brad Lander during MSG Indian protest, while others attempt to calm down the situation and welcome him to the event.

Protesters filled the Street Outside Madison Square Garden as Indian RSS Chief Speaks in NYC

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 | Licensing… pic.twitter.com/sQ9BLfbiAW

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) August 29, 2026

But some protesters rejected Lander’s presence, with one demonstrator shouting an antisemitic slur at him and telling him to leave. Video from the scene showed Lander confronting the protester and responding, “Bring it on.” Other protesters also told him to leave, objecting to his identification as a Zionist.

The confrontation came as thousands of protesters gathered outside the arena to oppose Bhagwat’s appearance. Bhagwat was addressing about 5,000 members of Indian American groups at an event billed as the “Universal Oneness Celebration.”

Lander is Jewish and has described himself as a “liberal Zionist,” although he has also been critical of Israel.

The protesters were demonstrating against the RSS and its record on religious minorities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has said the organization has been involved in acts of violence and intolerance against minority groups. The RSS disputes such accusations and describes itself as a Hindu-centered cultural and civilizational movement.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani had opposed Bhagwat’s appearance earlier in the week, describing the RSS ideology as exclusionary while acknowledging that the city did not have the authority to cancel a private event.

Lander did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to The New York Post.

(JNS) – The article, which the U.S. president shared on social media, addresses a request from the National Association of Christian Lawmakers and partners for the U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security to make “lawful, secure and appropriately expedited” immigration pathways for eligible Jewish Canadians and their families.

“These numbers represent more than statistics,” the group wrote. “They represent families who increasingly question whether they can safely send their children to Jewish schools, worship openly, display their faith publicly or continue building their lives in communities where they no longer feel secure.”

Trump is in the middle of a public spat with Canada about trade and said that he will refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (VINnews) — Jersey City’s City Council approved an $886 million budget that raises municipal property taxes 15.15% to close a $255 million deficit, officials said after a special meeting Wednesday.

The tax increase, combined with $58 million in spending cuts across most city departments, follows months of negotiations with the state. New Jersey originally pressed for a 20% hike before settling on 15.15% after public pushback and council amendments. The city also secured a $120 million state aid package — a $105 million loan and a $15 million grant — that gives the Department of Community Affairs oversight of spending and the power to set the tax rate if officials are unsatisfied.

An average home assessed at $480,000 will see municipal taxes rise from $11,203 in 2025 to $12,813. The Jersey City Board of Education is separately raising school taxes 14%, and Hudson County is raising its levy 14%. Landlords are expected to pass added costs to renters.

Eight of nine council members voted for the budget. Councilmember Michael Griffin abstained.

“I couldn’t bring myself to support the tax increase knowing that people are going to be pushed out of their homes and there’s no real relief for the homeowners,” Griffin said. “I grew up in a community which at one time was 80% below the poverty rate. I know what it’s like to struggle.”

Mayor James Solomon’s administration said the deficit was inherited from former Mayor Steven Fulop, who left office in January after three terms. Officials have blamed years of one-time revenue, deferred spending and accounting practices. An audit released this month found the city overspent on health benefits in 2025, lacked adequate internal controls and did not have a complete inventory of city-owned land, vehicles and equipment.

Nathaniel Styer, a spokesman for Solomon, said there were “no easy solutions to a budget crisis of this magnitude.”

“The mayor fought for and won a historic $120 million aid package from Trenton to lessen the burden on Jersey City taxpayers and protect vital city services this year,” Styer said. “While both the cuts and tax increase are painful, we believe they are the first steps towards getting Jersey City’s finances back to healthy and stable.”

Council President Denise Ridley called the vote difficult but necessary. “Every vote isn’t going to be an easy vote, but I think the council made the best vote with the position that they’re in,” she said.

Councilmember Eleana Little said the alternative was worse. “If we don’t pass a budget doing this, not only will Jersey City be hamstrung by an enormous budget hole, but the state could then take over entirely and raise taxes as much as they want,” Little said. “There is no good option here, only bad options and less bad options.”

The budget restores funding to rehire some of the 31 provisional workers laid off last month, including a driver for the senior bus service. It also cuts $200,000 from police overtime, scales back some services and reserves money for expected union raises. Eight of 11 public-worker unions are out of contract, some for more than six years.

Fulop, who did not seek re-election and later lost a gubernatorial bid, has disputed the characterization of his tenure. In an earlier statement he said that had he run again, “we would have introduced another budget with no tax increase for Jersey City residents as we did nearly every year.”

Councilmember Rolando Lavarro said the blame game should end with this vote. “This final budget and this 15.15% tax increase now belong to us,” he said.City officials said they plan to start the 2027 budget process earlier and will increase outreach to residents facing higher bills. Ridley said another double-digit increase next year is not the council’s goal and will depend on revenue collected this year.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Tenant complaints filed through New York City’s 311 system have increased 25% this year compared with the same period in 2025, according to a New York Post analysis of city service-request data.

The Post reported that 573,656 renter complaints have been logged across the five boroughs so far this year, compared with 459,519 during the comparable period last year.

The increase comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has encouraged New Yorkers to report housing problems through 311. Landlords and other critics say the administration’s approach has encouraged some tenants to file complaints over minor or questionable issues, putting additional pressure on property owners.

The Post reported that Brooklyn has experienced the largest increase among the city’s boroughs. Complaints there rose 32%, from 128,337 during the comparable period last year to 169,675 this year. Queens saw complaints increase 29%.

Housing complaints are referred to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which can contact landlords and send inspectors to investigate reported violations.

In one week, 67 calls involving clogged toilets were recorded, a 500% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to the Post’s analysis.

Landlords interviewed by the Post said some tenants are using the complaint system as leverage in disputes involving rent and building conditions.

“The apparatus of the government is geared to squeeze us,” said Lincoln Eccles, who owns a 15-unit building in Crown Heights.

Luis Altamiranda, president of the Esther consulting group, said the use of 311 complaints to pressure landlords existed before Mamdani took office but had increased substantially since then.

“What I see a lot of is you have tenants that have massive amount of arrears, and then they use the 311 complaints to create this sort of narrative that the landlord’s not doing his job,” Altamiranda said.

Mamdani has made housing enforcement a central part of his administration’s agenda. In April, he participated in an HPD inspection that was featured in a social media video. During the visit, he highlighted several violations and said no housing issue was too small to report.

The number of tenant complaints that week reached 17,768, compared with 10,877 during the same week in 2025, an increase of 63%, according to the Post. In Brooklyn, complaints increased from 3,223 to 5,499, a 70% increase.

The administration has also moved to expand housing inspections and enforcement. Cea Weaver, a tenant advocate who joined the Mamdani administration this year, said the city was increasing staffing for housing-code inspections and targeted enforcement.

“We’re expanding headcount to be able to do more housing code inspections and more targeted enforcement,” Weaver said during a July briefing.

When a tenant files a 311 complaint, HPD can contact the landlord. If the issue is not resolved, the agency can send an inspector to the apartment and issue a violation when a housing-code violation is found.

Uncorrected violations can remain open and lead to further enforcement. In cases involving serious and persistent building-wide violations, the city can pursue court action and, under existing programs, seek changes in building management or ownership.

Some property owners say the system is being abused.

Youssef Azour, a New York City property owner, told the Post that he had never experienced such a level of complaints during his 30 years in the real estate business.

“It’s a disaster,” Azour said.

Other landlords told the Post they had received complaints over issues they considered minor, including a lack of heat during the summer and the color of paint on a wall.

Tenant advocates, however, say residents should be able to report housing problems and that stronger enforcement is needed to ensure landlords maintain safe and habitable apartments.

Mamdani’s administration has argued for greater tenant protections while pursuing an expanded housing agenda. The mayor has also moved to speed up housing-related court proceedings, saying tenants can wait weeks or months for cases to be heard.

The debate over 311 complaints is part of a larger fight over Mamdani’s housing policies, with tenant advocates calling for stronger enforcement and landlords warning that increased complaints and inspections could create additional financial and legal pressure on property owners.

Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, said false or repeated complaints can make it more difficult to identify legitimate housing problems.

“A fair and effective housing enforcement system should ensure that property owners are given reasonable opportunity to correct legitimate violations and weed out bogus tenant complaints,” Korchak said.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) A disturbing new investigation by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) research organization, revealed by the Washington Free Beacon, alleges that schools operated by the Palestinian Authority (PA) have incorporated the October 7 massacre into their regular curriculum.

The material documented by PMW has sparked concern in Washington, particularly as Ramallah seeks a role in the administration of the Gaza Strip following the war.

The investigation includes photographs, videos and lesson plans that PMW says demonstrate direct glorification of the October 7 attack,including in mathematics lessons for third-grade students.

At the PA-run Al-Kuwait Elementary School, nine-year-old students were reportedly given the following math problem: “In the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood,’ at least 150 Israelis were killed in one day. How many were killed in nine days?”

The correct answer — 1,350 — was accompanied by the teacher’s praise: “May Allah protect you! Excellent!”

Another exercise dealt with the deployment of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces: “The Al-Qassam Brigades sent 150 jihad fighters to nine settlements. How many entered in total?” The teacher reportedly praised the correct answer with the words: “Champion! Victory for the residents of Gaza!”

The investigation also documents what PMW describes as school ceremonies glorifying the perpetrators of the October 7 attack. According to the report, celebrations or assemblies were held at at least 11 schools, where students recited poems and songs praising the massacre.

At an elementary school in Tulkarm, a female student was recorded reciting: “We came to you in multitudes, open the door — we are death… We will cool the fire in our hearts with body parts and the screams of the soldiers.”

In the town of Khursa, near Hebron, another student reportedly described the morning of October 7 as “a beautiful dream that we did not want to wake up from.”

The findings prompted a strong reaction from the U.S. State Department, which described the material as “terror grooming and education for murder.”

An official statement said that the October 7 massacre was being celebrated in PA schools, with children portraying the attack as a day of “joy,” “pride” and “victory,” while schools glorified Hamas and bloodshed. “This is terror grooming — teaching the next generation to celebrate murder,” the statement said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also sharply criticized the findings and condemned the PA’s educational system.

The report comes as the United States and other countries debate possible arrangements for the reconstruction and future governance of Gaza. U.S. officials have indicated that continued incitement would conflict with commitments made by the Palestinian Authority to reform its educational system and combat incitement. The findings could therefore complicate efforts to give the PA any supervisory role over education in Gaza.

The issue is particularly sensitive because proponents of a future PA role in Gaza have argued that the authority could provide an alternative to Hamas rule. Critics, however, have repeatedly questioned whether the PA’s institutions,including its education system,  have undergone sufficient ideological reform.

Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, who presented the report to senior U.S. officials, said the findings demonstrate what he described as a systemic problem within the Palestinian education system.

“Ministry of Education officials, principals and teachers are poisoning children’s minds,” Marcus said.“Demanding cosmetic changes to textbooks without replacing the system and its personnel is like treating cancer with aspirin,” he added.

Marcus has long argued that the PA’s educational system promotes hostility toward Israel and glorifies Palestinian terrorists. Palestinian officials have disputed many of PMW’s interpretations of Palestinian educational materials and have previously rejected accusations that their education system systematically incites terrorism.

The findings also drew criticism from Rep. Pat Fallon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “Palestinian Authority schools institutionalize terrorism and hatred of Jews,” Fallon said.“The idea that they are systematically promoting the October 7 massacre to children is the definition of evil, and they must not be allowed any foothold in governing Gaza,” he added.

The controversy places renewed scrutiny on the Palestinian Authority’s educational policies at a time when its potential involvement in postwar Gaza is being debated. For Washington and Jerusalem, the central question is whether the PA can credibly serve as part of a future governing framework while material that glorifies attacks on Israelis continues to appear in schools under its administration.

BODRUM, Turkey (AP) — At least seven people have died after a ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus on Sunday, Turkish media reported.

Some 237 people have been rescued, Northern Cyprus Prime Minister Unal Ustel told Turkish state-run TRT news channel. He said a search was underway for another 24 people.

Ustel said the ferry faced adverse weather conditions and began taking in water just 15 minutes after departure. A call for help was issued shortly after, he said.

The catamaran-style ferry was traveling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus, to the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province.

Kyrenia Mayor Murat Senkul said the ship belonged to the Filo Denizcilik ferry company and sank off the coast of Diana beach on Cyprus’ northern coast.

The ferry started taking in water about 7.5 kilometers (4 nautical miles) off the coast, TRT reported.

Video footage from the scene shows people with life-vests floating in the waters around the capsized vessel.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Former hostage Omer Shem Tov revealed horrifying details of his time in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip in an interview Sunday with Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, describing the extraordinary ways he maintained his connection to Judaism even under the most difficult conditions.

“When I was with Itay Regev in an apartment in Gaza, a terrorist threw us a small bottle of grape juice and told us it was a gift from Mia Regev,” Shem Tov recalled. “We realized that we could use it for Kiddush, and we also had some pretzels. That little bottle stayed with me until about two months before I was released. Every Friday, we would fill the cap with grape juice and make Kiddush.”

One of the most difficult periods of Shem Tov’s captivity was a 50-day stretch during which he was held alone in a tunnel in complete darkness. “I spent 50 days in a tunnel in complete darkness,” he said. “Once a day, I would turn on a small flashlight just to make sure I could still see. Those were the 50 most critical days of my captivity.”

Shem Tov said he was severely malnourished and completely cut off from the outside world. “I was extremely hungry and completely isolated from the world,” he told Kan news. “I wasn’t with any other hostages during that time, and I wasn’t with the terrorists either. The darkness is extremely difficult at first, and slowly you go through a process with yourself. You put your ego aside and accept the situation.”

The cell where he was held was exceptionally small. “On the first day in the darkness, you simply feel like you’re suffocating. You don’t know what to do and you can’t see anything,” he said. “The cell was so small that you couldn’t stand up and you couldn’t stretch your arms out to the sides.”

Shem Tov also said he was forbidden from shouting. As a result, one of the things he wrote down as something he wanted to do after returning home was simply “to scream.”

Shem Tov described a moment that he considers a turning point in his captivity, when he decided to have what he called a “conversation with G-d.” “After some time, I had a conversation with G-d and surrendered to Him,” he said. “I told Him, ‘From now on, do whatever You want with me.’ From that moment on, I had a routine.”

He said he began meditating and using his imagination as a way to cope with the isolation.

“I imagined many things. My imagination developed in an incredible way. I would see things in a very tangible and real way,” he said.

Shem Tov was released at the end of January 2025 as part of a hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. Since his release, he has spoken publicly about his experience, emphasizing messages of resilience, faith and hope.

In recent weeks, he appeared before an American delegation and sang the biblical hymn “Shir Hama’alot” (“A Song of Ascents”) before more than 1,000 Christian religious leaders.

In recent weeks, Israeli security forces have also killed some of the Hamas terrorists who were involved in holding Shem Tov captive.

Over the weekend, the IDF killed Sabaei Zahir Abd al-Hamid Abu Hasna, a Nukhba terrorist who had participated in holding Shem Tov in Gaza and who was accused of forcing him to kiss his head during the degrading ceremony surrounding his release.

According to the IDF, Abu Hasna infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre and participated in holding Shem Tov hostage. More recently, the military said, he had been involved in efforts to advance additional terrorist attacks against IDF forces. He was killed in a targeted strike in the northern Gaza Strip.

For Shem Tov, the killing represents a form of closure after months of captivity, while his account of those months has offered a rare glimpse into the psychological and spiritual struggle endured by hostages held in Gaza.

Dozens of charedi men are expected to arrive at the IDF induction center in Tel Hashomer on Sunday morning as part of a recruitment day for combat tracks in the Israeli military, including the Hasmonean Brigade, Netzah Yehuda and Magen HaNegev.

The recruitment day is taking place against the backdrop of the bitter dispute over charedi military service, as well as a wave of arrests of yeshiva students for continuing to evade military service.

Ahead of the recruitment day, the Badatz of the Eidah Haredis of Jerusalem, the influential rabbinical court associated with the Jerusalem Haredi community, issued a strongly worded letter under the headline “The Young Men Have Been Taken Captive.” The letter called on the charedi public to participate in protests and to work to persuade young men not to enlist.

The rabbinical court said it had received information indicating that a general recruitment day had been scheduled for charedi young men and that many yeshiva students had been summoned for military enlistment.

The Badatz called on kollel students who are able to participate in the demonstrations to “act according to the Torah,” while also urging them to try to convince young men not to enlist.

“Our only strength is through our mouths, to cry out and warn,” the letter stated. It further called on the public to act “in order to persuade young men not to set foot [on this path] and not to throw themselves into a place from which, G-d forbid, none of those who enter will return and they will not attain the ways of a Torah-based life.”

The letter concluded with a call to continue standing “guard over the walls of Judaism.”

לשכת הגיוס תל השומר: יום גיוס לחרדים המיועדים להשתלב במסלולי לחימה בצה”ל. קומץ חרדים מפגין במקום. כוחות של משטרה במקום לשמור על הסדר. pic.twitter.com/fnzPgBKHeL

— חזקי ברוך (@HezkeiB) August 30, 2026

The protest took place near the Tel Hashomer induction complex beginning in the morning. The IDF, meanwhile, is preparing to receive the new recruits and ensure that the induction process proceeds normally.

Alongside the recruits and protesters, several politicians arrived at the site to express support for Haredi enlistment.

הסרטון הזה מרגש אותי.
עומד איש ציבור חרדי, מוטי לייטנר, ואומר, ״נגמרו הימים שבהם פוליטיקאים חרדים מתביישים ופוגעים בצעירים חרדים שלוקחים אחריות״.
על פי סקרים פנימיים, כ-40 אחוז מקרב החרדים מסכימים אתו.

ואם ראש הממשלה היה מחבק את לייטנר, כמו שהוא מחבק את החיילים החרדים, או אז… pic.twitter.com/olvH5HOD9K

— Ariel Kahana אריאל כהנא (@arik3000) August 30, 2026

Among those expected are Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, The Zionist House – Reservists leaders Yoaz Hendel and Motti Leitner, the chairman of the charedi Public Party. Some of the politicians are expected to make statements at the induction center.

VIENNA (VINnews) — Two men walked into Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) as ordinary visitors on Thursday and left minutes later with a historic platinum and diamond necklace worth several million dollars, after smashing its glass display case with a hammer.

The theft took place at around 2 p.m. on August 27 during opening hours at the museum on Stubenring in central Vienna. According to Austrian police, the two suspects had purchased admission tickets and did not wear masks, leaving them clearly visible on the museum’s security cameras. After breaking the display case and taking the necklace, they fled on foot in the direction of Stadtpark. No one was injured.

The stolen piece is an extraordinary Van Cleef & Arpels platinum necklace set with 673 diamonds weighing more than 200 carats. The jewelry house describes the creation as a triumph of “white jewelry.” Austrian media have estimated its value at several million dollars, while reports have linked the piece to a $4.3 million Sotheby’s sale in New York in 2015.

The necklace has a remarkable royal provenance. It was created for Egypt’s former royal family and was worn by Queen Nazli of Egypt in 1939 at the wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iran’s Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who would later become the Shah of Iran.

The jewelry was part of an elaborate collection associated with Egypt’s royal court before eventually resurfacing on the international art market. Queen Nazli, the wife of King Fuad I and mother of King Farouk, later left Egypt and eventually settled in the United States. Financial difficulties reportedly contributed to the dispersal and sale of her jewelry collection.

The necklace’s history makes it significantly more than an exceptionally valuable piece of jewelry: it is also a surviving artifact of the Egyptian and Iranian royal worlds of the pre-World War II era.

The necklace was one of the highlights of “Glanzstücke: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection,” a major exhibition that opened on June 10 and had been scheduled to run through September 27.

The exhibition brought together approximately 500 objects, including more than 300 creations from the Van Cleef & Arpels collection and more than 200 works from the MAK collection. The museum says the exhibition was intended to explore the relationship between the French jewelry house’s craftsmanship and major works from the museum’s own collection.

Following the theft, the affected exhibition area was temporarily closed while investigators examined the scene. The rest of the museum subsequently resumed normal operations, although the security breach has raised questions about how the thieves were able to reach such a valuable piece during public opening hours.

Vienna police have launched an extensive investigation and released photographs of the two suspects. Authorities describe both men as approximately 170–175 centimeters tall, slim, with dark hair and dark beards. At the time of the theft, they were wearing black outer clothing and dark sneakers with white soles.

Investigators have been examining surveillance footage and other forensic evidence. Police also deployed tracking dogs immediately after the robbery. Austrian authorities have said the search is being conducted both nationally and internationally.

In a further development, police said one of the suspects is believed to have been carrying what appeared to be a real firearm. The pair nevertheless fled on foot toward Stadtpark, and the initial search failed to locate them.

The stolen necklace has also been entered into INTERPOL’s Stolen Works of Art database, alerting authorities and the international art and antiques market to the theft.

The Vienna robbery comes amid a striking series of high-profile museum and cultural-property thefts across Europe.

In Paris, thieves broke into the Louvre in broad daylight last year and escaped in less than eight minutes with jewelry estimated at approximately $102 million. Several suspects have since been arrested, although most of the stolen jewelry has not been recovered.

In Spain, thieves recently raided the Treasure of Villena, one of the country’s most important Bronze Age gold collections, taking numerous gold objects. In Italy, four works by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were reported stolen from a museum in Sicily, while police have also recovered paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth more than $10 million that had been stolen from a museum near Parma.

The Vienna theft is therefore being viewed not simply as another jewelry robbery, but as part of a broader and increasingly concerning pattern of sophisticated attacks on European museums and cultural institutions.

For investigators, the fact that the Vienna thieves entered legally, paid for admission, operated in the middle of the day and apparently left their faces visible on surveillance footage could prove crucial in identifying them — and potentially recovering one of the most historically significant pieces of jewelry currently missing from a European museum.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is facing new pushback from Jewish communal figures after challenging Trump administration investigations into campus antisemitism and campaigning this week with Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

Raskin, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a Jewish lawmaker who represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, has long been viewed by many constituents as an ally against antisemitism. His district includes one of the largest Jewish populations in the state.

That standing has come under strain after Raskin cited whistleblower reports and described federal probes of Harvard, Brown and Columbia universities as fabricated and predetermined. He has called the investigations a “sham” and announced plans to examine alleged Justice Department misconduct, including possible changes to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, CEO of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition and a synagogue leader in Raskin’s district, called Raskin’s letter on the investigations “disappointing,” pointing to intimidation faced by Jewish students on campus.

Raskin said in a statement that antisemitism on campus is real and that universities must prevent and address harassment and discrimination under federal law. He argued that unjustified government penalties do not help Jewish students and said investigators used disproven claims while ignoring Jewish students, faculty and rabbis who praised some university responses.

The controversy widened after Raskin campaigned Wednesday with El-Sayed, whose record on Israel and ties to streamer Hasan Piker have drawn sharp criticism from much of Michigan’s Jewish community. Other leading Democrats have condemned Piker this week. Raskin did not address a question about Piker.

Raskin has previously backed measures restricting certain U.S. aid to Israel, a stance that has already drawn backlash from some prominent Jewish community figures even as he has spoken out against antisemitism.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli singer and songwriter Ishay Ribo says he has turned down more than NIS 1 million ($280,000) in potential earnings after consulting a rabbi about whether to participate in a major concert series featuring both male and female performers.

In a wide-ranging interview published by Ynet, Ribo explained that he was offered a place in the 2025 NEXT Hanukkah tour, one of Israel’s major entertainment productions, featuring leading singers, dancers and a large-scale production aimed at a broad and predominantly young audience.

The production made several accommodations to Ribo’s religious lifestyle, and he said there were many reasons to accept the offer: publicity, exposure, financial rewards and the opportunity to reach a large new audience. Nevertheless, Ribo ultimately decided to consult his rabbi. The rabbi advised him not to participate.

Ribo said the decision was not an obvious one for him. “There were a lot of advantages: publicity, success, recognition, exposure and a budget,” he said. “It also flattered me. On the other hand, I felt that it was crossing a line that I had not crossed until then.”

Why did he turn down the million-shekel offer? Ribo clarified that the issue was not simply that women were present at the event. He acknowledged that he had previously performed on stages where women also appeared.

The problem was the format of the NEXT production: it involved a large ensemble of male and female singers and dancers. Ribo said that he does not sing with female singers and questioned whether he would personally feel comfortable appearing as part of such a production. He also said that he did not want the production to have to fundamentally change its character simply because he was participating.

But his rabbi raised another consideration — Ribo’s responsibility to his religious audience. Ribo explained that many of his fans are from the religious and Haredi communities, where there are stricter standards regarding exposure to women singing and certain forms of entertainment. His rabbi told him that by appearing in such a production, Ribo could inadvertently give his followers the impression that they, too, could legitimately attend or watch entertainment that they would normally avoid.

“He showed me that I also have a responsibility in this,” Ribo said, explaining that the conversation helped him reach a decision he felt completely at peace with.

According to estimates cited by Ynet, giving up the performances meant walking away from more than NIS 1 million, in addition to the considerable publicity and exposure that would have accompanied the shows.

Ribo revealed that he has also declined opportunities to serve as a judge on Israeli reality music programs.

The reason, he said, was his unwillingness to sit in judgment of female singers. His religious standards regarding women’s singing meant that the role would not be compatible with his principles.

The decisions illustrate the unusual position Ribo occupies in Israeli popular culture. He has become one of the country’s most successful mainstream performers while continuing to maintain religious boundaries that affect the venues he performs at, the artists with whom he collaborates and the projects he is willing to accept.

Ribo has made another unusual decision involving his public career: in February 2026, he announced that he was stepping away from social media for 40 days, despite having hundreds of thousands of followers.

The announcement accompanied the release of his song “HaNeshama Lo META” (“The Soul Is Not Meta”), a play on the name of the company behind Facebook and Instagram. Ribo wrote that he had been struggling for a long time with the world of social media and had found himself exposed to material he did not want to see.

He specifically mentioned unwanted news, images, lashon hara and discussions about other people. He described social media as a mechanism that can draw people in and make it difficult to control what enters one’s consciousness.

Israel Hayom reported that Ribo made the announcement to hundreds of thousands of followers, making the decision particularly striking for an artist whose career depends heavily on public exposure.

Ribo did not simply disappear from public life. Rather, he announced a deliberate 40-day hiatus from the platforms while continuing his musical career and performances.

The move also had an earlier precedent. Ribo had previously discussed his complicated relationship with social media and the tension between its usefulness as a promotional tool and the religious concerns surrounding the content that appears on such platforms.

Ribo has built an unusual career at the intersection of Israel’s religious and secular worlds. Born in Marseille, France, he immigrated to Israel as a child and eventually developed into one of the country’s most prominent religious singer-songwriters. His music incorporates Jewish religious texts and themes of faith, prayer and spirituality while being produced in a contemporary Israeli pop style.

His popularity extends far beyond the religious community. He has collaborated with major mainstream Israeli artists and performed for large audiences in Israel and abroad.

In 2023, he became the first Israeli artist to headline a concert at Madison Square Garden, performing before a capacity audience at the iconic New York venue. The event was notable not only for its scale but also because Ribo maintained his Orthodox identity at the center of his public image.

His ability to cross the religious-secular divide has become one of the defining features of his career. Academic and cultural writing about Ribo has similarly noted that he has maintained a substantial audience in both religious and secular communities while preserving boundaries such as not performing with female singers.

In the Ynet interview, Ribo presented his decisions not primarily as sacrifices but as part of his understanding of his religious life and career.

The NIS 1 million offer could have brought him money, exposure and access to a younger mainstream audience. Instead, he chose to follow his rabbi’s advice. His decision to step away from social media similarly came at a cost: those platforms provide artists with direct access to hundreds of thousands of potential listeners and concertgoers.

For Ribo, however, the calculation is different. His career has demonstrated that he can become a mainstream Israeli star without abandoning the religious principles that govern his personal life. The latest decisions suggest that, even as his audience and commercial opportunities continue to grow, he remains unwilling to treat those principles as negotiable.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — After a marriage to a resident of a village near Hebron that was marked by severe abuse, Michal managed to break free from the relationship and rebuild her life. This week, after strengthening her Jewish faith with the help of the Yad L’Achim organization, she married a combat veteran suffering from PTSD following his service in Gaza, in an emotional wedding held according to Jewish law.

The wedding was attended by Michal’s family, who stood by her throughout her difficult journey, as well as her three children, who also returned to Judaism, along with other relatives and guests.

Michal, a pseudonym, was just 17 when her story began. Young and insecure, she met an older man from the Hebron area at her workplace. Over time, he showered her with compliments and encouragement, focusing on the very vulnerabilities that made her susceptible to his attention. Their relationship quickly intensified.

He eventually persuaded her to convert to Islam. She left her family home and abandoned her plans to enlist in the IDF, convinced that she had found the right path for herself.

The relationship ultimately led to marriage, and the couple had two children. But almost immediately after the wedding, the reality she faced changed dramatically. The courtship and affection were replaced by control, restrictions and violence.

According to Michal, the abuse she experienced was physical, psychological, verbal and financial. On one occasion, when she attempted to leave, she said her husband threatened her in graphic detail, describing how he would kill her and dispose of her body. The threats left her feeling that escape was impossible. In another incident, Michal said that when their son was only a few weeks old, her husband assaulted the infant and slammed him onto the floor. She described the incident as another devastating breaking point.

Over the years, Michal repeatedly tried to escape the life she had found herself trapped in. But fear and threats repeatedly drove her back. She also said that her husband attempted to further draw her into Islam, including by reading verses from the Quran to her.

Throughout the years, Michal was assisted by Yad L’Achim, which helped her and her children through the difficult process of breaking away from the relationship.

In an interview she gave previously, Michal said the organization’s representatives continued to support her even after she returned to the relationship she had been trying to escape. She said they did not judge her for returning. According to Michal, the organization helped provide housing, financial assistance and emotional support. Her children have also continued to receive guidance and mentoring.

“My relationship with Yad L’Achim, I credit them for the place where I am today,” Michal said. “Without Yad L’Achim, I’m not sure I would have managed to do it.”

Escaping the abusive relationship, however, was not the end of Michal’s journey. It was the beginning of a completely new chapter. After finally breaking free, Michal deepened her religious commitment and reconnected with Judaism and a life centered on faith and observance. She wanted to create a different future for herself and her children, one built around the Jewish values she had chosen to embrace.

It was during this new chapter that she met a man who had been traumatized by his military service in Gaza. Their relationship developed gradually, and Michal decided that this time she wanted to build a relationship based on faith, commitment and the dream of establishing a Jewish home. After everything she had endured, she worked toward reaching the chuppah under Jewish law, determined to begin again. This week, that moment finally arrived.

The couple were married in an emotional Jewish wedding surrounded by family and friends. For Michal, the ceremony represented the culmination of an extraordinary journey, from a vulnerable teenager drawn into a relationship that led her to convert to Islam and eventually subjected her to years of fear and abuse, through repeated attempts to escape, and finally to a renewed choice of freedom, Judaism and a life of faith.

For those who supported her along the way, the wedding was more than a celebration. It was a visible symbol that the story of a person who has endured years of fear and hardship does not have to end there.

Yad L’Achim says Michal’s story demonstrates that even after years in circumstances that may appear impossible to escape, it is possible to rebuild one’s life and begin a new chapter.

The organization continues to assist women involved in relationships with Muslim men and provide support to them and their children. In many cases, the organization says, leaving such relationships is a lengthy and complicated process requiring sustained practical, financial and emotional support.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Israel Defense Forces said it struck and eliminated two Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, including a company commander in the group’s elite Nukhba force and a sniper in its military wing.

The IDF identified the men as Hani Abd al-Hai Fakhri Mazloum, a Nukhba company commander, and Hassan Zidan Hassan Deiri, a sniper. Both were also involved in trafficking and supplying weapons to Hamas terrorists, the military said.

The IDF said the two had continued advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and working to rebuild Hamas capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire. The strikes were carried out to remove the immediate threat they posed.

Before the operation, the military said it took steps to reduce harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

IDF troops under Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to act against any immediate threat, the statement said.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the identifications.

HELSINKI (VINnews) — Finland has quietly extended its defense-industry cooperation agreement with Israel through 2034 and will stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees when its current contract expires later this year, Finnish officials and local media reported.

Finnish public broadcaster Yle first reported that Helsinki and Jerusalem signed a 10-year memorandum covering joint research, development and military procurement. The pact replaces earlier five-year arrangements that dated to 2013. Finland proposed the longer extension in early 2024 as the previous memorandum neared expiration. The Defense Ministry did not publicly announce the signing.

A central focus of the relationship is Israel’s David’s Sling air-defense system. Finland became the system’s first foreign customer when the government of then-Prime Minister Sanna Marin approved a purchase of more than 300 million euros in 2023, shortly before the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ensuing war in Gaza. Finnish officials have said the system is expected to enter service next year.

Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen told Yle the memorandum is not a dramatic shift in policy and mainly supports existing air-defense and procurement work. Finland has similar cooperation documents with about 40 countries, he said, and Israel has long been among them. Israeli officials have said about 23 defense projects involving the Finnish military and Israeli industry are underway.

In a separate decision announced Thursday, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio said Finland will not renew its four-year UNRWA funding agreement after it expires in 2026. The deal, signed in 2023 under the previous government, committed Helsinki to 5 million euros a year, or 20 million euros over four years.

Tavio said overall aid to Arabs in Judea and Samaria and Gaza will not be reduced. The money will instead be routed through other organizations, including the World Food Programme. Finland was among more than a dozen countries that temporarily froze UNRWA contributions in 2024 after Israel presented evidence that agency staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks. Helsinki later resumed payments to fulfill the existing contract.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the UNRWA decision, saying more countries were recognizing “the conclusive evidence of UNRWA employees’ involvement in the October 7 massacre and UNRWA’s inseparable links to Hamas.”

The two moves come as Finland, a NATO member since 2023, continues large purchases from Israeli defense firms, including Spike anti-tank missiles and Gabriel anti-ship missiles, even as left-wing parties at home have pressed to curtail military ties with Israel.

LANSING, MICHIGAN (VINnews) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the state’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, skipped her party’s nominating convention Saturday, saying she feared being harassed by pro-Palestinian activists after anti-Israel disruptions at an earlier Democratic gathering.

Nessel, a Democrat and the first Jewish person elected to statewide executive office in Michigan, said last month that she would not attend the Aug. 29 convention at the Lansing Center because she did not feel safe or welcome.

“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome,” Nessel said at a roundtable with Jewish leaders. “I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”

Her absence came after pro-Israel speakers, including U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., were shouted down by anti-Israel activists at the Michigan Democratic Party’s April convention. Stevens later lost the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination to Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former local health official who has sharply criticized Israel.

El-Sayed has described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “genocide,” called Israeli actions “bloodthirsty,” and repeatedly declined to say directly whether Israel has a right to exist. After winning the nomination, he said he stands “in solidarity with my Jewish sisters and brothers” and that his “commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids.”

The Michigan Democratic Party said it rejects antisemitism and took steps to tighten security and enforce a code of conduct at Saturday’s convention.

“We reject antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hateful conduct,” party spokesman Derrick Honeyman said in a statement. “We are working diligently with stakeholders, elected officials, and party membership to prepare for our August convention and look forward to welcoming Michigan Democrats to the Lansing Center.”

Party leaders, including El-Sayed and gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, signed a message warning that “disruptive behavior or harassment of any kind will not be tolerated” and that violators would face “zero tolerance and immediate ejection.”

Jewish Democrats in Michigan said the dispute runs deeper than one weekend event.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin said many in the community remain shaken by the April convention. “People are traumatized from the previous convention,” he said. “Many people I talked to, many super progressive people, are really traumatized by the way they were treated, and the way Haley Stevens was booed.”

Lopatin, who recently appeared with Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, added: “It just shows how terrible these extremists are that they’re intimidating even the attorney general of our state. The Jewish community cannot cower.”

Stacy Gittleman, a longtime Democrat who attended the April meeting, told Fox News Digital she saw more Palestinian flags than American flags on the convention floor and described jeering and a breakdown in decorum.

Some Jewish leaders have been circulating an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents to support Rogers over El-Sayed. A person involved in the effort called it a “do-or-die moment,” saying many lifelong Democrats feel “homeless” in the party.

“It’s not just a leftward drift but has turned into an anti-Jewish drift as well,” the person said.

Joan Lowenstein, endorsement chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, said she had not heard from people who feared for their physical safety at the August convention, though some expected the atmosphere to be unpleasant. She said Jewish Democrats appear split over whether they can support El-Sayed.

Rogers said Jewish voters have described campus and community intimidation. “I’ve talked to two young women who were at University of Michigan who were afraid to walk to class. They couldn’t display their Star of David,” he said. “To say that they’re afraid is probably an understatement.”

Nessel, who is term-limited, has said she still agrees with El-Sayed on many domestic issues and would not vote for Rogers. She has also accused the party of failing to confront antisemitism, saying some members charged in connection with antisemitic vandalism, harassment or threats have remained welcome at party events.

Michigan’s Senate race is among a handful expected to decide control of the U.S. Senate. The state is home to more than 100,000 Jews, a majority of whom have historically voted Democratic.

TORONTO (AP) — Ontario Premier Doug Ford answered President Donald Trump’s “Lake America” decree Saturday with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shoreline — “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” — as Canadian leaders met the move with ridicule rather than outrage.

Wearing a Team Canada soccer jersey, Ford unveiled the sign near Grimsby, Ontario, and posed for photographs. The 24-by-12-foot (7.3-by-3.6 meter) sign stands on 6-foot (1.8-meter) legs, putting its top about 18 feet (5.5 meters) above the ground — roughly two stories high. The message is repeated in French, one

The display followed Trump’s executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.” After months of tariffs, threats to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and personal attacks on its leaders, the reaction in Canada has mixed defiance with mockery.

Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves” and argued the name would outlast the president.

“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.

Canadians mock Trump
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew compared Trump to an aging rock band trying to revive an old hit

“You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago. I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now, Like he thought they had a real hit, a real golden oldie, with the Gulf of Mexico,” Kinew said, referring to Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “And he’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base. But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad and it’s not his best work.”

The mockery was not limited to politicians. Canadian historian Robert Bothwell was even more scathing.

“The greatest country on earth takes this moron seriously?” Bothwell said.

But Bothwell said the dispute was more serious than the jokes, arguing Trump’s broader aim was “to subordinate Canada and at best make it a colony, at worst absorb it into the United States.”

Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said Trump “would like Canada to act like a vassal state, but it refuses to do so. That irritates him.”

Canada and the US trade barbs over collapsed talks
The dispute comes as relations between the longtime allies worsen over trade. Negotiations collapsed last week, both governments accused the other of making late demands, and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs set to take effect next month.

Trump’s order also came amid an escalating war of words with Ford. In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Ford said Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over Trump’s tariff policies and “disgusted with President Trump.”

Trump fired back by dismissing Ford’s comments as “bluster,” calling him Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “flunky” and mocking him as the “less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother” of the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Trump continued promoting the new name Saturday, reposting a meme showing Canada geese with Trump-like blond hair firing rifles as they “protected” Lake America.

Trump has repeatedly used maps to make political points. A “Gulf of America” map was displayed for a time beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, and Trump has posted images depicting Canada as part of the United States or as the 51st state.

Ontario name has Indigenous origins
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.” The Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.

Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard, whose people historically lived from the St. Lawrence Valley to the Great Lakes and whose language gave Lake Ontario its name, called Trump’s move an attempt to erase Indigenous history.

“I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the move, noting the lake’s Indigenous roots and that the name predates both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Trump cannot require Canada to adopt the new name.

(AP) – British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was deported to the United Kingdom after his arrest by American immigration authorities, U.S. officials said Saturday.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos was returned to his home country Friday after being accused of overstaying after entering the U.S. legally in May 2019. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal July 22 after he failed to show up for an immigration hearing, a Homeland Security spokesperson said.

Yiannopoulos was arrested Thursday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.

Yiannopoulos and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment, and he has not posted on the social platform X since Thursday.

Yiannopoulos backed President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown
Yiannopoulos is a well-known champion of conservative causes and has frequently taken provocative public positions criticizing feminism, Islam and immigrants. He has been especially supportive of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement policy, aimed at people in the country illegally.

“Zero immigration for the next 20 years. No ifs, no buts,” Yiannopoulos said on X last year.

The British national has most recently worked for the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who performed in New Orleans on Friday evening.

Yiannopoulos rose to fame in the early 2010s as an incendiary writer for the conservative website Breitbart News. He resigned in 2017 after a video of him endorsing pedophilia resurfaced online. He later apologized for the remarks and said he himself was a victim of sexual assault as a minor.

Yiannopoulos’ arrest and deportation come amid a nationwide uptick in detentions as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In social media posts, the Department of Homeland Security touted Yiannopoulos’ arrest and posted a booking photo of him. It added that it encourages people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily, saying the U.S. offers “$3,000 and a free flight to self-deport.”

“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return,” the department said.

The department did not respond Saturday to questions seeking more details about Yiannopoulos’ legal entry into the U.S. in 2019, including whether he was granted a visa.

Controversy has swirled around the provocateur for years
Far-right conservative activist Laura Loomer swiftly took to social media to applaud Yiannopoulos’ arrest after years of public feuding between the two personalities.

“I was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene,” Loomer said on X.

Controversy around Yiannopoulos ballooned in 2017 when he carried out what he called his “Troll Academy Tour” across college campuses nationwide. Fights broke out when some students protested his appearances and accused him of hate speech, while others celebrated him as a champion of free speech. Around that time Buzzfeed reported on Yiannopoulos’ cozy relationships with self-proclaimed white nationalists.

In recent years Yiannopoulos continued to work in the orbit of conservative activism. In 2022 he was an intern for former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to the Washington Post. He subsequently ran the short-lived 2024 presidential campaign for Ye.

Most recently, Yiannopoulos has worked as a spokesperson for Ye, who has been beset by controversy of his own following antisemitic comments that the rapper has since apologized for.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — New details are emerging about the mysterious disappearance of Mali Yahalomi and her 23-year-old daughter, Liel, who were found safe in Argentina after disappearing during a trip to Europe.

The two women were located Aug. 14 aboard a long-distance bus in Argentina, about a week after their family lost contact with them in Vienna. Israeli and international authorities had launched a major search spanning several countries.

Police said the women had left voluntarily and that there was no indication they had been kidnapped or were victims of a crime. They were questioned after being located and released.

Now, new reporting is offering a possible explanation for why the mother and daughter apparently decided to abandon their lives in Israel without telling their family.

According to a Channel 12 report cited by Israel National News, Mali had accumulated more than 200,000 shekels in debt over an extended period. Despite efforts to improve her financial situation, including completing a master’s degree and receiving a promotion at work, the debts reportedly continued to grow.
The report said the financial pressure may have been one of the main factors behind the decision to leave Israel.

But the financial explanation remains disputed. Earlier in the investigation, an Israel Police spokesman said authorities did not yet know why the women disappeared and said that, based on information available at the time, only small financial debts had been identified.

The apparent secrecy of the departure has added to the mystery.

Just days before disappearing, Mali attended a surprise party for her 50th birthday. Family members and close friends reportedly noticed nothing unusual and had no idea that she and Liel were preparing to leave Israel.

Their rented apartment in Modi’in was also left largely intact. Furniture and personal belongings remained inside, with no indication to relatives that the women were preparing for a permanent move.

Mali’s son, a married yeshiva student living in Israel with his young son, was reportedly unaware of the plan. He later helped relatives by providing passwords to a computer and iPad that had been left behind.

The women had initially traveled to Europe as part of what the family understood to be a birthday trip. They went to Prague and then Vienna, where they remained in contact with relatives and shared updates about their travels.

That changed abruptly.

The family eventually realized that the two had stopped communicating and had failed to follow through on plans. Their disappearance triggered an international investigation involving Israeli police, Austrian authorities and international law enforcement.

Police later determined that the women had continued traveling rather than remaining in Vienna. Investigators traced their movements through Europe and eventually to South America.

Authorities have also said the disappearance appeared to have been deliberately planned.

Reports said the women purchased new phones and took steps to make themselves harder to trace. Police reportedly issued a gag order during the investigation in part because they feared that publicizing what investigators knew could cause the women to change their route and make themselves even more difficult to locate.

At one point, investigators reportedly discovered communications indicating that the departure had been planned in advance, although details about the extent of that planning have varied among reports.

When Israeli and Argentine authorities finally located the women, they were traveling on a bus. An Israeli police representative approached them and confirmed that they were safe.

Liel later called family members who had gathered at her grandmother’s home. During the emotional late-night call, made with the assistance of a local police representative, she could be heard crying and told relatives that she and her mother were safe and had left voluntarily. She reportedly apologized for the worry caused by their disappearance and promised to provide further updates.

The family had initially feared the worst.

During the search, speculation ranged from kidnapping and terrorism to other criminal explanations. At one point, rumors surrounding Mali’s employment at the Bank of Jerusalem even caused the bank’s stock to fluctuate sharply, although those claims were not substantiated.

The family’s concern was heightened because Mali and Liel had apparently cut off communication while traveling abroad and had not told relatives where they were going.

After they were found, however, authorities said there was no evidence of a crime.

Another detail that surprised relatives was Mali’s appearance after the women were located. Family members reportedly noticed that she was no longer wearing a head covering, a striking change for someone who had become religious about 20 years earlier. Some relatives viewed the change as another indication that the mother and daughter were attempting to leave their previous lives behind and begin again.

The family has since been left to deal with the practical consequences of the sudden departure, including the apartment, leased vehicles and a dog left behind in Israel. Relatives have also been helping care for Mali’s son and grandson.

Despite the new information, the central question remains unanswered: Why did Mali and Liel decide to disappear?

Financial problems may have played a role, according to the latest report, but police have not publicly confirmed that debt was the reason. Other reports have described the disappearance as a carefully planned attempt to start a new life, while police have said they still do not know the precise motive.

What is clear is that the women appear to have deliberately severed contact with their previous lives, traveled thousands of miles and avoided telling even close family members where they were going.

For now, Israeli police continue to characterize the case as a voluntary disappearance rather than a kidnapping or other criminal incident.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday broke his silence over a wave of extremist settler attacks in the West Bank, condemning the violence but portraying those responsible as only a “handful of rioters” rather than addressing broader criticism of his government’s handling of settler violence.

Netanyahu spoke after dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Qusra, throwing stones and taking over a Palestinian home while residents were inside. Israeli forces were sent to the scene, but no arrests of settlers were reported by late Saturday.

Netanyahu said the rioters were “causing a huge injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hindering the IDF in fulfilling its missions, and harming Israel’s standing in the world.” He said security forces acted quickly, seized three vehicles and brought the incident to an end.

But Netanyahu did not explain why no settlers had been arrested at the scene. Haaretz reported that the three vehicles seized by security forces were not the vehicles used by the attackers.

The episode has placed renewed attention on Netanyahu’s government and its response to settler violence. Activists say attacks by Israelis who have established unauthorized outposts have increased sharply, while critics accuse the government of providing funding and protection to some of those communities.

Palestinian residents also accused Israeli forces of failing to protect them. Saddam Oday, who was trapped inside the home, said soldiers fired tear gas into the building, detained residents and allowed the settlers to leave. Luay Bayruti, the owner of the home, said soldiers handcuffed, blindfolded and beat people inside before releasing them. The military did not immediately respond to questions about those allegations.
Israeli police said they were investigating the attack and searching for those involved. The police statement said forces were working to bring the perpetrators to justice but did not explain why no arrests had been made at the scene.

The violence continued elsewhere in the West Bank on Saturday. In Jalud, masked Israeli settlers allegedly attacked a Palestinian woman and an NBC News crew, throwing rocks and striking people with sticks. No arrests were reported.

Netanyahu has previously sought to characterize violent settlers as a relatively small group. But the attacks have continued to draw criticism as prosecutions remain rare. Israel’s top West Bank military commander reportedly warned this week that escalating settler violence could trigger a broader Palestinian uprising.

MICHIGAN (AP) – Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, apologized to the state’s Jewish Democratic Caucus on Saturday for comments he made after an attack on a synagogue in March, which he tied to Israel’s actions in the Middle East.

“My comments may have been misconstrued to justify something I did not mean to justify,” El-Sayed told reporters after he addressed the caucus at a party convention in Lansing. “To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.”

El-Sayed’s apology was his latest attempt to unify Democrats after a bitter primary where he defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. He’s eager to push past a series of controversies involving allegations of antisemitism, including his association with controversial commentator Hasan Piker. He faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a race that will help determine control of the Senate.

In March, a man attacked Temple Israel synagogue in a Detroit suburb, ramming his car into the building and opening fire on a security guard before dying by suicide. The man, Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, had lost four relatives in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week prior.

In a video response at the time, El-Sayed condemned the attack and added that “hurt people hurt people,” a reference to what happened to Ghazali’s family. Critics accused El-Sayed of justifying Ghazali’s actions.

“What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context,” El-Sayed said on Saturday, “and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”

MYLA, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone struck a warehouse west of Kyiv that Ukrainian officials say was storing shells, mines and other ammunition, sparking massive explosions and fires that swept through dozens of nearby homes and buildings and killing 37 people.

The Friday night attack on the warehouse in Myla, a village in the Bucha district, was the war’s deadliest attack this year and came on the second of three days of nearly round-the-clock Russian strikes that have severely disrupted life in and around the Ukrainian capital.

Attacks on the capital and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Ukraine have been nearly constant since Thursday. Kyiv officials say Russia builds up missile stocks and launches major attacks every few days, hoping to exhaust Ukrainian defenses through the sheer weight of numbers.

The warehouse strike sparked fires that raced through homes and damaged at least 50 residential buildings, said Tymur Tkachenko, who heads the local regional military administration. He was later cited by local media as saying 34 of the people killed were residents of a care home for elderly and disabled people. More than 370 people were evacuated.

The blasts rocked Myla, causing people to frantically seek cover.

“At about 8 p.m., the drone hit a warehouse somewhere and then the detonation began,” Oleksandr Vodolaz, a village resident, told The Associated Press. “No one knew that weapons were stored there.”

Another local, Zhanna Kravchuk, said she had so many questions about what happened.

“Why are weapons like this … in warehouses and not on the front lines where they would help?” she said.

As crews raced to get people to safety and extinguish blazes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a “terrible situation” and said it appeared to be the result of “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”

He noted that Ukrainian law forbids the storage of ammunition close to people’s homes and said criminal proceedings had been opened.

“Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions,” the president said.

Kyiv investigates warehouse targeted in attack
In a social media post Saturday, Zelenskyy shed more light on the situation.

“The first strike was on an ammunition storage site that definitely shouldn’t have been there – a Defense Forces storage facility. Shells, mines, other ammunition, and drones detonated.”

Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi didn’t specify what was in the warehouse, but he referenced a July attack on the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve that struck an ammunition depot, killing 22 people and triggering detonations and fires that tore through nearby homes.

“Unfortunately, we can already see that the terrible tragedy in Vyshneve did not become a lesson,” Koretskyi said. “In the fifth year of a full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes is criminal negligence. And all those guilty, without exception, must be severely punished so that such situations do not happen again.”

The 37 killed surpassed the 31 who died in a July 2 strike on Kyiv, which had been the war’s deadliest attack of 2026.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit a warehouse in Myla that was storing components and launch boosters for long-range drones. It also said it attacked the ports of Mykolaiv and Izmail, and a logistics center and warehouse facilities storing parts for Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles in the Kyiv region.

Russian jet-powered drones pose a problem for Kyiv
Russian strikes damaged homes and apartment blocks in the southern Kherson region on Saturday, killing two people and wounding 27 more, including a child, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the region administration, said in a statement.

Prokudin said earlier in the week that Russia had intensified its attacks on critical infrastructure in the region, which is about 70% under Russian control. He also urged tens of thousands of residents to move to safer regions because of the possibility of prolonged power and heating outages this winter.

Although officials haven’t said whether they were used in the warehouse attack, Russia has significantly increased its use of jet-powered drones, and their numbers will keep growing as Moscow sees their effectiveness, Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told reporters Friday.

“Means of attack always outpace means of defense. We will certainly need to adapt. It will take time,” Palisa said. He said interceptor drones currently available to Ukraine, which could theoretically intercept jet-powered drones, have not yet demonstrated the expected effectiveness, though Ukraine is working on solutions.

Ukraine vows to increase long-range strikes
Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months. The attacks, which use domestically made drones, are meant to cut into a source of Moscow’s war funding and make Russians feel the consequences.

In his evening statement to the nation Friday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv hoped to increase its long-range strikes to reach 1000 drone launches every day.

“Right now, we average over 300 of our long-range sanctions,” Zelenskyy said, his preferred term for Kyiv’s long-range attacks that have also lately targeted Russian large-scale online retailers. “There must be more. We have a very specific goal, and we will achieve it.”

Moscow’s forces destroyed 313 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday.

Ukrainian drone attacks wounded 11 people in Russia’s Rostov region, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said. Writing on social media, he said that nine people were hospitalized, including four children.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Besides a social media post from President Donald Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela.

Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil industry. She said Saturday that the oil reserves would “cease to be an inert, cold statistic and will instead become concrete solutions. Housing is one of them.”

She spoke while touring reconstruction efforts following the deadly twin earthquakes that hit in late June, noting that thousands of families were left homeless.

“What we are doing is for the development of the country, but above all, to serve the Venezuelan people, to provide them with more jobs, better wages, and access to public services such as water, electricity, hospitals, schools and adequate food,” she said.

But the answers to many questions, including how soon the reserves could be drilled and who will pay to make it happen, were not immediately clear. No text of any agreement has been released.

A look at what is known and unknown:

What are the terms?
The U.S. government and an unnamed private operator in Venezuela formed a new company that was given the rights to untapped oil fields for 100 years.

A statement from Rodríguez said the deal involves the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil industry and yield over $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.

Trump said the agreement was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Rodríguez.

The deal gives the United States 55% effective output of the new private company, including an ownership stake and rights to buy oil at cost. American purchases of the oil will go toward the U.S. strategic oil reserves along with the military, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The company would be the second largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco, according to the official.

Will gas prices go down?
Probably not any time soon.

Trump says the deal will help lower gas prices for Americans. That is an important objective for the Republican president as the Iran war slows the shipping of Persian Gulf oil and keeps prices elevated months before November elections in the United States.

But experts have repeatedly warned that Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure will take years and billions of dollars to repair. A substantial boost in production is not expected to happen quickly.

The deal could be “helpful in the long run, but it’s not going to do anything to change the price of gasoline at the retail station for Labor Day weekend,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University.

Neither side made clear who would pay for infrastructure investments and at what cost.

The average price of gas in the U.S. stood at about $4.08 a gallon on Saturday, according to AAA. The average price was $3.20 at the same time last year.

Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, said the oil industry is awaiting clarity on the deal’s details. Venezuela has room to increase its oil production, he said — in the past it produced more than 2.5 million barrels a day above current levels — but investments of this scale don’t happen quickly.

“It’s going to take time — many years — to deploy that much capital and produce the kind of incremental results that history suggests possible,” Book said.

How will Venezuelans react?
Some in Venezuela considered it a betrayal of what their government has stated repeatedly for decades: Venezuelan resources are for Venezuela, and leaders would not allow the U.S. government access to those resources.

At a market in eastern Caracas on Saturday, Douglas Borjas said he was upset about the announcement.

“I think they’re doing it to cling to power,” he said of Venezuela’s leaders. “It’s like, ‘I’m giving you a vast amount of petroleum as long as you leave me alone here in power.’”

He added: “The Venezuelan people deserve better. Venezuela has resources that can be exploited, but for the benefit of the people, not for the benefit of the corrupt elite.”

Harvard University professor Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan planning minister, called it a “shameful deal.”

“Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not last,” Hausmann said on social media, adding that Rodríguez “has no legitimacy or constitutional power to commit Venezuela to any such deal.”

What’s the reaction on Capitol Hill?
It is unclear whether Congress will play a role in the arrangement, but lawmakers from both parties were quick to weigh in.

Trump allies called it a win.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said it was a historic deal that helps both countries. “If it were up to DC Democrats, Maduro would still be in power, Venezuelan oil would be going to China at half price, and the people of Venezuela would be getting robbed by a corrupt regime,” Moreno wrote on social media.

It was condemned by Democrats who said Maduro’s capture was a means to this end.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Trump was always after Venezuela’s oil, branding it “corruption at epic scale.”

“Will prices come down for Americans? Who knows but likely not as much as Trump has forced them up thru his idiotic Iran War,” Kaine said on social media.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump “put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies.”

What questions remain?
Many important details remain unclear, including who will cover necessary investments, the identity of the private operator and how America’s stake in the company breaks down.

The U.S. will get 55% of the company’s effective output, but it was not clear what portion of that comes from an ownership stake and how much comes from the right to buy oil at cost.

It also is unclear how the industry will react. Persuading big American oil companies to return to the region could prove a challenge given the political uncertainty and damaged infrastructure.

Chevron, the only U.S. oil company actively producing in Venezuela, declined to comment. Separately from Trump’s announcement, Chevron already had been in talks to expand investment in the country. Exxon Mobil also declined to comment.

David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, said that on its face, the deal could double U.S. oil reserves and reduce dependence on crude oil from Canada and Mexico. But Oxley, writing in a commentary, cautioned that there are logistical hurdles and said the value of Venezuela’s reserves may have been exaggerated under former President Hugo Chavez.

Even with legal and security guarantees, it is not clear that U.S. oil companies “would be eager to invest,’’ he wrote, noting that “there simply might be more enticing commercial opportunities on offer elsewhere.’’

NUWAKOT, Nepal (AP) — As rescue efforts in communities buried by catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal – China border entered their fourth day Saturday, authorities were still finding survivors and transporting them to safety.

At relief centers, families of missing people waited anxiously for news of their loved ones as the death toll and the number of people unaccounted for continued to rise.

The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 691 dead and over 3,000 people missing after China’s latest update on Sunday. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, while Nepal’s disaster agency said late Saturday that the death toll had climbed to 675 with 2,498 people missing.

More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far.

In Nuwakot, one of the Nepali districts devastated by the floods, helicopters arrived loaded with boxes and bags of aid, including clothes, instant noodles, crackers and rice. Others returned from the flood-hit areas carrying survivors.

An older man was carefully helped off one helicopter, while a soldier carried an older woman on his back to a medical tent. Most arrived with nothing except the clothes they were wearing.

About a dozen people emerged from another helicopter. Soldiers carried several babies who had been evacuated.

The evacuees had been brought from the nearby community of Trishuli.

Villagers return to devastated homes
As people were still leaving Trishuli, some village residents were returning to see what could be salvaged from their decimated homes.

One boy walked out of the village carrying muddy sandals from his house. Another woman, Shoba Shretha, returned to find Sweetie, the dog she was forced to leave behind when the floods came. Shretha sat on the ground petting her and feeding her water from a bottle.

At some point, relief coordinators cleared villagers, reporters and volunteers from the entrance to Trishuli, as excavation equipment drove into the flooded village to dig.

Families begin to lose hope
In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, relatives and friends gathered outside the main government hospital from early morning, desperately searching for news of missing loved ones.

Many shuffled between the help desk and the hospital notice board, clutching photographs and scanning injured patients’ lists in the hope of finding them.

Dil Maya Lama stood weeping outside the help desk at the hospital, searching for information about her missing 26-year-old brother, a driver for a hydropower company in Rasuwa. She had traveled from Ramechhap, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away.

“I came here with the hope that I might find him,” she said. “There is no information about him.”

Nelza Moktan anxiously sought information about her missing cousin, who also worked as a driver in Rasuwa.

“I feel hopeless. It has already been four days,” she said.

Families covered hospital walls with posters showing missing relatives, photographs and contact numbers in a desperate appeal for any clue that could bring them home.

Families search paper lists for any clue
Back in Nuwakot, military personnel taped sheets of paper listing dozens of missing people to a wall at a relief center.

Families crowded around to scan the names of the missing and dead, taking photos and wiping away tears.

Rajesh Kumar Ram desperately searched through a list for his son’s name.

“I’m hopeful, by chance, that my son is somewhere,” he said, crying as he spoke. “Maybe they find him stuck somewhere. I’m waiting for that moment only.”

Outside, people walked along mud-covered streets past signs of the disaster. On one street, a truck was stuck in the mud with its bed raised in the air.

Priti Kharel stood outside the entrance to the army barracks, holding a poster with a picture of her brother, Milan Kharel, who works as an engineering geologist at Doosan Enerbility. His family hasn’t heard from him since the floods.

“It’s already four days,” said Kharel, who believes his brother could be one of the people trapped inside the tunnel of a hydropower construction site, where authorities have rescued some people.

“We want the government to rescue him as soon as possible,” she added.

Rescuers battle to find survivors in disaster-hit areas
Search and rescue efforts continued at several locations in Nepal and China’s Tibet, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side.

Nepali Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said rescue efforts would continue at the hydropower construction site, where authorities believe more than 100 people are trapped in a tunnel filled with thick mud.

Rescuers had been on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday.

Monitoring data from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources showed late Friday that the lake had dwindled in size. The water level dropped by 10 meters (32 feet) from the high point on Thursday morning, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said.

The Chinese broadcaster showed images Saturday of rescuers arriving at Gyirong Port, the hard-hit border crossing with Nepal. “Anyone, anyone?” rescuers yelled.

It was not immediately known how many people were at the border checkpoint building when the floods hit.

Hundreds of the missing are foreigners who were in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.

Chinese state media reported Sunday that the 261 missing foreigners include 104 people from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia, 18 from the United States, 15 from Britain and several dozen from other countries.

Steep mountains and narrow gorges hamper rescue operations
In a news briefing Saturday, Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said authorities have mobilized all available resources with support from international assistance for search, rescue, relief and recovery operations, with a particular focus on locating those still missing.

“This is currently our national priority,” he told reporters Saturday.

He said rescue operations are challenging because of steep, tall mountains and narrow gorges in the disaster-hit region.

Khanal said the government has sought specialized support from Nepal’s neighbors in tunnel rescue, survivor-detection technology, rapid forensic and DNA analysis, as well as morgue refrigerators.

An 11-member tunnel rescue reconnaissance team from India has been deployed while a similar rescue team from China is expected shortly, he added.

The minister said Nepal has received over 57 metric tons of relief supplies from India, with additional aid arriving from China, Japan, Australia and other countries. He added that further support will be sought as need assessments continue.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The NYPD announced Friday the seizure of more than 580 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $10 million in Long Island City, calling it the department’s largest cocaine seizure in at least a decade.

Nelson Salcedo, 35, of Englewood, New Jersey, was arrested Wednesday after investigators allegedly caught him loading boxes from a self-storage facility into a van.

Largest cocaine bust in a decade.

Thanks to old-fashioned detective work and the collaboration between local and federal law enforcement, 266 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $10 million was seized, and will never hit our streets. pic.twitter.com/NAQc1GmhQZ

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 28, 2026

Authorities said the cocaine was allegedly destined for distribution in Manhattan and New Jersey as part of a major trafficking operation linked to an international cartel.

The investigation began months ago as authorities looked into suspected cocaine trafficking between New Jersey and New York.

Investigators said they twice observed Salcedo, on Aug. 12 and Aug. 19, allegedly delivering heavy cardboard boxes to another person near the northern end of Central Park. The recipient remains at large.

Expecting another delivery Wednesday, investigators followed Salcedo to a self-storage facility at 41-02 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City.

At about 4:20 p.m., investigators allegedly watched Salcedo make two trips into the facility, returning with brown cardboard boxes. They then saw him load some of the boxes into a Nissan van.

.@NYPDPC and law enforcement partners make a public safety-related announcement. https://t.co/upgCDd7q1J

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 28, 2026

Authorities stopped Salcedo and found 12 boxes inside the van and seven more on the ground nearby. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators recovered approximately 230 brick-shaped packages containing about 266 kilograms, or more than 580 pounds, of suspected cocaine.

Field tests came back positive for cocaine, while NYPD laboratory testing remains pending.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the seizure a “massive shipment of narcotics” tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across New York and New Jersey.

“This was the NYPD’s largest cocaine seizure in at least a decade,” Tisch said.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said it appeared to be the largest single cocaine cache seized by her office in 20 years.

Authorities said the cocaine appeared to be highly pure and could have been mixed with fentanyl or other substances before reaching street-level buyers, potentially increasing both the quantity and danger of the drugs.

The investigation involved the DEA’s New Jersey Field Division, NYPD, New Jersey State Police and Port Authority Police Department, along with prosecutors in New York and New Jersey.

Three people have been arrested in connection with the broader investigation, authorities said, while at least one suspected recipient of the cocaine remains at large.

Salcedo faces criminal possession of a controlled substance charges and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The man accused of carrying out two horrific shootings across New York City — including one captured on surveillance video — has been caught after a dayslong manhunt that prompted the FBI to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Jesus Acosta, 31, was arrested Saturday morning and charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder, police said.

Acosta had been wanted since Sunday, when police said he opened fire inside a Brooklyn restaurant, shooting one man in the leg before allegedly shooting another man in the head.

Police said Acosta shot Mohammed Rasel at American Best Wings and Pizza in Brownsville, then shot Rasel’s friend and co-worker, 44-year-old MD Yousuf, in the head. Yousuf, a father of two daughters, was killed.

Two days later, police said Acosta struck again — this time at a Bronx restaurant.

The NYPD arrested Jesus Acosta this morning.

Thank you to our cops, detectives, and New Yorkers for their work on locating him. https://t.co/Kx8WcwOCSn

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 29, 2026

Shortly after midnight Tuesday, Acosta allegedly walked into 149 Grill in Melrose and opened fire on 33-year-old customer Tayvon Shuler, known as Plucky.

The horrific shooting was captured on surveillance video. The footage shows the gunman pulling out a firearm and shooting Shuler before going behind the counter and taking money from the register as terrified customers and employees scrambled for safety.

Shuler later died at a hospital.

The two shootings left two people dead, another wounded and police searching across the city for Acosta.

His capture came Saturday morning after an anonymous 911 caller provided information that led police to a park near Watson Avenue and Morrison Avenue in the Bronx.

Acosta has 13 prior arrests dating back to an armed robbery when he was 14, authorities said. He served 10 years in state prison for shooting a man on a subway platform and was released on parole in April.

The FBI had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Acosta’s location and apprehension. The United Bodegas of America had also offered a $10,000 reward.

Acosta is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (VINnews) — Two women have been charged in connection with a crash that killed 8-month-old Yitzchok Rosenberg and seriously injured his mother and sister in a Jackson Township grocery store parking lot.

Maria CobonGuzman, 20, of Trenton, was charged with manslaughter, operating a motor vehicle without ever having possessed or been issued a valid driver’s license and two counts of assault by auto, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said.

Ariadna Lazaro-Flores, 22, of Toms River, was charged with knowingly engaging in conduct creating a substantial risk of death to another.

Authorities said CobonGuzman had never possessed a valid driver’s license in New Jersey or any other state. Prosecutors allege Lazaro-Flores knew that but nevertheless allowed CobonGuzman to operate the vehicle.

The crash occurred Friday in the parking lot of NPGS, a kosher supermarket on West County Line Road. CobonGuzman was driving a Ford Fusion when the vehicle struck Yitzchok, his mother, Golda Chana, and his sister, Rochel.

Yitzchok was critically injured and later pronounced dead at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. Golda Chana and Rochel were also seriously injured and transported to the hospital. Community reports said Golda Chana underwent emergency surgery.

Both CobonGuzman and Lazaro-Flores were taken into custody and transported to the Ocean County Jail.

The investigation remains ongoing.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Citing the importance of the First Amendment, a federal judge in California says the U.S. government is unconstitutionally silencing critics of Israel’s war in Gaza and others as part of the Trump administration ‘s quest to deport noncitizens who it says disrupted college campuses while expressing their views.

Judge Noël Wise, in a ruling Friday, delivered a victory for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which has said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat.

“Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only ‘free’ to express complementary views about the government and its leaders,” the judge wrote.

The decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston, who ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.

Wise wrote that the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America’s enduring democracy.” The judge cited free-speech and vagueness flaws that violate the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment as she struck down portions of the provisions that the federal government follows regarding deportations.

Wise cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel’s actions, which a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said amount to genocide. The judge also cited retaliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk after the Turning Point USA co-founder was assassinated last September.

“Tomorrow, or perhaps even today, targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like,” the judge in San Jose said.

“This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely,” she added. “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country’s powerful lack of fear.”

The Justice Department did not respond Saturday to a message seeking comment on the decision.

George Porteous, the editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, responded to the ruling by saying on X: “The reporters in our newsroom shouldn’t have to fear that writing a story will result in their deportation. Today’s victory means they won’t have to.”

Conor Fitzpatrick, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which brought the lawsuit, praised the ruling.

“In America, free speech doesn’t just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” Fitzpatrick said in a release.

In her decision, Wise said it was clear that the government’s tactics has had an effect on college campuses.

“The government has offered a chilling message regarding protected speech — speak out against Israel or in support of Palestinians and we will revoke your visa and deport you. Behave. Noncitizen students heard the warning and heeded. And, as the idiom goes, the silence is deafening,” the judge wrote.

At The Stanford Daily, lawfully present noncitizens at the paper have quit, withheld articles, refused assignments, requested articles be taken down, and asked for anonymity due to fear of adverse immigration consequences, Wise noted.

She said noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens and yet were left to guess what the U.S. foreign policy was at any given moment and on any given subject.

“This is an incomprehensible standard,” she said. “While the Court understands that the government has been granted considerable discretion on foreign policy and immigration matters, that discretion must nevertheless still ensure that ordinary people can understand what the law permits and prohibits.”

Wise added: “Our Constitutional right to freedom of speech guarantees people the right to express through their words, actions, or assembly opinions that may be repugnant, views that run counter to prevailing political norms, or beliefs that otherwise challenge the country’s domestic or foreign policy, military engagement, or war.”

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has launched a fierce attack on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over her decision to postpone government-sponsored memorial events commemorating his father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, amid concerns that the events could be used for election campaigning.

Speaking during his weekly Torah lecture, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef accused the attorney general of targeting the religious community and condemned the decision in exceptionally harsh terms.

“The attorney general, who hates religion, decided to cancel the memorial celebrations for Maran, our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,” Rabbi Yosef said.

He continued with an angry denunciation of the attorney general, saying: “This wicked woman is dealing with Maran? May the Almighty destroy her; she will receive her blow.”

Rabbi Yosef also compared the planned memorial event with the annual state ceremony commemorating former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, questioning why a memorial event for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef should be restricted because of its proximity to elections.

“You heard, at Maran’s funeral, the father, there were almost a million people from all of Israel. There were secular Jews and religious Jews, knitted kippahs and white kippahs, Hasidim and Litvaks,” he said.

“Everyone was there. Then the anniversary of the rabbi’s passing comes, and you want to hold a memorial gathering as befits him, as befits his honor and as all of Israel knew him. Suddenly, they issue a legal opinion saying that it is forbidden to hold a gathering in his honor.”

Rabbi Yosef argued that his father was a Torah scholar rather than a political figure, while Rabin, whom he cited as a comparison, was a political leader.

“Rabin was a political man, but Maran was a Torah man,” he said.

The remarks came amid an escalating dispute between the government, Shas and the attorney general’s office over this year’s official memorial events for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the influential Sephardi halachic authority who died in 2013.

The attorney general’s office has raised concerns that holding the state-sponsored memorial events so close to the upcoming Knesset elections could amount to the use of public resources for election propaganda. The concern is heightened by Shas’ prominent use of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s image and legacy in its current election campaign.

The memorial events had been scheduled for early October, shortly before the election. According to reports, the legal advisers argued that even without explicit political messages, the event could provide an electoral advantage to Shas because of Rabbi Ovadia’s close identification with the party and therefore requested that the memorial be postponed until after the election.

The decision prompted an immediate backlash from Shas and officials in the Religious Services Ministry. Shas accused the attorney general of “trampling the law” and said it would pursue legal action to overturn the decision.

Religious Services Ministry Director-General Yehuda Avidan also demanded an explanation from the attorney general’s office, arguing that the decision ignored legislation requiring an annual state memorial event for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He said the decision had been made without adequate explanation and conflicted with a legal opinion that, according to him, supported holding the event.

The legal dispute is particularly sensitive because the Knesset has enacted legislation establishing state commemoration of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Despite Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef describing the decision as a cancellation, Ynet reported that the event has not ultimately been canceled altogether. Instead, the main memorial conference was brought forward by one week and spread over three days, in an attempt to avoid the proximity to the election while maintaining the commemoration.

The controversy has nevertheless become part of the wider political confrontation between the government and the attorney general’s office, with Shas leaders portraying the dispute as an attempt to undermine the religious and cultural legacy of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri said the controversy represented a fundamental political choice between what he described as the attorney general’s efforts to “erase every trace of Torah and Judaism” and preserving Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s legacy.

JERUSALEM (VINnews)  — Former Hamas hostage Elkana Bohbot and his wife, Rivka, have welcomed a baby girl, giving their firstborn son, Re’em, a little sister, just 10 and a half months after Bohbot returned home from more than two years in Hamas captivity.

Bohbot announced the birth Friday in a post on Instagram, sharing a family photograph with Rivka and their newborn daughter. He accompanied the announcement with Mizmor LeTodah (“A Psalm of Thanksgiving”).

The birth comes less than a year after Bohbot was freed from captivity in Gaza, where he was held for 738 days after being abducted during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Nova music festival near Re’im.

Bohbot, who worked as part of the Nova festival production team, remained at the scene during the attack and helped treat and evacuate wounded partygoers before he was abducted. He was eventually released in October 2025 as part of a hostage deal and reunited with Rivka and their son.

During his captivity, Bohbot’s family, led by Rivka, waged a relentless campaign for his release. At one point, after his condition reportedly deteriorated, his captors showed him a photograph of his young son in an apparent attempt to encourage him.

The couple revealed in April that they were expecting another child. In a video shared on social media, Bohbot appeared wearing a cap bearing the word “Dad”. The couple described the announcement with the words, “Our story isn’t over. It continues to grow.”

The pregnancy carried particular emotional significance for the family. During Bohbot’s captivity, Re’em had asked his mother why he did not have a brother or sister. Rivka told him that they had to wait for his father to come home first.

Bohbot later said that he, too, thought about the possibility of having another child while he was being held in Gaza. In an interview, he recalled worrying that he might never return home and regretting that Re’em might never have a sibling. After his release, the couple discovered that Rivka was pregnant.

Rivka described the pregnancy as a symbol of the family’s recovery and resilience, saying that she had always viewed “bringing life” as their form of rebuilding and victory. Bohbot called the pregnancy a dream and a miracle.

The couple has continued to speak publicly about the difficult process of rebuilding their lives following Bohbot’s return. In a June interview, they said that the experience of captivity had profoundly changed their relationship and family life, and that they were still undergoing a lengthy process of rehabilitation and rebuilding.

Now, less than a year after Bohbot’s return, the family has entered a new chapter with the arrival of their daughter.

LAS VEGAS (VINnews) — Vice President JD Vance will speak Monday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual National Leadership Summit, the group confirmed, even as a number of Jewish conservatives say he has alienated pro-Israel Republicans.

An RJC spokesperson said the organization is “proud to welcome Vice President JD Vance” to the gathering at the Venetian Resort. “JD Vance is a friend who is coming back after first joining us in 2022 as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

The vice president is scheduled to appear in a closed-to-press fireside chat during Monday evening’s VIP session. President Donald Trump is expected to deliver videotaped remarks at the gala dinner.

Vance’s appearance comes as some Jewish Republicans and major GOP donors have said they would prefer Secretary of State Marco Rubio over Vance for the 2028 presidential nomination. Vance is widely viewed as Trump’s likeliest successor. Some of those donors are expected to be in the room Monday. The Venetian is owned by the Adelson family, longtime backers of Trump and of Jewish and Israeli causes.

Critics say Vance has lost standing with parts of the pro-Israel community through public criticism of Israeli officials, comments they describe as indulging anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and his silence on commentator Tucker Carlson, who has platformed guests accused of spreading antisemitic ideas. Multiple donors told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at last year’s summit that they would not support Vance in 2028.

Carlson was a central topic at the RJC’s 2025 conference, where attendees were handed signs reading “Tucker is not MAGA.” Carlson’s son, Buckley Carlson, previously worked on Vance’s staff.

The two-day summit, being held Sunday and Monday a few months before the midterm elections, is also expected to feature several high-profile Republican Senate candidates, including Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, who is challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff, and former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running in Michigan.

Collins has faced accusations of antisemitism and far-right associations. He has said some of his remarks were misunderstood and has pointed to his support for Israel.

Vance first attended an RJC event in 2022 while running for the Senate from Ohio. This will be his first appearance at the annual summit since taking office.

JACKSON, N.J. (VINnews) — An 8-month-old boy died Friday after a vehicle struck him, his mother and his sister outside NPGS, a kosher supermarket on West County Line Road in Jackson, according to local Jewish community news outlets.

The boy was identified as Yitzchok Rosenberg, who was critically injured in the crash and later pronounced dead at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

The crash occurred in the parking lot of NPGS at 2080 W. County Line Road, near the Jackson-Lakewood border. NPGS is a kosher supermarket serving the local Jewish community.

According to initial reports, a vehicle struck the mother and her two children as it was leaving the shopping center. Emergency crews responded to the scene, and a mass-casualty incident was declared because of the number and severity of the injuries.

Yitzchok was transported to the hospital in critical condition. Despite efforts to save him, he died from his injuries.

His mother, Golda Chana, and his sister, Rochel, were also seriously injured and transported to the hospital. Community reports said the mother underwent emergency surgery.

The family had initially been the subject of an urgent communitywide call for prayers as emergency personnel worked at the scene and doctors treated the victims.

Yitzchok was identified for prayers as Yitzchok ben Golda Chana. His mother was identified as Golda Chana bas Leah Shaindel, and his sister as Rochel bas Golda Chana.

The circumstances of the crash remained under investigation Friday. Initial reports about how the vehicle struck the family had not been independently confirmed by police.

The death sent shock waves through the Jewish communities of Jackson and nearby Lakewood, where residents had followed updates on the family’s condition throughout the day.

Yitzchok was 8 months old.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren of misunderstanding a recent U.S. intervention in the Japanese yen, saying the Massachusetts Democrat wrongly treated a currency purchase as a loan that Japan would have to repay.

Bessent posted the remarks on X after releasing a letter dated Thursday that answered Warren’s Aug. 13 request for details on the Treasury Department’s use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy yen. The fund is a Treasury reserve used at times to stabilize currency markets.

“In her latest sciolistic letter to me, @SenWarren made it clear that she knows even less about foreign exchange markets than she does about banking,” Bessent wrote. He said no member of what he called the “media mob” had spotted what he described as a basic error.

Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, had written that American taxpayers “would ultimately bear the cost if Japan were unable to repay” the Treasury. She asked Bessent to justify the intervention and disclose how much was spent after the yen fell in late July to its weakest level against the dollar in about 40 years.

In his reply, Bessent said that premise was wrong.

“Treasury exchanged existing Exchange Stabilization Fund foreign-currency assets for yen,” he wrote. “No new congressional appropriation was involved, and no credit was extended to Japan. Japan owes Treasury nothing. There is therefore no risk that Japan will fail to repay a debt that does not exist.”

He said Warren’s opening paragraph was incorrect “about where the money came from, what the transaction was, and whether there was even a borrower.”

The United States and Japan confirmed a coordinated intervention around July 31, the first joint operation to support the yen since the late 1990s. Reporting at the time said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, acting for Treasury, sold euros and used the proceeds to buy yen through Wall Street banks. A photograph of Bessent’s notepad at a Cabinet meeting showed a note to buy $5 billion to $10 billion of yen. Treasury has not publicly confirmed the size of the operation.

Warren said the yen jumped after the intervention but later gave back about half of those gains. She also said neither Treasury nor the Fed notified the European Central Bank in advance that euros would be sold to fund the yen purchases, a break from long-standing coordination among Western central banks. She compared the episode to last year’s $20 billion Exchange Stabilization Fund arrangement with Argentina, which she has called a taxpayer-backed bailout.

Bessent rejected that comparison as a misunderstanding of the instruments involved. He said the Argentina operation used the fund to address “acute, short-term illiquidity” and prevent a broader crisis. On Japan, he said disorderly yen markets can force unwinds that destabilize global markets and raise borrowing costs for U.S. families and businesses.

Japan is a major holder of U.S. Treasurys, a key trading partner and a treaty ally, he wrote. “Under @POTUS, the United States delivers for America’s trusted partners,” he added in the X post, referring to President Donald Trump.

Bessent said Section 5302 of federal law authorizes the Treasury secretary, with presidential approval, to deal in foreign exchange to support orderly exchange arrangements. He told Warren he hoped her next letter would show she understands “the difference between a currency purchase and a swap or a loan.”

Warren’s office did not immediately issue a public response to the Thursday letter or Friday post. In her original letter, she asked for written answers by Friday.

ATHENS, GEORGIA (VINnews) — Some University of Georgia football fans have called for quarterback Gunner Stockton to be dropped from the team after he appeared with President Trump at an event in Georgia earlier this year.

Stockton, the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, joined former Georgia running back Herschel Walker, now U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, in greeting Trump on Feb. 19 after Air Force One landed at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport in Rome, Ga. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler also was present.

Trump called Stockton forward and praised him.

“Gunner is a big star and a really talented quarterback,” Trump said. “But I heard, much more importantly, he’s a Trump fan. So, he was standing at the plane, and anybody that likes me, I like them, but I hear he has a fantastic future.”

Stockton then spoke briefly.

“This is a great opportunity,” he said. “Just to meet a president like Donald Trump. This is an awesome experience, and I’m just glad to be here.”

The appearance drew sharp reaction on social media. Some Georgia supporters said they no longer backed Stockton.

“Gunner Stockton you are dead to me,” one user wrote on X.

Others said they wanted him off the team or called the appearance “nasty work.” Several comments also referenced Trump and the Epstein files.

Not all reaction was negative. Some fans defended Stockton and called him “America’s QB.”

Stockton, a fifth-year senior from Tiger, Ga., completed 269 of 386 passes last season for 2,894 yards and 24 touchdowns with five interceptions. He also rushed for 462 yards and 10 touchdowns and was named third-team All-SEC. He finished seventh in Heisman Trophy voting.

Georgia, ranked No. 3 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25, opens the 2026 season with Stockton as the clear starter. Coach Kirby Smart has said Stockton has improved and is in a better place than a year ago.

There has been no indication from the university or coaching staff that Stockton’s roster status is in question.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — President Trump is not expected to attend the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero in New York next month and will instead commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, where he will be permitted to deliver remarks, according to multiple reports.

Trump’s team had signaled in recent weeks that the president, a native New Yorker, planned to attend the annual memorial at the World Trade Center site and conducted advance visits there. Officials familiar with the discussions told The New York Times that Trump wanted to speak at the ceremony. Organizers refused.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has barred politicians from giving speeches at the site since 2012, a policy intended to keep the ceremony nonpartisan and focused on the victims. Elected officials routinely attend, but the speaking is left to family members who read the names of those killed. The program includes six moments of silence marking the times the planes struck, the towers fell, the Pentagon was hit and United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Trump is now expected to mark the anniversary at the Pentagon, which was also attacked on Sept. 11. He delivered remarks there last year. Vice President JD Vance is expected to represent the White House at Ground Zero.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump, “as a proud New Yorker,” has spoken about watching the attacks unfold. “On the 25th anniversary of this tragic day, the President will remember those who were killed at the hands of evil terrorists, honor their loved ones, and pay tribute to the brave first responders who put their lives on the line to rescue their fellow Americans,” Kelly said.

Travel logistics also factored into the change, according to the Times. Trump is scheduled to leave the following day for Doonbeg, Ireland, where the Irish Open will be held near his golf course. Departing from the New York area would cause far greater road and air disruptions than leaving from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Trump last attended the Ground Zero ceremony in 2024. Before the Pentagon appearance, he is expected to attend a midterm political convention in Texas on Sept. 9 and 10. Among those expected in Manhattan are former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The 25th anniversary ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 11.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vaping company Juul Labs on Friday received federal permission to sell an updated version of its e-cigarette, which includes an optional age-verification system designed to prevent underage use.

The decision from the Food and Drug Administration allows the company to sell a new version of its top-selling vaping device for the first time since it launched more than a decade ago. In recent years the company has had to lay off hundreds of employees while paying roughly $3 billion to settle government and private lawsuits over teen use of its products.

Juul plans to market the new device under the brand name Juul2, along with updated versions of its tobacco- and menthol-flavored cartridges. In 2019, the company discontinued several fruit and candy flavors that drove most of its sales but were favored by teens.

The latest announcement is not an approval or endorsement, and people who do not smoke should not use Juul or any other e-cigarettes, according to regulators. The FDA determination indicates that smokers who switch completely to Juul can reduce their exposure to deadly carcinogens and other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes.

According to company studies reviewed by the FDA, between 20% to 50% of smokers who used Juul products were able to stop smoking at the end of six weeks. The rates of quitting varied based on the flavors and nicotine strengths used.

The new device also gives users the option to require age verification via an online app before the e-cigarette can be unlocked.

The FDA has authorized a handful of e-cigarettes to help adult smokers quit or cut back on cigarettes. In May, the FDA OK’d the first fruit-flavored electronic cigarettes intended for adult smokers. The approval represented a major policy shift and came after months of appeals to President Donald Trump from the vaping industry.

Juul is no longer the top-selling e-cigarette brand in the U.S. and trails Vuse, which is sold by tobacco giant Reynolds American. Reynolds also makes Camel and Newport cigarettes.

Teens have shifted away from Juul as part of a wider drop in vaping, according to federal figures. Teens who continue to vape mostly use unauthorized disposable e-cigarettes imported from China, which come in fruit and candy flavors.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli forces on Friday eliminated three terrorists in the Jenin area, including Qais Bitawi, a senior Hamas operative in the former Jenin terrorist network, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said in a joint statement.

The Israel Air Force struck a vehicle in the Jenin area during a joint IDF-ISA operation based on precise ISA intelligence, the statement said. Two additional accomplices were killed in the strike, and weapons were found in the vehicle.

Bitawi was a Hamas operative in the Jenin terrorist network that was dismantled during Operation Iron Wall, according to the announcement. He was involved in advancing significant terrorist activity, including directing, funding and executing attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces. He also maintained ties with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and with Hamas operatives abroad.

Bitawi was a family member of Noor Bitawi, the commander of the Jenin terrorist network who was eliminated by Israeli security forces in May 2025.

“The security forces will continue to operate to thwart terrorism and maintain security in the Judea and Samaria area,” the statement said.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — President Trump announced Friday that his administration will prepare legal documents allowing farmers and ranchers to slaughter and process their own livestock, a step aimed at loosening the grip of the large companies that dominate U.S. meatpacking.

Trump said on Truth Social that producers should have the right to process their own food and that the work should move quickly. The comments followed an interview in which he described the current system as a monopoly controlled by four major packers.

Those four firms handle about 85% of U.S. beef packing. Ranchers have long complained that the concentration leaves them with fewer buyers and weaker prices even as grocery costs remain high. Cattle supplies are near 75-year lows after drought and other pressures, adding strain on both producers and consumers.

The White House set a Sept. 15, 2026, deadline for the first legal papers so the changes can take effect before the autumn cattle sales season and give smaller plants time to prepare.

The move is intended to give independent producers more control over their animals from farm to table.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — The Trump administration has blocked or clawed back more than $1.6 billion in potentially improper Medicare laboratory payments since President Donald Trump took office and removed 157 laboratory providers from the program over alleged billing fraud, officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday.

CMS officials said the labs were suspected of billing Medicare for tests that were never performed, tests patients did not need and services billed at inflated rates.

In one case cited by the agency, a consulting company owner enrolled 14 laboratories in Medicare and billed the program more than $24 million even though none of the labs appeared to be operating.

The agency said it is using artificial intelligence to review claims and flag suspicious billing patterns before payments go out. So far in fiscal year 2026, CMS said it has identified $1.8 billion in Medicare overpayments and recovered $378 million through post-payment reviews.

CMS said more than $500 million in suspected fraudulent payments was stopped through 185 payment suspensions after investigators reviewed 600 labs. Another $276 million in overpayments was recovered from 442 suspect labs, and $127 million in potentially fraudulent payments was prevented after 85 cases were referred to law enforcement.

The agency pointed to two Texas laboratories as examples of how quickly the system can intercept suspect claims. One lab began billing Medicare in late February. CMS flagged it early and denied $1.2 million in claims. When the lab changed its billing method in April in an apparent effort to evade detection, officials said they caught that pattern as well, stopped another $150,000 in payments and removed the provider from the program.

The laboratory crackdown is part of a broader effort targeting improper Medicare billing for medical equipment, hospice care and skin treatments. Since Jan. 1, CMS said it has frozen more than $371 million in payments involving 267 providers, including $226 million in suspected improper billing for medical equipment.

“We won’t stop until we’ve restored program integrity and ensured that fraudsters have nowhere left to hide,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.

The figures released Friday describe administrative actions and suspected overpayments. They do not, by themselves, constitute criminal convictions.

Family getting up: Wednesday (9/02/26)Morning

LONDON (AP) — Four men pleaded guilty Friday to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack in north London earlier this year that many said was a direct result of the start of the Iran war.

Sentencing will take place in the spring of 2027 at the conclusion of a separate trial involving another man charged in connection with the ambulance attack, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said at London’s Central Criminal Court.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, and Saif Ali, both 18, faced a charge of destroying or damaging property and of being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The four ambulances torched in the early hours of March 23 were owned by Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer-led charity operating in the Golders Green area of north London. The ambulances each cost around 250,000 pounds ($340,000).

The attack was one of several incidents deemed to have been antisemitic that took place in the weeks after the U.S. and Israel first launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.

Three of the defendants were said to have set fire to the fully stocked vehicles, while a fourth waited in a car. The resulting blaze caused gas canisters inside the ambulances to explode, and nearby apartments and a synagogue were also damaged by the fire.

Prosecutor Leo Seelig suggested the incident had a “terrorist connection” although no mention was made in court of potential proxies working for Iran.

Counterterrorism police had looked into the possible involvement of Iranian proxies in the Jewish ambulance arson, as well as other attacks on Jewish sites in London.

Most have been claimed online by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right.

The Iranian Embassy in the U.K. has said that it “categorically rejects” allegations of involvement in “violent activities or incidents in the United Kingdom.”

At the same hearing, a fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender. Ahmed, who is alleged to have helped to get rid of the car used in the attack, will go on trial on Jan. 27.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said Friday that inflation is still too high and suggested the central bank may have to raise interest rates in the coming months to bring it down, a clearer signal than he had sent previously about his economic outlook.

In his first high-profile speech at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Warsh acknowledged that recent U.S. reports show that inflation has cooled a bit, but “they do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved.”

“We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed,” Warsh said. “Otherwise, we have work to do.”

Comments from the new Fed chair appeared to reassure Wall Street that fighting inflation remains the priority for the central bank. Warsh did not imply in his speech that a rate hike is imminent, but at the same time, he seemed to dismiss perceptions that inflation is not a threat.

He pointed to data showing that inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target. Warsh replaced Jerome Powell in late May after his predecessor’s term ended.

The U.S. stock market held steady after the speech, but expectations are building in the bond market for the Fed to hike interest rates. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do with its federal funds rate, moved from 4.22% to 4.30%, a sign that investors expect short-term yields to move higher.

Longer-term yields on 10-year and 30-year Treasuries were mostly flat, suggesting investors aren’t worried that higher rates will be needed for a long stretch of time to fight inflation.

Jon Faust, an economist at Johns Hopkins and a former adviser to Powell, said Warsh succeeded in conveying a tougher approach on inflation while, at the same time, avoiding the detailed guidance customary among his predecessors that he has disparaged.

“He found a way to convey that if necessary he would support raising rates, which is one thing people were concerned about,” Faust said.

Yet Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Fed chair has talked tough on inflation before without hiking the Fed’s key rate. His Friday remarks don’t provide any clearer guidance on the timing of any Fed moves, he added.

The Fed chair, who replaced his predecessor, Jerome Powell, on May 22, faces high stakes with his speech as questions swirl around Wall Street about his focus on fighting inflation.

Those concerns may have contributed to rising bond yields, which can increase the cost of borrowing for the government and everyone else. Yet Warsh has said he doesn’t want to provide what analysts call “forward guidance” about whether the Fed will hike or cut rates or stay on hold at upcoming meetings. He argues that it limits the Fed’s flexibility by committing it to a specific policy.

Yet some economists have argued that he could say more about his views on Fed policy without tipping his hand about future actions.

Warsh on Friday reiterated his skepticism about providing such guidance or even outlining his broad approach to interest-rate policy.

But he did suggest that interest rates currently aren’t restricting economic activity, pointing to robust business investment in AI equipment and infrastructure and strong consumer spending. As a rule of thumb, interest rates often need to be high enough to limit borrowing and spending to cool inflation.

The Fed next meets Sept. 15-16, and Warsh’s remarks don’t necessarily signal that the central bank will raise rates then. But his speech indicated that rates may not be high enough to bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target.

Warsh said inflation data “are more concerning” than trends in the job market, where the unemployment rate is low. He also argued that inflation is unlikely to move back to the target on its own.

Warsh noted that in the past year, 54% of goods and services tracked by the government have seen price increases of 3% or higher. While that is down from the pandemic peak, it is “well above” the 32% that saw such increases in the two decades before the pandemic.

Inflation cooled in June and July after spiking in May from soaring gas prices, yet it remains above the central bank’s target. According to the Fed’s preferred measure, it was 3.7% in July.

Warsh also sought to clear up some areas of confusion that arose after his remarks at a July 29 news conference. He specified that short-term interest rates are the “predominant tool” the Fed can use to lower inflation.

Previous Fed chairs have often used speeches at Jackson Hole to address broad questions about interest-rate policy and the economy, or to signal upcoming changes in their approach. In 2022, with pandemic-era inflation having soared to 9.1%, Powell signaled the Fed would continue to sharply raise interest rates in a fight against runaway prices, and he acknowledged that such maneuvers would bring “pain” to consumers and businesses.

Wall Street investors now see the potential for a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting Sept. 15-16 as basically a coin flip, according to futures pricing tracked by CME FedWatch, up from previous odds that put the chance of a hike at just one-third.

Questions about Warsh’s approach have intensified amid President Donald Trump’s continued calls for lower interest rates. While Trump has continued to defend Warsh, whom he appointed, the president has criticized other Fed officials for supporting higher rates.

Trump has also renewed his efforts to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden. Replacing Cook would enable Trump to appoint a majority of the seven-member board. Trump tried to fire her last year but was temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court.

Longer-term rates have steadily risen in recent weeks because of a range of factors, including burgeoning U.S. government deficits and outsize borrowing by tech firms building AI infrastructure.

The rate on the 30-year Treasury bond reached the highest level in 19 years last week, prompting an unusual effort by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to buy back bonds and push yields lower.

One structural issue: You say twice that Warsh replaced Powell on May 22—once in the sixth paragraph and again in “The Fed chair, who replaced his predecessor…” I’d delete the second reference.

I’d also consider changing “faces high stakes with his speech” because the speech has already occurred by this point in the story. Something like “The stakes were high for Warsh going into the speech” would keep the chronology straight.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch drug addiction and mental health institute warned users on Friday about potentially lethal ecstasy pills shaped to look like the head of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The respected Trimbos Institute said that several of the pills have been handed in recently at a network of centers that test drugs for users before they take them.

“Absolutely do not use these pills,” the institute warned.

It released a photo of the pills that have a depiction of Trump’s head on one side and on the other side “NL” and “Trump” stamped into the surface either side of a vertical line. One of the pills has a green face and another is yellow.

The institute warned in a “ Red Alert ” published on its website and social media that they contain a high concentration of a chemical called PMMA, or para-methoxymethamfetamine, that is similar to MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy pills.

However, PMMA is slower working than MDMA and that could lead users to take more because they think that the first pill didn’t work, leading to a risk of overdosing, the institute said, adding that use of the pills “can lead to overheating with possibly deadly consequences.”

Spokesperson Anniek Groothuis said that the institute has no reported cases of serious illness or fatalities among people who may have used the drug.

“We do not know of any victims where PMMA was found in their blood,” she told The Associated Press.

Producing, selling and using ecstasy is illegal in the Netherlands, but it’s widely used, particularly at clubs and music festivals. A government report in 2024 said that some 550,000 people took the drug in a year.

It’s not the first time ecstasy pills in the form of Trump’s head have appeared. In 2017, German police seized thousands of orange Trump-shaped tablets.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A social media post circulating Thursday night alleged that a new report found Tucker Carlson’s audience is shrinking rapidly and that much of the engagement around his content may be artificial.

The post, published on X by the account @Awesome_Jew_, said Carlson “has an extensive network of bots and automated accounts specifically used to like his posts and generate likes and comments under his videos across multiple platforms.” It argued that those accounts create “the appearance of far greater engagement than he actually receives from real viewers.”

The post did not name the report, its authors, the methodology used, or the platforms examined. VIN News was not able to independently verify the existence of a newly released study matching those specific claims.

The same post said Carlson’s “genuine audience could be significantly smaller than the millions of viewers he claims to reach” and blamed a steady diet of anti-Israel programming for turning off viewers who once followed him for other material. “His constant anti-Israel programming is becoming less provocative and more predictable — and, frankly, boring,” the post said.

Replies to the post echoed that criticism. One user wrote that “people are tired of the same recycled anti-Israel obsession.” Another said Carlson had “gone off the deep end” and that a former longtime viewer now hoped his audience would collapse.

Carlson, the former Fox News prime-time host, was fired by the network in 2023 and has since built an independent podcast and digital operation. In recent years he has become one of the most prominent conservative critics of Israel and of U.S. support for the Jewish state, a shift that has drawn accusations of antisemitism from Israeli officials and Jewish organizations. Carlson has denied that criticism of Israel is antisemitic.

There is separate, documented evidence that audiences for several high-profile right-wing digital personalities have cooled from their 2024 peaks. A New York Times analysis published in July found that weekly view totals for a group of conservative influencers — including Carlson — had fallen across YouTube, X, Rumble and podcasts as the right-wing media world splintered over President Trump’s second term and U.S. involvement in the war with Iran.

Public YouTube data, however, does not show a collapse of Carlson’s channel. Tracking sites listed the Tucker Carlson account at about 5.74 million subscribers as of Thursday, with total views still rising, though subscriber growth has flattened in recent weeks.

Claims of inflated online engagement are common in political media and are difficult to prove without named researchers, raw data and platform confirmation. X has previously said it removes automated accounts that generate inauthentic replies. There was no immediate comment from Carlson or the Tucker Carlson Network on the specific allegations circulating Thursday.

Jewish media outlets and research groups have separately documented a sharp increase in Carlson’s negative coverage of Israel. A 2025 Jewish People Policy Institute analysis found that Israel became a dominant topic on his YouTube channel and that the share of that coverage classified as negative rose substantially.

Whether that focus is now costing him real viewers — or whether bots are padding the numbers that remain — cannot be confirmed from the unnamed “report” cited in the viral post. What is clear is that Carlson’s Israel commentary has become a central fault line on the American right, and that his critics are now arguing the audience for that message is smaller than it looks.

UNITED NATIONS (VINnews) — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Friday he met with Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov and described the diplomat as a key partner in efforts to secure Gaza’s future, strip Hamas of its weapons and restore basic civilian governance.

“Outstanding to meet with Board of Peace High Representative @nmladenov,” Waltz wrote on X, posting a photograph of the two men standing together at the U.S. Mission. “He is a key partner in the work to secure Gaza’s future, rid Hamas of its weapons, restore basic governance under a Committee of Palestinian technocrats, and build a real foundation for stability in the Middle East.”

Mladenov, a former Bulgarian foreign minister and onetime U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, was appointed to lead day-to-day work of the Board of Peace, the transitional body created under President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan and later endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

The plan calls for Hamas to disarm, for an international stabilization force to help secure the territory, and for a committee of Palestinian technocrats — formally known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza — to take over civilian administration in place of the terrorist group.

Waltz’s remarks come days after Mladenov briefed the Security Council on implementation of the U.S.-backed framework, warning that a collapse of the ceasefire would be “a point of no return” and saying progress depends on verified demilitarization, not calendar deadlines.

Israel has said it will not withdraw from current lines in Gaza until Hamas surrenders its arsenal. Hamas has said it accepted elements of a disarmament roadmap, but Israeli and U.S. officials have said the group remains armed and has not given up governing authority.

Waltz, a former congressman and combat-decorated Army Green Beret who took up the U.N. post in September 2025, has repeatedly told the council that Hamas’s complete and irreversible demilitarization is the core of the Trump plan and is not subject to negotiation.

Family getting up:

Mrs Suri Niederman
Wife

R’ Chaim Niederman
Son

R’ Mechi Niederman
Son

R’ Itsik Niederman
Son

Mrs Rivki Strohli
Daughter

Mrs Miriam Brach
Daughter

Mrs Sheindy Spitzer
Daughter

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump arrives at an awkward moment for his presidency on Friday as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran reaches the six-month mark, a notable milestone for a conflict that the Republican leader repeatedly assured Americans would be a “little excursion” lasting a matter of weeks.

The war isn’t over, though Trump claims that through bombs and blockade, he has already devastated Iran’s leadership, military and economy.

And this week his administration said it would turn its focus to increasing economic pressure — rather than military action — to try to finish off Iran. The shifting strategy centers on threats to punish any country or entity that continues to conduct business with Tehran.

The turn to using sanctions as the cudgel of choice comes as the administration weighs diminished munitions stockpiles after months of war, sparking concerns that the prolonged conflict could undermine U.S. military readiness in other parts of the globe.

As the conflict grinds on, Trump’s talk of finding a quick end to the war also appears to be fading. He stressed this week that he’s “not in a hurry” to get Iran back to the negotiating table, and he continues making the case that the Islamic Republic’s leadership is on the ropes.

“They’re not paying their troops. They’re in deep trouble. They have very little capacity,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “We don’t want to speak to them. We’re not looking to meet or anything,” he said.

It’s unclear how — or if — Trump will address the six-month anniversary of a conflict that has already cost the United States more than $37.5 billion and done damage to his popularity ahead of critical November elections for his party. The president is spending Friday in Houston, where he’ll honor the Artemis II NASA crew for their 10-day mission around the moon earlier this year.

Trump is declaring ‘mission accomplished’ — a phrase that hurt a Republican predecessor
On its face, the moment is complicated for the “America First” leader who fiercely criticized his White House predecessors for wasting American taxpayer money and U.S. troops’ lives in Middle East conflicts and vowed on the campaign trail to keep the military out of “endless wars.”

But Trump has bristled at suggestions that this war — in which no American troops have deployed into Iran — can be compared with the yearslong wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in which more than 7,000 Americans were killed.

His Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush, was widely mocked for a 2003 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath a White House-produced banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” It came to symbolize a premature declaration of victory for the Iraq War, which would go on for nearly nine more years. More than two decades later, there are still U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.

Trump’s war has stretched on far longer than he told Americans it would. It didn’t stop him from sharing a social media post this week declaring “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 2026.” The AI-generated image features Trump against a backdrop of U.S. fighter jets, a warship and American flags above smaller images of Bush and former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike in the opening salvos of the war.

Trump has consistently emphasized that the U.S. and Israel campaign has been devastating for Iran’s navy and air force. Iranian officials have said the country has suffered $270 billion in direct and indirect damage. Israeli military strikes in the first weeks of the war wiped out much of the theocratic government’s leadership structure, including Khamenei.

But Iran has found leverage through its own strikes in the critical Strait of Hormuz, where relatively few vessels carrying oil and liquefied natural gas are risking passage. Trump again declared Thursday that the “Strait of Hormuz is open,” saying 24 vessels passed through a day earlier. That’s a fraction of the roughly 130 vessels that passed through the vital waterway daily before the war began.

Trump is showing little interest in talks
Mediators Qatar and Pakistan continue to press for a diplomatic off-ramp from the two sides. Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, was in Tehran on Thursday to discuss a proposed plan between Iran and Oman to boost traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

But in Washington, Trump has shown little interest in getting back to the preliminary deal reached in June that aimed to reopen the strait and launch talks about Iran’s nuclear program. That deal fell apart within weeks after Iran started attacking ships.

At the same time, Trump says the U.S. effort to economically choke off Tehran is working, with a U.S. naval blockade preventing Iranian oil from making it to market as the trickle of vessels carrying oil from other Gulf nations pass through.

“We have control and we have the blockade,” Trump said. “Iran is not getting anything. Nothing is going through.”

Iran is badly battered, but has a history of showing resilience
There’s no doubt that the strikes combined with decades of international sanctions have battered Iran, said Aarathi Krishnan, a geopolitical risk analyst at RAKSHA Intelligence Future.

But as Trump tries to turn to a new chapter in the war, Krishnan argues the Republican may be misguided in concluding that more pressure on Tehran — which has spent decades adapting to international economic sanctions — will produce the political outcome he wants.

Indeed, Iran’s economy in the run-up to the start of the war was mired in surging inflation, according to the International Monetary Fund. National income per person had fallen from about $8,000 in 2012 to $5,000 in 2024, according to World Bank data.

But Tehran has also shown resilience, selling discounted oil and establishing opaque shipping and financial networks, Krishnan said.

“This administration has completely underestimated the Iranian resolve,” Krishnan said. “This is not new to the Iranian regime.”

Trump must decide how far he’s willing to go with sanctions
Richard Goldberg, who served as a senior adviser on Iran at the National Security Council during Trump’s first White House term, argues that Iran now finds itself in “uncharted waters” if the administration follows through with a truly biting campaign to pressure Iranian trade partners.

“What we should be seeing is an attempt to seal off every escape hatch the regime has left,” said Goldberg, who is now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank. “Use the economic power of the United States to layer a naval blockade with an air and land embargo while dropping the hammer on anyone who gives the regime access to hard currency — whether that’s in the Middle East, China or even Europe.”

But it remains to be seen how far the administration is willing to go.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week unveiled a campaign the White House calls “Operation Economic Outcast,” but only issued warnings to nations to cut trade and has yet to announce any secondary sanctions. Bessent told reporters the administration wanted countries to have a chance to shift away from Iran before it was too late — and acknowledged there was economic risk to the U.S., too, in moving ahead.

China, which is Iran’s biggest trade partner and oil buyer, responded by expressing its opposition to “illegal unilateral sanctions.”

Pressed Thursday about why he wasn’t already sanctioning Chinese banks, Trump offered a cryptic response.

“Who said I’m not? You don’t know if I’m doing it,” Trump said. “I don’t have to announce everything, do I?”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about the Kennedy Center’s intention to return President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue by early next month, challenging the board’s insistence on moving forward even in the face of a court ruling that blocked and reversed a previous effort.

Just seconds after the Trump administration’s lawyer, Brantley Mayers, began making his case at a nearly two-hour hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper interrupted to ask why the center needed to begin inscribing the president’s name on the institution’s facade as soon as Sept. 8.

“What’s magic about that date?” Cooper asked, quipping that sometimes judges travel over the Labor Day holiday.

Mayers responded that the timeline was in accordance with a vote earlier this month by the Trump-aligned board. As he returned to his arguments that renovations at the Kennedy Center require energy and talent, Cooper interjected again.

“That’s all fine and good,” the judge said. “What does that have to do with what Congress intended in these statutes? That’s really what’s before me.”

By late Thursday, the administration informed the court that it wouldn’t proceed with changes at the Kennedy Center before Oct. 8 to allow Cooper more time to consider the case.

Trump has spent much of his second term reshaping Washington to his liking, demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom, planning a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a renovated golf course along the Potomac River. The Kennedy Center is a rare stumbling block in that effort after Cooper ruled in May that Trump’s name was added to the building illegally, ordering it to be removed.

Trump and his allies, however, have refused to let that be the final word.

The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted earlier this month to inscribe his name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.

Mayers argued that the moves amount to a recognition of Trump, not the renaming of the institution that was sought earlier. The institution no longer calls itself the Trump-Kennedy Center or focuses on such branding, and there’s no effort to return to that argument.

The government’s lawyer also encouraged Cooper not to rule on the inscription related to the endowment because no money has been raised, essentially leaving it a theoretical possibility for now.

Despite Cooper’s skepticism about the developments, he also questioned whether he had the authority to block the moves, as the administration appeals his earlier ruling. He pressed a lawyer for Rep. Joyce Beatty on whether that appeal undermined his jurisdiction in the case.

“I want to make sure I have the jurisdiction to do whatever I did,” Cooper said of an eventual ruling in the case.

Beatty is an ex officio member of the board who has led the effort to block Trump’s moves to put his stamp on the institution. Her lawyer, Nathaniel Zelinsky, warned Cooper that failing to act “would create this black hole where there’s no way to enforce” the earlier decision.

Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing earlier this week, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.

The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who attended the hearing, seemed to downplay that possibility.

“What was pointed out,” he told reporters, “was that if you do nothing, bad things happen. But they’re not going to happen on Thursday.”