BANGKOK (AP) — Hundreds of people demonstrated outside Israel’s embassy in Bangkok on Thursday to demand foreigners show more respect for Thailand’s laws and culture as public discontent over bad behavior by visitors has increasingly focused on Israeli tourists.

“The era of gentle diplomatic pleasantries and calculated silence, which has been misinterpreted as tacit consent, has come to an end,” protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul, a media mogul and political activist, told the crowd while reading from an open letter to Israel’s ambassador to Thailand, Alona Fisher-Kamm.

Protesters Demand Israeli Action on Tourists, Landholdings and Gaza

Protesters led by former yellow-shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul on Thursday demanded that Israel ensure its citizens respect Thai laws and culture, cooperate in prosecuting offenders, allow scrutiny of… pic.twitter.com/FeXt3Pe0cu

— Thai Enquirer (@ThaiEnquirer) September 10, 2026

Fisher-Kamm met Tuesday with Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow to address concerns and discuss possible solutions.

Sondhi said the embassy and Israeli government should understand “generosity must never be mistaken for weakness, hospitality does not equate to submission to exploitation and courtesy is not an open license for anyone to act with impunity on our sovereign soil.”

A media owner and political activist, Sondhi Limthongkul speaks to a crowd of followers, demanding an end to alleged land-grabbing by foreigners, in front of Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

In a video message posted to Facebook on Thursday following the morning protest, Israeli embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Rami Teplitskiy said they are not ignoring news and negative sentiments about Israeli tourists in Thailand.

“The embassy will continue to work hard to foster sustainable friendship and ensure everyone enjoys Thailand with mutual respect,” he said in a message delivered in Hebrew with English and Thai subtitles.

Sondhi Begins Protest Outside Israeli Embassy

Former yellow-shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul and his supporters began a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Bangkok on Thursday, marking the first street action under his new “Take Back Our Thailand” campaign.

The gathering was… pic.twitter.com/G2Nt2xYbRw

— Thai Enquirer (@ThaiEnquirer) September 10, 2026

The relevant agencies in both countries are working to resolve the issues together and Israeli visitors to Thailand will receive official travel guidance asking them to respect Thai laws and culture, Teplitskiy said.

Protesters call for respect of Thai culture and laws
Sondhi, who founded a protest movement that led to the 2006 ouster of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, voiced a litany of complaints against Israelis in Thailand, including violations of domestic laws, creating public disturbances and showing disrespect for local traditions and cultures.

Thailand’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, but also has implemented new measures to ensure visitors respect the country’s norms. The government also has cracked down on foreigners who overstay visas or seek to circumvent property-ownership regulations, while also shortening visa-free stays.

A media owner and political activist, Sondhi Limthongkul speaks to a crowd of followers, demanding an end to alleged land-grabbing by foreigners, in front of Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Israeli visitors last year generated about $1.2 billion of Thailand’s $48 billion in income derived from tourism. More than 277,000 Israelis visited Thailand in the first eight months of 2026, up about 7% over the same period last year, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

High profile cases include Israelis, French and Italians
In a high profile case, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul last week ordered the deportation of an Israeli man who was convicted of threatening a zoo owner on the resort island of Koh Samui. The zoo had displayed a Palestinian flag.

The case was the first use of new regulations designed to ease the deportation of foreigners who break Thai laws or show “undesirable behavior.”

The French citizen who owned the zoo also had been accused of causing several other unrelated disturbances and was ordered to be deported days later.

While there has been a focus on Israelis, a confrontation in July between a Thai woman and a group of boisterous Italian students on a Bangkok train was caught on video and went viral, sparking widespread anger against the visitors. The Italian embassy intervened and posted an apology video from the group.

Israeli ambassador proposes guidance for Thailand visitors
The Jerusalem Post reported that Fisher-Kamm, the Israeli ambassador, acknowledged the concerns during the meeting with Sihasak and proposed issuing a “do’s and don’ts” document for Israeli travelers, which was a demand by protesters on Thursday.

The Thai foreign minister said after the meeting that Thailand felt it could not “stand idly by” if visitors are acting detrimentally toward the country or people.

Protesters gather for a demonstration demanding an end to alleged land-grabbing by foreigners, in front of Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

“Thailand is a country that welcomes tourists, but at the same time, our hospitality doesn’t mean that tourists, regardless of their nationality, can do whatever they want in Thailand,” Sihasak told reporters in Bangkok.

The Israeli embassy told The Associated Press on Wednesday it takes the concerns seriously and has provided practical guidance about Thailand to Israeli communities, adding that those who violate the laws should face appropriate consequences.

Public attention, however, may be disproportionate to the scale of incidents involving Israeli citizens and should not be taken as a representation of all Israelis in Thailand, the embassy said.

Chabad of Thailand, the country’s branch of an Orthodox Jewish movement that was mentioned by name in the open letter by protesters, said it had no immediate comment on the demonstration or the letter.

ADEN, YEMEN (VINnews) — Iran-backed Houthi forces seized the historic Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday, Yemeni government officials said, tightening the group’s hold on territory along one of the world’s most important shipping corridors.

The capture of Mocha, also known as Mokha or al-Makha, came after days of intensified fighting with Saudi-backed government forces. Officials said Houthi fighters pushed government units out of the city and its port in southwestern Taiz province and forced them to withdraw south toward Dhubab.

Mocha sits less than 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow passage linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Control of the city gives the Houthis a stronger foothold closer to the chokepoint than their long-held positions farther north around Hodeidah.

Yemeni government military sources told international news agencies the Houthis were also pressing attacks toward Dhubab and the Hanish islands and seeking control of the full Yemeni Red Sea coastline. Government-aligned commander Lt. Gen. Tareq Saleh said his forces had taken casualties and that he had ordered troops to reorganize and set up an alternative command center in consultation with the Saudi-led coalition.

The Bab al-Mandab Strait carries a large share of global oil, fuel and other cargo moving between Asia, the Gulf and Europe via the Suez Canal. Analysts said the advance raises the risk that the Iran-backed group could more easily threaten commercial shipping already targeted in previous Houthi campaigns.

Fighting along Yemen’s western coast has displaced thousands of families in recent days, local officials said. Saudi airstrikes were also reported across several provinces, including Taiz and Hodeidah. The flare-up is among the sharpest since a 2022 U.N.-brokered truce largely froze Yemen’s civil war.

The Houthis control Sanaa and most of northern Yemen. They have used Red Sea positions to fire on commercial vessels and, at times, targets in Israel, tying their campaign to the wider regional conflict involving Iran. Officials warned that further gains near the strait would increase leverage over a route that has grown even more important amid disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz.

Houthi officials did not immediately comment. The situation remained fluid Thursday as government forces regrouped farther south.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The idea that the U.S. has enough money lying around to hand Americans $5,000 checks is “backwards and bordering on laughable,” according to a budget expert — especially with the national debt now above $40 trillion.

President Donald Trump has proposed a $5,000 “dividend” for American adults if Republicans retain control of Congress. The plan would cost more than $1 trillion, according to estimates, and Trump has not provided detailed funding plans.

Meanwhile, the federal government is already paying enormous sums just to service its existing debt. The national debt stood at about $40.1 trillion as of Sept. 3, according to the Joint Economic Committee.

Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Trump cannot simply send the money without congressional approval. He also noted that a dividend generally comes from a surplus — something the federal government does not currently have.

“We don’t have surpluses to give away,” Goldwein said.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — An Iranian missile attack on a U.S. air base in Jordan damaged several American warplanes, highlighting the growing risks to U.S. forces as the conflict with Tehran enters a new phase.

At least one A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, suffered severe damage to its wing, while about eight F-15 fighter jets sustained lighter damage but were subsequently returned to service, according to CBS News and people familiar with the incident. The attack targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base near Al Azraq, a major U.S. airpower hub in the region.

The damage was reported after Iran launched a ballistic-missile barrage at Jordan following a U.S. attack on five Iranian oil tankers. The U.S. strikes came after Iran twice targeted an American Navy warship with ballistic missiles, according to U.S. officials. The warship was not hit and no American personnel were injured in those attacks.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had carried out a retaliatory operation against the U.S. base in Jordan as well as American warships and commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Jordan said its air defenses detected 20 Iranian ballistic missiles and intercepted 18 of them. The remaining two landed in unpopulated areas, and Jordan reported no casualties. The country’s armed forces said they remained on high alert and were securing areas where missile debris fell.

The attack nevertheless succeeded in damaging American military equipment. U.S. forces reportedly fired more than 30 Patriot interceptor missiles during the assault, according to the CBS report. The incident also underscores concerns over the availability of U.S. air-defense interceptors as American forces continue operating across the region.

Muwaffaq Salti is particularly important to the U.S. military because dozens of American aircraft operate from the base. It has served as a key platform for U.S. air operations connected to the conflict with Iran. Three U.S. soldiers were killed in an earlier Iranian missile attack on the base in July.

The latest escalation extends beyond Jordan. Iran has threatened and attacked shipping around the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global energy route. The IRGC said it had targeted two U.S. warships and several tankers, while threatening additional action against vessels linked to the United States and its allies. Iran has also expanded a maritime exclusion zone around the strategic waterway.

The escalation comes as the Trump administration seeks to pressure Tehran into ending the conflict. Iranian officials have indicated that they could consider ending the war if Washington meets a series of demands, including an end to the blockade of Yemen, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and assurances that the United States will not interfere with Iran’s nuclear or missile programs.

President Donald Trump has publicly predicted that the conflict will end shortly after the November U.S. midterm elections, arguing that Iran is no longer capable of sustaining the confrontation. Privately, however, senior members of Trump’s administration are reportedly preparing for a much longer conflict.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior advisers have discussed with Trump the possibility that the fighting could continue through the remainder of his presidency, potentially into 2029. The assessment contrasts sharply with Trump’s public expectation of a relatively rapid conclusion.

U.S. military preparations also suggest that Washington is planning for a prolonged confrontation. Some Middle East troop deployments have been extended into 2027, while air-defense units are being deployed without firm end dates. The Pentagon is also rotating additional fighter squadrons and preparing another Marine Expeditionary Unit for deployment to the region.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — More than 60 people classified as military deserters have been arrested at Israeli border crossings since Sunday, many of them charedi men attempting to travel to Uman, Ukraine, for the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage, according to Israeli media reports.

Most of the arrests took place at Ben Gurion Airport, while additional arrests were reported at the Taba border crossing with Egypt, as Israeli authorities stepped up enforcement ahead of the annual pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.

The IDF confirmed that dozens of deserters had been arrested at border crossings in recent days but declined to provide an exact number or a breakdown of the detainees. The military said the enforcement operation is part of its routine cooperation with the Population and Immigration Authority and that its deployment is adjusted according to intelligence and situational assessments. The IDF stressed that men who are subject to military service can still regularize their status and report for service.

The arrests come after authorities began increasing checks at exit points earlier this month. On Sept. 2, six charedi men were detained at Ben Gurion after attempting to leave Israel. The Israel Airports Authority said two were stopped in Terminal 1 and four in Terminal 3, after which officials determined that they were subject to active military orders preventing them from leaving the country.

The enforcement has also affected flights. Several flights from Ben Gurion, including flights to Krakow and Budapest, were reportedly delayed Wednesday after deserters were detained while their luggage had already been loaded onto aircraft. Security personnel had to locate and inspect the luggage before the flights could depart.

The arrests have created growing concern within the Breslov Hasidic community, which sends tens of thousands of worshippers to Uman each year for Rosh Hashanah. More than 40,000 pilgrims traveled to Uman for the holiday last year, according to Ukrainian immigration authorities cited by JNS.

Breslov rabbis have warned young men who face arrest not to travel to Ben Gurion in an attempt to reach Ukraine. Community organizations have also warned that the risk is not limited to the airport and that attempting to leave through a land crossing could result in arrest.

Some travelers have reportedly explored alternative routes through Egypt or Jordan, hoping to avoid the intensified checks at Ben Gurion. Authorities, however, have also increased enforcement at land crossings.

The Population and Immigration Authority has said it processes passengers flagged in its system as subject to exit restrictions. When the restriction is based on a military order, the IDF is called to the scene and determines whether an arrest should be made.

A technological change introduced earlier this year also allows authorities to identify people subject to exit restrictions during the check-in process, including when check-in is performed online, according to Walla.

The crackdown is part of a broader Israeli campaign to enforce military service requirements among charedi men. The issue has become increasingly contentious as the government and courts have grappled with the end of longstanding exemptions for yeshiva students.

A Knesset committee reviewing enforcement policies reported that the IDF had issued 24,000 summonses in one period to men from a pool of roughly 80,000 potential recruits, but only 1,200 reported to begin the required process. The military has described existing sanctions as limited and has been expanding enforcement measures.

For the Breslov community, however, the enforcement has taken on particular significance because of the religious importance attached to spending Rosh Hashanah in Uman.Some community members have even discussed the possibility of holding Rosh Hashanah prayers in military prison if large numbers of young men are arrested.

The heightened enforcement is expected to continue through the peak travel period. Rosh Hashanah begins Friday evening, Sept. 11, and continues through Sunday, Sept. 13.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale inflation picked up last month after cooling earlier this summer as higher oil and gas prices stemming from the Iran war are keeping costs elevated.

The Labor Department’s producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 5.4% in August from a year ago, up from 4.7% in July, the government said Thursday. Annual wholesale inflation peaked this year at 5.9% in May after the Iran conflict raised energy costs. On a monthly basis, wholesale prices increased 0.4% from July to August, after a 0.1% increase the previous month.

Inflation has shown some signs of easing in recent months but is still high, frustrating consumers who are struggling with more expensive gas, groceries, clothing and other essentials. Oil prices globally topped $100 a barrel this week on renewed fighting in the Middle East, while President Donald Trump has intensified a trade war with Canada, a sign tariffs still could push up costs. Rising prices pose a political problem for the Trump administration and Republicans running in the midterm elections.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2% from July to August, the same as the previous month. Compared with a year ago, core prices rose 4.6%, up from 4.2% in July.

Thursday’s figures will come under particularly close scrutiny because they could help determine whether the Federal Reserve raises its short-term interest rate at a policy meeting next week. Data from the producer price index helps calculate the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, which will be released Sept. 30.

BEIJING (AP) — A cargo ship docked for repairs in a Chinese port caught fire, killing 25 people, Chinese state media reported Thursday.

The ship was being repaired in the Beihai Shipbuilding Co. at the port of Qingdao, a major shipping hub on the northeastern Chinese coast. A photo released by Xinhua news agency identified the ship as the Ocean Melody, which sails under a Liberian flag, according to the tracking website VesselFinder.

20 people are dead and 5 remain missing after a foreign-flagged cargo ship caught fire during repairs at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding in China on Sept 10. Of the 42 people aboard, 12 evacuated safely and 5 were hospitalized with injuries. All 5 are in stable condition. https://t.co/yWjNTSW59X pic.twitter.com/FNTpETFvuv

— Shanghai Daily (@shanghaidaily) September 10, 2026

A total of 42 people had been on the vessel, and 12 of them were safely evacuated, Xinhua reported. Five were injured and taken to the hospital, and they remained in a stable condition.

The fire started around 11 a.m. Thursday and was extinguished by 2:30 p.m. local time. Videos online showed workers on the ship attempting to put out the fire.

China’s President Xi Jinping issued “important instructions” to urgently conduct rescues of missing people on the ship, Xinhua said, adding that Premier Li Qiang called for “trapped” people to be rescued.

Xi also called for ensuring “preventive measures are thoroughly implemented” and “resolutely prevent major and catastrophic accidents.”

Beihai Shipbuilding is part of the state-controlled China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the world’s largest shipbuilder. Its main businesses include shipbuilding and ship repairing, according to Beihai Shipbuilding’s website.

JERUSALEM (VINnews)  — A senior Lebanese official has urged Israel to give Lebanon’s government time and political space to weaken Hezbollah, saying the country may be facing a rare opportunity to move toward peace with Israel.

“Israel must help us. Israel must give us oxygen,” the official told Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth in an interview on the sidelines of the MEAD conference in Washington. “The Lebanese people today dream of peace with Israel.”

The official, who said he was also conveying the views of other senior Lebanese figures, described the current moment as potentially “the last chance” for a fundamental change in relations between the two countries. He said the killing of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel created new hopes inside Lebanon that the Iran-backed organization could eventually be weakened. “Hezbollah is Lebanon’s cancer,” he said. “But for this to succeed, we need your help.”

The official acknowledged that Lebanon’s efforts to remove Hezbollah weapons and military infrastructure from several villages have so far produced only limited results. He said the Lebanese Armed Forces remain too weak to confront Hezbollah directly.

“It is clear to us that only you can do the job, but do it properly,” he said, while urging Israel to commit to a full withdrawal from Lebanon once Hezbollah has been disarmed.

The Lebanese official’s comments came as former U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale offered a similarly optimistic assessment of the potential for change in Beirut. In an exclusive interview with Israeli journalist Roi Kais after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Hale said he came away with the impression that Aoun is prepared to go “all the way” in efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

Hale also said Aoun “dreams” of establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel, describing the Lebanese president as a potential partner despite the considerable obstacles facing the process. Israeli public broadcaster Kan framed the interview as an effort to persuade Israelis that there may be “a partner on the other side of the border,” even if significant doubts remain.

The assessment comes as Aoun faces pressure from both Israel and Hezbollah. He has pledged to restore the Lebanese state’s monopoly over weapons, while Hezbollah has resisted demands that it surrender its arsenal. Aoun said in June that a U.S.-brokered framework agreement with Israel was a first step toward restoring Lebanon’s full sovereignty and bringing Israeli-held territory back under Lebanese control.

But implementation has stalled. The New York Times reported last month that Lebanon’s government had made some progress in reducing Hezbollah’s influence over state institutions, but remained largely incapable of forcibly disarming the group. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has rejected disarmament while Israeli forces remain in Lebanese territory.

The Lebanese official told Ynet that Israel’s military campaign could ultimately strengthen Hezbollah by weakening the very government attempting to challenge it. “Hezbollah fires drones at IDF forces in order to draw a disproportionate Israeli response, to blow everything up,” he said. “Israel needs to be more restrained in its use of force.”

He specifically urged Israel not to strike Beirut, saying attacks on the capital would politically weaken Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The comments come amid continued violence despite the U.S.-brokered framework. Israeli forces have continued striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah has carried out attacks against Israeli troops. Israeli officials say the military operations are necessary to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military capabilities.

Recent Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people in southern Lebanon. Reuters reported that seven people were killed in strikes on Sept. 6, while at least 12 were killed in strikes on Kfar Rumman the following day. Israel said the attacks targeted Hezbollah personnel and weapons activity.

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, has been trying to expand the army’s presence in the south. Aoun and Salam met Wednesday to discuss the continuing Israeli attacks and measures to reinforce Lebanese Army forces in areas outside Israeli control.

The Lebanese official said Israel must reassure Lebanese citizens that it does not intend to permanently occupy parts of their country. “Lebanon is not Gaza,” he said. “Lebanon is a sovereign country with pride.”

He argued that an Israeli commitment to withdraw after Hezbollah’s disarmament could strengthen Aoun’s government and make it politically easier for Lebanon to confront the group. The official also dismissed the idea that hostility toward Israel is deeply rooted among Lebanese society, saying that while Israeli actions in the past, including the 1996 Qana massacre, generated anger, attitudes have changed.

Asked whether Israelis could one day travel freely to Beirut, he replied: “Why not?”

“After Hezbollah is disarmed, it is absolutely possible,” he added. “It will take a few years, but it is achievable.”

Hale’s assessment reinforces the central question facing Israel and Lebanon: whether pressure on Hezbollah should be combined with measures designed to strengthen Aoun’s government, or whether continued military pressure is necessary until the group is fully disarmed.

For now, the diplomatic opening remains fragile. Hezbollah continues to oppose surrendering its weapons, Israel says it will not withdraw fully without guarantees that the group cannot rearm, and Lebanon’s military lacks the strength to impose the state’s authority throughout Hezbollah’s strongholds. Yet both the Lebanese official and Hale argue that, for the first time in years, Beirut may offer Israel a potential partner for a longer-term settlement.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Iran has been using a secretive barter-like trading mechanism to circumvent U.S. sanctions on its oil exports and obtain goods from China, including military equipment and medicines, according to Iranian and other sources who spoke to Reuters.

The arrangement, which has been operating since at least 2021, allows China to continue purchasing Iranian oil at discounted prices while limiting the exposure of Chinese banks and companies to U.S. sanctions. Reuters reported that between $2 billion and $2.5 billion moved through the mechanism over the past year.

According to two senior Iranian sources and three other people familiar with the system, the money is managed through two entities linked to China’s Ministry of Commerce and Iran’s central bank. The arrangement operates largely outside the international banking system, effectively allowing Iranian oil revenues to be converted into credits for purchases of Chinese goods.

Reuters reported that about 70% of the funds handled through the mechanism are directed toward infrastructure projects in Iran, while the remainder is used to pay Chinese suppliers for goods including medicines, vehicles and other essential products. The system has also reportedly been used at least once in the past year to facilitate contracts for air-defense equipment.

The mechanism illustrates how Tehran and Beijing have developed alternative financial channels to maintain trade despite Washington’s sanctions campaign.

China is by far the largest buyer of Iranian crude. The U.S. Treasury said in April that Chinese independent “teapot” refineries account for the majority of China’s purchases of Iranian oil, with China taking roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports. Washington has warned financial institutions about the sanctions risks associated with these transactions.

A 2023 academic study also documented the broader use of barter arrangements in Iran-China trade, noting that sanctions had encouraged Tehran to receive part of the value of its oil exports in Chinese goods and services rather than conventional payments.

The latest arrangement has become particularly important as the United States has intensified its economic campaign against Iran. Reuters reported earlier this month that U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade have sharply reduced Iranian oil exports and restricted Tehran’s access to foreign currency. Iranian officials and analysts say the pressure is contributing to severe inflation, currency shortages and difficulties importing essential goods.

Washington has also increasingly targeted financial intermediaries that help Iran convert oil revenues into usable funds. On Sept. 4, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned a Turkish investment bank and two subsidiaries, accusing them of facilitating transactions between China and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, including the conversion of Iranian oil revenues into cash and gold. The bank rejected the allegations.

China, meanwhile, has continued to reject the legitimacy of unilateral U.S. sanctions. In response to Reuters’ questions about the reported barter system, China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing “has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions” that lack a basis in international law or authorization from the U.N. Security Council.

Chinese officials have similarly defended their country’s continued purchases of Iranian oil, despite growing U.S. pressure. Chinese refiners have remained major customers for Iranian crude, although Reuters reported in August that Iranian oil deliveries to China had fallen sharply as the U.S. blockade and sanctions campaign intensified.

The system also highlights a broader challenge facing Washington: even as the United States attempts to cut Iran off from the international financial system, Tehran and its largest trading partner have developed mechanisms designed to avoid conventional banking channels altogether.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he currently has no plans to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, potentially clearing the way for Vice President JD Vance to emerge as the party’s leading contender.

Rubio made the comments in an interview on Wednesday with Colombian broadcaster RCN, according to NBC News. Asked about his political ambitions, Rubio said he did not know what the future would bring but was not currently planning to run for president or any other office. “I am dedicating myself 100% to my work,” Rubio said, according to NBC.

A source cited by the network said Rubio has also privately indicated that he does not intend to run in 2028, although he has not completely ruled out a presidential campaign in the future.

Rubio is currently serving as secretary of state and is also temporarily carrying out the duties of national security adviser, giving him a prominent role in the Trump administration’s foreign-policy and national-security decisions. His decision not to pursue the presidency could strengthen Vance’s position within the Republican Party. A close associate of the vice president has said Vance is expected to consider a 2028 campaign after the 2026 midterm elections. No formal decision or announcement has been made.

Neither Rubio nor Vance has officially declared a candidacy. President Donald Trump, however, has repeatedly identified both men as possible successors who could carry forward his political movement. Trump has at times suggested that the two could form a “dream ticket,” with one running for president and the other as his vice-presidential partner, although he has stressed that such comments do not amount to an endorsement.

In August 2025, Trump described Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican nomination and suggested Rubio could be a possible running mate.

Rubio, 55, has already made one unsuccessful bid for the presidency. He ran for the Republican nomination in 2016, but ended his campaign after losing the Florida primary to Trump. Rubio subsequently endorsed Trump and became one of the Republican Party’s prominent foreign-policy voices.

He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and served in Congress until becoming secretary of state in January 2025.

Vance, 41, entered national politics more recently. A former U.S. senator from Ohio, he became Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election and took office as vice president in January 2025.

The Republican field for 2028 remains highly unsettled, with Trump constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. While several potential candidates are being discussed, the party’s future direction is expected to depend heavily on the results of the 2026 midterm elections and Trump’s standing during the remainder of his presidency.

UNITED NATIONS (VINnews) — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations launched an international Task Force on Combating Antisemitism on Wednesday, saying the world body can no longer treat rising Jew-hatred as a problem of words rather than action.

Ambassador Danny Danon said the initiative was formed with the support of multiple countries and is intended to turn condemnations into coordinated policy. He pointed to antisemitism on streets, campuses, synagogues and inside the United Nations itself.

“An institution founded in the wake of the Holocaust cannot turn a blind eye to it,” Danon said after the launch. With the election of a new secretary-general approaching, he added that fighting antisemitism “must be a top priority.”

The Israeli mission said representatives of dozens of countries took part in the first meeting, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina and Slovakia. Participants are expected to identify emerging threats, develop practical tools and coordinate diplomatic responses.

Danon said governments have too often declared concern without following through. “The words ‘Never Again’ were not meant to be a slogan. They were meant to be a commitment,” he told journalists at a Security Council stakeout. “Words, declarations and statements are not enough. It is time for action.”

He cited a reported 136% increase in antisemitic incidents across the seven countries with the largest Jewish communities outside Israel compared with the period before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. Danon called the surge an international problem that requires an international response and urged additional governments to join the effort.

Jeff Bartos, the U.S. representative to the United Nations for management and reform, described antisemitism as a “global pandemic” and criticized what he called bias by some U.N. special rapporteurs. Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Union coordinator on combating antisemitism, said it is “fully unacceptable” that Jews in many places hide their identity in public. “There can be no excuse for antisemitism,” she said. Rabbi Mark Goldfeder of the National Jewish Advocacy Center told the meeting that governments should measure results by prosecutions, not statements.

Danon said the task force will seek measurable recommendations rather than symbolic language and will address antisemitism both outside the organization and “right here within the walls” of the United Nations. He stressed that the fight is not Israel’s responsibility alone.

“This mission is the responsibility of the entire international community,” he said..

JERUSALEM (VINnews) Britain is considering expanding its sanctions regime against Israel in the coming months, including possible measures targeting Israeli banks that finance construction or mortgages in settlements in Judea and Samaria, according to senior British officials cited by Israel’s Channel 12.

The expanded package is expected to take between six and nine months to develop, according to the report. Possible measures could also target Israeli retail chains involved in settlement-related activity.

The reported plans come as relations between Britain and Israel have deteriorated sharply over Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, particularly plans to develop the strategically important E1 area east of Jerusalem.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the first measures this week, including a ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements and restrictions on British businesses providing services to settlements. London has also previously imposed sanctions on individuals and organizations accused of financing or facilitating settler violence.

The British government says the measures are aimed at settlement expansion and activity that it believes undermines the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In a joint statement issued Tuesday, Britain, France, Canada and nine other countries said settlement expansion and settler violence in Judea and Samaroa were undermining the prospects for a two-state solution. The countries said they would introduce or consider national restrictions on trade in goods from settlements.

Miliband has been particularly critical of Israel’s plans for E1, saying the project could divide Judea and Samaria and undermine the viability of a future Palestinian state. The British government has described Israeli settlements in the region as illegal under international law.

The dispute escalated after Israel announced a series of retaliatory measures against Britain. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Tuesday that Israel would close Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days. The consulate plays a major role in Britain’s diplomatic and consular relations with the Palestinians. British diplomats working there are expected to lose their diplomatic status when the closure takes effect.

Israel is also removing British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for postwar Gaza in Kiryat Gat and terminating Britain’s training program for Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank. In addition, Israel has barred 12 British politicians and other citizens from entering the country, according to Sa’ar. Among those barred is former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Sa’ar said Israel’s response was coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accused Britain of interfering in Israel’s internal affairs and upcoming elections. Israel is scheduled to hold national elections in October.

The British government has defended its actions. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday that Britain must continue to act according to its values and support what he described as justice for Palestinians. The government has emphasized that the sanctions target settlement activity and not Israel’s existence or the Israeli people.

The United States, meanwhile, has criticized the European measures. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the sanctions as discriminatory, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the measures could further destabilize the region.

The British measures are part of a broader international shift over Israeli settlement policy. France, Canada and nine other countries joined Britain in Tuesday’s statement, while several European governments have already imposed restrictions on settlement goods or are considering additional measures.

Britain had already taken tougher action in June, when it coordinated sanctions with Australia, Canada, France and Norway against individuals and organizations accused of financing or enabling settler violence. London also advised British businesses against economic and financial activity in Israeli settlements.

The economic impact of the new trade restrictions is expected to be limited because the volume of direct British trade with Israeli settlements is relatively small. The political significance, however, is considerably greater, as Britain remains one of Israel’s traditional Western allies.

For Israel, the dispute has become another front in a widening diplomatic confrontation over its policies in Judea and Samaria. For Britain and its allies, the measures are intended to pressure the Israeli government to halt settlement expansion and preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.

The possibility of further sanctions against Israeli financial institutions would mark a significant escalation. If implemented, measures affecting banks that provide mortgages or financing for settlement construction could have a substantially greater economic impact than the current restrictions on settlement goods. For now, however, British officials have not publicly confirmed such banking sanctions, and the details of any future package remain under discussion.

CUPERTINO, Calif. (VINnews) — Apple on Wednesday unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone, a launch that also renewed attention on a less visible part of the company’s story: years of Israeli engineering that helped build the cameras, chips, sensors and storage inside the iPhone.

The Duo, introduced at Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event, opens to a 7.6-inch inner display and has a 5.4-inch outer screen. It is powered by the A20 Pro chip, starts at $1,999 for 256GB of storage and is scheduled for pre-order on Oct. 16, with shipments beginning Oct. 23.

The device will not carry a “Made in Israel” label. But Apple’s Israeli footprint is well established. The company operates research and development centers in Herzliya, Haifa and Jerusalem and employs about 2,000 to 2,500 people in the country, according to Israeli business and technology reports. Apple executives have described those teams as central to work on custom silicon, cameras, depth sensing and storage.

Avi Kaner, a New York businessman and frequent commentator on Israel and technology, wrote Wednesday that Israeli companies and engineers have left a mark on iPhone features across several generations, even if most buyers never see that connection.

Apple’s presence in Israel grew through a series of acquisitions and a long-term buildup of local labs.

In late 2011 and early 2012, Apple bought Anobit, an Israeli flash-memory company. Hardware chief Johny Srouji, a Haifa-born Technion graduate who now oversees Apple’s hardware organization, has said the company’s storage controllers are developed in Israel. Apple later hired around that team and expanded chip work in Haifa.

In 2013, Apple acquired PrimeSense, a Tel Aviv firm known for 3D sensing technology used in Microsoft’s Kinect. That purchase is widely linked to Apple’s later work on depth sensing and Face ID. In 2015, Apple bought LinX Computational Imaging, which specialized in compact multi-camera systems and computational photography. In 2017, it added RealFace, a facial-recognition startup. Later deals included Camerai and, in 2026, the Israeli startup Q.AI.

Those purchases were not one-off talent grabs. Apple turned them into standing R&D operations focused on semiconductors, imaging, sensing and memory — some of the hardest problems in a modern smartphone.

Rony Friedman, who long led Apple’s Israel R&D organization, said earlier this year that local teams contributed to chips, cameras and depth systems used in features such as Face ID and cinematic video, as well as work on the Apple Watch, Mac processors and Vision Pro. “It’s hard to find an Apple product that doesn’t have some kind of touch from Apple employees in Israel,” he said.

Srouji has struck a similar note. After visiting Apple’s Israeli labs last year, he said the local team is “essential to developing products used by experts, entrepreneurs, creators and students around the world.”

Apple has also been expanding its physical presence. Reports describe a large new Herzliya campus expected to come online in 2027, plus additional space in Jerusalem near the Hebrew University. Industry accounts have called the Israeli operation one of Apple’s most important development centers outside Cupertino.

The new iPhone Duo puts that history in a fresh frame. Foldable phones depend on custom silicon, durable sensing, camera systems that work across two displays, and storage that can handle high-resolution video. Those are the same areas Israeli engineers have been working on for Apple for more than a decade.

Kaner argued that the story is larger than any single acquisition. Apple, he said, absorbed Israeli startups and then built a lasting research presence around chips, cameras, sensing and storage — technologies that helped define the iPhone even when the finished product is assembled elsewhere.

Apple typically declines to discuss individual acquisitions or assign public credit for specific features to particular labs. The company has not issued a statement tying the Duo itself to its Israeli centers. The public record, however, shows a consistent pattern: Israeli firms supplied key capabilities, Israeli engineers stayed on, and Apple kept expanding the operation.

For iPhone users, the result is mostly invisible. Face ID, computational photography, on-device storage and custom chips are marketed as Apple inventions. Behind those systems is a pipeline that runs through Herzliya, Haifa and Jerusalem as well as California.

The Duo will begin reaching customers next month. Whether or not buyers notice the Israeli role, the engineering record suggests that role is already inside the phone.

(VINnews) – President Donald Trump is promising Americans a potentially massive financial payout if Republicans maintain control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections.

Speaking Wednesday night, Trump pledged a $5,000 “dividend” for every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans retain control of Congress. But the announcement immediately raised questions about whether the president can deliver on the promise and how the federal government would pay for it.

"Here is my promise, if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the U.S Senate, both of them…because of our tremendous strength and success economically I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000." pic.twitter.com/Iy7OVq5vpk

— CSPAN (@cspan) September 10, 2026

Trump cannot simply order the Treasury Department to send $5,000 to every adult American. Congress controls federal spending, meaning legislation would be needed to authorize and fund such a program.

The price tag would be enormous. With roughly 250 million adults in the United States, $5,000 payments could cost approximately $1.25 trillion.

Trump has previously proposed a similar tariff-funded payment — and that promise has yet to materialize.

In 2025, Trump promoted the idea of a $2,000 tariff dividend for Americans, saying revenue generated by his tariffs could be returned to the public. But the payments were never sent. No program was enacted authorizing Americans to receive the promised $2,000.

That history could make tonight’s new promise particularly significant. Trump is now proposing a payment more than twice as large as the one he promoted last year.

The administration would also face questions about whether tariff revenue could generate enough money to finance the payments. Even if tariffs produce hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, a $1.25 trillion program would represent a massive federal expenditure.

If Republicans retain control of Congress, Trump would have a greater opportunity to pursue the proposal through legislation. But Republican lawmakers would still have to approve the program and determine who qualifies, how the money would be distributed and how it would be financed.

The proposal also raises constitutional and fiscal questions that cannot be resolved by a presidential announcement alone.

For now, Trump’s $5,000 dividend remains a political promise rather than an approved federal benefit.

Trump can ask Congress to make it happen. Whether Congress will — and whether the federal government can sustain the enormous cost — would determine whether Americans ever see the promised checks.

(AP) – Democratic Sen. John Fetterman spoke to the Republican midterm convention via video Wednesday, an extraordinary escalation of the growing rupture between the Pennsylvanian and his party.

Fetterman’s decision is certain to stoke fears, already simmering among Democrats, that he will switch parties. Democrats need to pick up four GOP-held Senate seats in November to regain the majority. If Fetterman were to join the Republican Party, Democrats would need to pick up another seat to have control of the chamber.

Fetterman spoke for just over one minute in a recorded video introducing his fellow Pennsylvania senator, Republican Dave McCormick, whom Fetterman called “a great American.”

He didn’t criticize anyone by name but suggested Democrats are extremists, underscoring the message that Republicans are trying to drive home during their two-day rally in Dallas. The convention is meant to fire up the conservative base ahead of midterm elections, when the president’s party has historically lost seats.

“I’m always going to stand with America,” Fetterman said. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life.”

Standing in front of a steel mill, Fetterman said he “will work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life.”

Fetterman has grown increasingly isolated from his party as he maintains staunch support of Israel’s war in Gaza and criticizes left-wing candidates who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America. He’s often gone his own way in the Senate, voting with Republicans to end last year’s shutdown, supporting several of President Donald Trump’s nominees and opposing efforts to end the war in Iran.

Fetterman has repeatedly said he wouldn’t switch parties because of his support for labor unions, LGBTQ rights and other issues held dear by the left.

Even if he remains a Democrat, he would hold outsized power in his caucus if Democrats secure a narrow 51-49 majority that requires them to stick together unanimously to exercise their power.

“How great is John Fetterman?” McCormick said when the video wrapped up. “Thank you, Senator Fetterman, for your friendship. Thank you for your courage. And thank you for all you do for Pennsylvania.”

Right after Fetterman’s video finished, it was shared on a White House social media account with the caption “Based John Fetterman.”

(AP) – One of the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane that careened off a Miami runway and killed five people repeatedly warned they were coming in too fast nearly two minutes ahead of time and at the last second urged them to abort the landing, according to highlights of the cockpit recording that investigators released Wednesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board released some details from the recording after investigators interviewed both pilots, but the full transcript won’t be made public until later. The agency said the other pilot didn’t consistently respond to the speed warnings.

The Amazon plane came in fast on Sunday afternoon and then barreled roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway and smashed into a van carrying workers at a plane cleaning company before hitting a compact SUV as it slid across a public road before catching fire.

All five people who died were in the van. Five others were hurt, including two who remained in critical condition on Tuesday. The two pilots survived.

At the point when the pilot first called out the plane was speeding, former FAA official Mike O’Donnell said the crew could have done a number of things to slow it down, including extending the spoilers, cutting the throttles and lowering the landing gear. Or the pilots could have just aborted the landing at that point and circled to try again.

“You have plenty of time to slow down, plenty of time to say, let’s just do a go-around at two minutes out,” said O’Donnell, who used to oversee airport safety and crash investigations.

The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

The final flight was operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina.

The jet’s ownership history, maintenance records and operations by 21 Air were expected to be reviewed by NTSB investigators.

It’s the second crash of a cargo jet in the U.S. in less than a year. A UPS plane crashed after losing its engine while accelerating down the runway at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport in October. The crash killed all three pilots and 12 people on the ground. Twenty-three more were injured.

NASHVILLE, TENN. (VINnews) — A Republican from New York and a Democrat from New Jersey announced a new House caucus this week aimed at confronting antisemitism on American college campuses, pairing congressional oversight with pressure on universities to protect Jewish students.

Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., unveiled the Combating Antisemitism on College Campuses Caucus during a visit Tuesday to Vanderbilt University. The announcement came at a discussion with Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and visiting administrators from Dartmouth College, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Alabama and the University.

The lawmakers said the group will coordinate oversight of how colleges respond to antisemitic harassment, press schools to enforce existing anti-discrimination rules, advance federal legislation targeting campus antisemitism and boycott campaigns against Israel, and highlight campuses they say have handled the problem more effectively.

Gottheimer, who is Jewish, tied the effort to the surge in campus hostility after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“Since October 7th, Jewish students on too many campuses have been harassed, intimidated, and made to feel like strangers in their own school,” he said. He added that the caucus would “hold universities accountable, back up the schools getting it right, like Vanderbilt, and make sure every Jewish kid can have a college experience without fear of discrimination or violence.”

Stefanik, chair of House GOP leadership and author of the book “Poisoned Ivies,” has been one of Congress’s most visible critics of university presidents since a widely watched 2023 hearing on campus antisemitism.

“I have been proud to be the leader in Congress on combatting antisemitism and anti-Americanism at our colleges and universities,” she said, calling Gottheimer a partner on the issue. “We are committed to saving American higher education for the next generation.”

According to the lawmakers’ offices, the caucus will also track bills that include the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the HEAL Act and the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, an anti-BDS measure the House passed last week that would cut federal student aid to colleges that join commercial boycotts of Israel.

The event in Nashville was framed as a showcase for campuses that have tried to draw a line against harassment while protecting free speech. Vanderbilt has been cited by both members as a model. Other participating schools were invited as examples of administrators willing to confront the problem rather than defer to protest encampments and classroom disruption that followed Oct. 7.

Campus antisemitism has remained a flash point in Congress for nearly three years. Jewish students at several elite universities reported being blocked from walking to class, excluded from student groups and subjected to chants calling for Israel’s destruction. Federal civil-rights investigations followed, along with donor revolts, presidential resignations and a series of House bills tying federal funding to enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Stefanik and Gottheimer have worked across the aisle on that file even as they sit in opposite parties. Their new caucus is intended to keep the issue on the House calendar as the current Congress heads toward its final months.

The members did not announce a full roster of co-chairs or a hearing schedule on Tuesday. They said the immediate work would be oversight, legislation and public attention on universities that either protect Jewish students — or fail to.

ATLANTA (VINnews) – Delta Air Lines and Hyatt Hotels Corp. are launching a new loyalty partnership designed to link their airline and hotel rewards programs.

The exclusive relationship between Delta SkyMiles and World of Hyatt is expected to begin in the coming months. The companies said the initial benefits will be aimed at elite members, with additional details on eligibility and rewards to be announced later.

Under the new arrangement, eligible Delta Medallion members will be able to earn SkyMiles when they spend on qualifying Hyatt stays, while elite World of Hyatt members will earn Hyatt points on eligible Delta fares. Members will also continue receiving certain benefits from their respective loyalty programs.

The companies said the partnership could eventually expand to include additional earning opportunities, personalized benefits and access to special travel and entertainment experiences.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the partnership is intended to extend the airline’s premium service beyond the flight itself.

Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian said the agreement reflects a shared goal of giving travelers a more connected experience throughout their trips.

Delta serves more than 200 million customers annually and flies to more than 300 destinations across six continents. Hyatt operates 36 brands in 83 countries.

The companies encouraged travelers to enroll in both SkyMiles and World of Hyatt ahead of the launch.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At 18, Martín Taborda began studying law at Argentina’s prestigious University of Buenos Aires, hoping to become the first in his family to graduate. Just two years later, that dream has slipped out of reach.

Unemployed and $1,300 in debt, he can no longer afford the bus fare from his suburb or the books he needs to keep studying — even at a tuition-free university that has helped generations of Argentines climb into the middle class.

He’s not alone. Nearly half of Argentina’s 45 million people owe money, and more than 5 million are behind on payments, according to the Center for City Studies, an Argentine nonprofit that tracks debt using central bank data. Borrowers under 25 have the highest delinquency rate of any age group, at 37.6%.

“There’s hardly any work for anyone in this country right now,” said Taborda, who borrowed the equivalent of just over $100 through a mobile payment app in 2024 for education expenses. His debt swelled tenfold as interest accrued on missed payments. Forced to rely on others, he said, “You start to feel like a parasite.”

A new wave of household debt is testing support for President Javier Milei among the young Argentines who helped elect him, and offering the nation’s fragmented opposition an opening to rally disillusioned voters ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Lawmakers debate plan to rein in debt
Opposition lawmakers have called a special session of Congress for Wednesday to consider interest-rate caps and other measures to help Argentines renegotiate their debts. Labor unions and debtors planned to protest outside the building during the debate, which strikes at the heart of Milei’s free-market experiment as voters increasingly look beyond his success in taming inflation to bigger concerns about jobs and wages.

“Households took on debt to survive and now cannot repay it,” left-wing lawmaker Nicolás del Caño and fellow sponsors wrote in their legislative proposal, describing it as “an emergency measure to address the crisis.”

Milei has rejected calls for government relief, arguing that unpaid debts are a private matter between borrowers and lenders rather than a symptom of wider economic distress.

Economy Minister Luis Caputo promised at a recent press conference that banks were easing repayment terms, although he added, “We shouldn’t confuse empathy with public policy.”

Argentines are borrowing just to get by
On a recent afternoon, Taborda joined a few dozen other students in a classroom at his university’s economics school to discuss the emotional toll of their debts.

The gathering followed confidentiality rules similar to those of Alcoholics Anonymous. A moderator asked for a show of hands: Who bought groceries in installments? Who borrowed through payment apps to make ends meet? Who took on debt to repay old loans?

Most hands went up.

Since assuming office in late 2023 promising to break with a discredited political establishment, Milei has slashed the budget deficit and brought annual inflation down from a peak of 289% in early 2024 to about 34% in July.

The greater macroeconomic stability has encouraged banks to lend more, while steep cuts to subsidies for gas, electricity and transport have pushed bills up faster than incomes, forcing many Argentines to borrow just to get by.

In the past, wage increases meant to keep pace with runaway inflation could gradually ease the burden of fixed loan payments. Now, slower inflation means smaller pay raises, while borrowing costs remain sky-high under the government’s tight monetary policy. Digital payment apps require less paperwork than banks but often charge much higher interest because of the greater risk, with annual rates reaching triple digits.

“There was a time when people took out loans to buy a house, an apartment, a car,” said Vanesa Bittoco, a spokesperson for Organized Debtors, an advocacy group that campaigns for repayment plans tied to workers’ incomes. “Now people take out loans to buy food to make it to the end of the month.”

At the anonymous debtors’ meeting, students described feeling trapped, ashamed and increasingly powerless over their futures. The distress extends beyond campus: More than 80% of adults surveyed in Buenos Aires and its suburbs in April said economic problems had a major impact on their psychological well-being, according to the university’s Applied Social Psychology Observatory.

Mounting debt poses political risk to Milei
Experts warn that Argentines’ mounting debt struggles could erode Milei’s support among young voters as he seeks a second term in the 2027 presidential election just 14 months away.

“Clearly, the economic model is hitting young people much harder than other Argentines,” said public opinion consultant Ana Iparraguirre, a partner at Washington-based strategy firm GBAO. “If this continues, Milei is putting his reelection at risk with the same electorate that helped him win.”

Milei has offered little sympathy for struggling Argentines, blaming the surge in delinquencies on irresponsible spending.

“They bought TVs to watch the World Cup and figured they’d decide later whether to pay,” he told investors in the port city of Rosario last month. “Well, now they haven’t paid.”

The debt squeeze comes as Milei’s broader support has weakened. A recent online poll of 1,500 people by well-known Argentine pollster Zuban Córdoba put approval of Milei’s administration at 33%, down from 49% in December 2025, with most respondents saying they’re worse off financially than when Milei took office. The survey, conducted from July 22 to 26, reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

“They’re going to have to provide a solution,” Bittoco, the advocate, said of the government. “Otherwise, they’re the ones who will have a problem.”

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Hamas announced Wednesday that Farah Hamed, a senior commander in its military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

Hamas described Hamed as a “commander and fighter” in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and a member of the Military Council of the al-Qassam Brigades. Palestinian media said he was targeted earlier Wednesday in the Sheikh Ijlin (Sheikh Ajleen) neighborhood in southwestern Gaza City and later died of his wounds. The  IDF had not issued a statement on the strike by Wednesday evening.

Hamed, 43, was originally from the Ramallah area and belonged to the Silwad cell, which Israeli officials and Israeli media have tied to a series of deadly shooting attacks in Judea and Samaria during the Second Intifada. Those attacks included the 2003 killing of Shalom “Shuli” Har-Melech, the husband of MK Limor Son Har-Melech, among other Israeli civilians and soldiers. Limor Har-Melech was injured in the same attack and gave birth that night to her daughter.

Hamed was captured in 2003 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he was released from Israeli prison and deported to Gaza as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. Israeli reports said he resumed activity with Hamas after the swap and survived previous targeting attempts. The head of the same cell, who was also freed in the Shalit deal, was killed in a strike in Rafah in May 2024.

Palestinian official media said Israeli forces later entered Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, and approached a condolence tent set up for Hamed. The IDF did not immediately comment on that report.

The announcement comes amid continued Israeli operations against Hamas commanders in Gaza. Israel has said it is targeting terrorists it accuses of directing attacks and trying to rebuild the group’s military capabilities. Hamas has not released further details on Hamed’s recent role.

(AP) – A group of former Amazon warehouse employees is suing the company for systemically discriminating against pregnant workers, accusing the company of denying them basic accommodations and penalizing some who took breaks to pump milk or time off for hospital visits.

The four plaintiffs filed a proposed nationwide class action in a Brooklyn, New York federal court Tuesday, accusing Amazon of violating the 2022 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide a “reasonable accommodation” for pregnancy and childbirth related medical conditions. To refuse an accommodation, companies must show it would create “undue hardship” for the business.

“Denying a pregnant worker a stool, a lighter workload, or a bathroom break is a violation of federal law — it’s that simple,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of A Better Balance, a nonprofit organization that is representing the plaintiffs along with the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “Amazon has built an empire on speed and efficiency — speed and efficiency that too often sacrifices the rights of pregnant workers it refuses to accommodate.”

Amazon denied the accusations, saying the lawsuit’s description of events is inaccurate.

“Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is one of our greatest responsibilities, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone, which includes supporting tens of thousands of employees with pregnancy accommodations each year,” said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson.

Nantel said Amazon has approved “more than 99.9% of pregnancy related accommodations” over the past year and that “the accounts shared by A Better Balance contain inaccuracies and omit important details.”

A Better Balance spearheaded a decade-long campaign for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, drawing attention to the plight of thousands of women, especially low-wage workers, who have been pushed out of work for requesting accommodations such as a chair or stool, leave to attend prenatal appointments, light duty for manual labor, or temporary reassignment.

The law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and took effect in June 2023 but has since been embroiled in several lawsuits filed by Republican-led states and religious groups, which objected to regulations passed by the Biden-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission establishing that workers seeking abortions are entitled to accommodations.

A federal judge last year struck down the abortion provision of the regulations, which the EEOC, now led by a Republican majority, plans to revise. A separate lawsuit filed by the state of Texas takes aim at the entirety of the law, claiming its passage was unconstitutional because a majority of House members were not physically present to approve the law as part of a spending package in December 2022.

Despite those disputes, the EEOC has been regularly enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, pursuing companies who deny pregnant workers accommodations.

The new lawsuit against Amazon claims the company’s “discriminatory and retaliatory policies” against pregnant workers have already been well-documented in state investigations in New Jersey and New York and EEOC findings.

One of the plaintiffs, Jennifer Hatch, worked in a role processing customer returns in Lancaster, New York, which involved standing for several hours at a time and lifting boxes of various weights to sort their contents. After she found out she was pregnant in January 2025, her doctor determined her pregnancy to be high-risk due to her age, and recommended she sit down at regular intervals.

But when she requested a 30-pound lifting restriction, a sitting break for 15 minutes every four hours, and a maximum of eight hours per shift, Amazon delayed and then denied the requests, according to the lawsuit.

Then, in early March 2025, a manager refused to let Hatch sit in an available chair since her accommodation was not approved, although she was struggling to breathe, the complaint says. And when she clocked out of work early multiple times to go to the hospital for pregnancy-related abdominal pain, exacerbated by standing for long periods at work, Amazon docked her unpaid time off balance and later fired her for violating an attendance policy.

“Lower wage, shift, and hourly women workers are foundational to this country’s economy — yet they’re being treated as disposable. And practices that deny pregnant workers simple accommodations that pose no threat to productivity are not just unfair, they’re illegal,” Chettiar told AP in an emailed statement.

___

MIAMI (VINnews) — A federal magistrate judge ruled Wednesday that social media personalities Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate must remain in custody in Florida while they contest extradition to the United Kingdom on rape, sex trafficking and related charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis denied the brothers’ request for release, finding they failed to show they are not a flight risk or a danger to the community and that no special circumstances justified bail. The written order followed an hours-long hearing last month at the federal courthouse in Miami.

Louis wrote that the brothers have an “exceptional capacity to flee the jurisdiction,” citing their international travel, limited ties to Miami and family connections overseas. She described them as “quintessential flight risks,” even if the lavish wealth they have advertised online is overstated.

Andrew Tate, 39, and Tristan Tate, 38, are dual U.S. and British citizens. U.S. marshals arrested them July 18 in Miami on a provisional warrant tied to Britain’s extradition request. They have been held since then at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.

British prosecutors say the brothers face a combined 59 charges involving seven alleged victims. Andrew Tate is charged with 42 counts and Tristan Tate with 17, including rape, assault and facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation. Additional counts against Andrew Tate include making or distributing indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography. The alleged conduct is said to date from about 2010 to 2017.

The brothers deny all of the allegations.

Defense attorney Joe McBride criticized the ruling, saying the men have been detained since mid-July on a foreign accusation that Britain has not yet been required to support with evidence. “Detention first. Evidence later, maybe,” he said in a statement. Lawyers for the Tates had argued that their high public profile would make flight impractical and that their online displays of wealth were theatrical.

The United Kingdom has until Sept. 16 to submit a formal extradition package to the U.S. State Department. No date has been set for an extradition hearing. The process could take months.

The brothers also face separate criminal proceedings in Romania stemming from a 2022 investigation into human trafficking and related offenses. They have previously said those cases, and the new British charges, are politically motivated.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A Bronx man has been indicted on hate crime charges after allegedly disrupting Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Midtown, damaging religious property and attacking two people, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said Wednesday.

Larry Montes, 46, faces multiple charges, including criminal mischief as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault as a hate crime and criminal interference with religious worship.

“Hate crimes are a top priority for my office and we will continue to seek accountability.” – D.A. Bragg. Watch D.A. Bragg address the indictment of Larry Montes for allegedly attacking two people at Central Synagogue. pic.twitter.com/LE5D9N9iU2

— Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) September 9, 2026

According to court documents and statements made in court, Montes entered the synagogue near East 55th Street and Lexington Avenue on Aug. 14 during Shabbat services.

At about 6:05 p.m., Montes allegedly approached the bimah and claimed he was “Hashem.” He allegedly knocked two religious candles and their holders to the floor, causing more than $7,000 in damage, prosecutors said.

Montes then allegedly walked up the synagogue’s main aisle while shouting antisemitic remarks as congregants attended services, according to prosecutors.

When security personnel attempted to escort him outside, Montes allegedly struck a 63-year-old congregant in the face with the back of his hand. The woman fell and suffered cuts to her lip and right arm, along with bruising, prosecutors said.

Montes also allegedly directed a racist remark at a 65-year-old security guard, spit in his face and headbutted him, according to the indictment.

Security personnel restrained Montes until police arrived. He was arrested at the scene, prosecutors said.

The case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Hate Crimes Unit with assistance from NYPD investigators. Montes is charged with seven counts, including two counts of criminal mischief in the second degree as a hate crime and two counts of aggravated harassment.

The charges are allegations, and Montes is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — President Donald Trump posted archival video Wednesday showing himself in Lower Manhattan days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying the footage supports his account that he went to the area with a large group of construction workers.

Trump said he was not at the World Trade Center when the towers collapsed but went to the area shortly afterward with workers from his company. The footage confirms that Trump was in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 13, 2001.

But the video does not establish that Trump brought more than 100 construction workers to Ground Zero or that his employees participated in the recovery operation.

Richard Alles, a former FDNY battalion chief who spent months working at Ground Zero, disputed that claim in a 2019 interview with PolitiFact. Alles said there “would be a record” if Trump had sent 100 workers to the site because “everybody worked under direct supervision of the police and fire department and the joint commander for emergency services.” Alles also said he knew of no one who had witnessed Trump at the site.

Trump has also said that two firefighters physically carried him away from a nearby building because it appeared to be in danger of collapsing. That account has not been corroborated by available evidence.

The distinction is significant. The newly posted video provides evidence that Trump was in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 13, but it does not independently establish his claims about deploying a large construction crew to the Ground Zero recovery operation or being carried to safety by firefighters.

Trump’s account has come under renewed scrutiny as the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches.

MIAMI (VINnews) — The widow of a man killed when an Amazon cargo plane crashed near Miami International Airport has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Amazon, the cargo carrier that operated the flight and the two pilots.

Attorneys for Yaraisi Santiso Morejon filed the suit Wednesday on behalf of her husband, 53-year-old Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, who was among five people killed in Sunday’s crash.

According to WSVN, the lawsuit alleges that pilot error, inadequate training and the age of the 32-year-old Boeing 767 may have contributed to the crash. The attorneys also allege the plane overshot the runway and that a go-around should have been attempted.

Rodriguez Naranjo was traveling in a van with six other men who worked for an aircraft-cleaning company when the plane overran the runway and struck the vehicle.

Two people in the van survived. One remained in critical condition and another was stable. A 79-year-old driver of a second vehicle struck by the plane also remained in critical condition, WSVN reported.

The aircraft was operated by 21 Air for Amazon. Federal investigators are continuing to examine the cause of the crash, and the lawsuit could be amended as additional information emerges.

LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA (VINnews) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar inaugurated Israel’s first embassy in Slovenia on Wednesday, joining Slovenian Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer at a ceremony in the capital.

Sa’ar said the new mission is Israel’s fifth embassy opened in about 18 months and pledged to keep expanding the country’s diplomatic network. He described Slovenia as part of a wider circle of friends in Europe and said Jerusalem intends to deepen cooperation with those partners.

Until now, Israel handled relations with Slovenia through a nonresident ambassador based elsewhere in Europe. The countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, shortly after Slovenia’s independence. Slovenia opened an embassy in Israel in 1994.

The embassy opening follows a sharp change in Ljubljana’s approach toward Israel. After Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s government took office this year, Slovenia reversed several measures adopted by the previous center-left administration, including an entry ban on Israeli officials and restrictions on settlement goods and defense-related trade. Jansa has also signaled interest in moving Slovenia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Israel announced plans for a resident embassy in June, after Jansa’s coalition was approved. Ruth Cohen-Dar, who had served as nonresident ambassador to Slovenia, was later named the first resident ambassador.

Sa’ar’s visit also included talks aimed at expanding political, economic and cultural cooperation. Reuters reported that student groups, a left-wing opposition party and pro-Palestinian organizations planned protests against the embassy opening. A June poll by the Slovenian daily Delo found a majority of respondents opposed closer ties with Israel.

The new mission in Ljubljana follows recent Israeli embassy openings in Moldova, Zambia, Estonia and Fiji.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections.

Oil prices jumped more than 3% today, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.

“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”

Trump, in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas for the midterm Republican convention, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.

“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said.

The president at the outset of the war said it would last a matter of weeks. The conflict is now in its seventh month.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 2.4%, pushing the price to $95.25 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices rose sharply overnight.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked up 7 cents overnight t o hit $4.22, now more than a dollar above what it cost at this point last year, according to AAA.

Diesel prices, which can have an outsize impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and have continued to climb since. The average price per gallon reached $5.94 overnight and is now 9 cents higher than it was on Friday.

Jet fuel has become so expensive that U.S. and international carriers have cut flights while raising fares and fees.

Markets reacted after the U.S. military reported striking five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship and after attacks by an Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group ignited fires at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch unveiled a new 9/11 memorial wall Wednesday at One Police Plaza honoring department members killed in the attacks and those who later died from illnesses linked to their service.

Twenty-three NYPD officers were killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Thousands more participated in the rescue, recovery and cleanup operations that followed.

The NYPD unveils the September 11th Memorial Wall at One Police Plaza. https://t.co/1KYqEelOJq

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 9, 2026

Mamdani highlighted the story of Officer John William Perry, who was preparing to leave the NYPD and become an attorney when the first plane struck the North Tower. Perry returned his attention to the department, retrieved his shield and rushed to the World Trade Center, where he was last seen helping people escape before returning to the burning building.

Mamdani said more than 450 NYPD officers have died from 9/11-related illnesses over the past 25 years. Tisch put the number at more than 469, saying the department continues to lose members who served at Ground Zero and in the recovery effort.

Tisch said the memorial is intended to preserve the history of those who served for a new generation of officers, many of whom were children or had not yet been born when the attacks occurred.

She also stressed what she called the “moral clarity” of remembering the attacks, saying the terrorists who struck New York and the first responders who ran toward the danger must never be viewed through the same lens.

Chief of Department Michael LiPetri said more than 1,700 NYPD members have retired with World Trade Center-related disabilities. He said the department continues to lose members whose illnesses resulted from their post-9/11 service.

The memorial was created with support from the New York City Police Foundation and philanthropist Ken Griffin. Officials said the wall will serve as a permanent reminder of the officers’ sacrifice and the legacy they left for future generations of the NYPD

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The average National Football League team is now valued at $10.36 billion, a 35 percent increase from a year earlier, according to CNBC’s 2026 franchise valuations released Wednesday.

The Dallas Cowboys remain the league’s most valuable club at $16 billion, CNBC senior sports reporter Michael Ozanian said. The Cowboys generated about $1.29 billion in revenue during the 2025 season, well above the league average of roughly $723 million.

The Los Angeles Rams ranked second at $14.5 billion, followed by the Las Vegas Raiders at $13 billion, the New York Giants at $12.5 billion and the New England Patriots at $12.25 billion.

CNBC said every franchise increased in value. The lowest-ranked teams on its list were still worth more than $8 billion. The Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills and Arizona Cardinals occupied the bottom three spots.

League-wide media rights deals, new stadium projects and limited supply of teams have driven the surge, analysts said. Several clubs, including the Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Commanders, Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs, are planning or building new venues.

Forbes, which issued its own rankings the same day, placed the Cowboys at $17 billion and the league average at $9.5 billion, up 34 percent. Sportico earlier estimated an average of about $9.34 billion.

The NFL’s 32 teams are now collectively worth more than $300 billion on some estimates. Private-equity purchases of minority stakes have also lifted valuations after the league relaxed ownership rules in 2024.

Ozanian told CNBC the appreciation has been consistent across the league.

CUPERTINO, California (AP) — Apple on Wednesday unveiled its latest generation of iPhones, including a widely anticipated foldable version called Duo.

The company’s new CEO, John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1, introduced the latest lineup at the Steve Jobs Theater.

After cycling through other updates to the iPhone, the Apple Watch and AirPods along with artificial intelligence advances, Ternus told the audience that “actually there is one more thing,” in a nod to the trademark phrase from Jobs that Jobs himself borrowed from the 1970s detective show “Columbo.”

Called Duo, the phone has the “largest display ever on an iPhone, yet fits into your pocket,” Ternus said.

The phone opens to a 7.6 inch display that is 80% larger than the newest iPhone 18 Pro. It will let people use an Apple Pencil on the phone, a capability previously reserved to iPad users.

Duo, Ternus said “will redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.”

The Duo also lets users split the screen to use two different apps on the device, or two windows the same website for things like comparison shopping.

New iPhone 18 models
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Ternus said, bring improvements to the battery, camera, and performance. They will start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively. The Duo starts at $1,999. Customers can preorder the phones starting on Sept. 12 and they will be available on Sept. 18, although the Duo will be available on Oct. 23.

The new models feature a long battery life — 45 hours of video playback for the Pro Max — and faster charging. The camera offers what Apple called “cinematic effects” from regular video captured on the phone, as well as new options for manual controls and “smart focus tracking,” which lets users focus on a single moving subject, such as a kid during a soccer game.

Apple is also focusing on Siri’s new AI capabilities with the new phones, emphasizing privacy and security to stand apart from rivals who are further along in incorporating AI.

Many of Apple’s biggest rivals, such as Samsung, Motorola and Google, have already come out with foldable smartphones. But Apple is not one to rush on new technologies.

“The foldable launch is straight out of Apple’s playbook: Wait for the product to work out its kinks and for the market to offer glimpses of viability, then enter and shape the category,” said Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee. “The difference is that foldables still represent a minuscule share of the smartphone market. The test of Apple’s ambition will be whether it can expand that niche into a meaningful new segment.”

Compared with earlier generations, the iPhone 18 costs about $100 more due partly to a global memory chip shortage. The iPhone 17’s price ranges from $799 to $1,999 depending on the model.

Earlier this year, Apple unveiled artificial intelligence advances, including upgrades to its Siri assistant, emphasizing a focus on privacy and day-to-day use as the company tries to catch up with rivals on AI.

Ternus takes center stage
The keynote address for Ternus at the tech giant’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, will set the tone for his vision of Apple’s future, Chatterjee said.

“John Ternus inherits perhaps the most successful consumer technology juggernaut in modern times. That is both a boon and a burden for him. Tim Cook’s perfected execution, scale, and monetization set a high bar, and Ternus must extend that run,” Chatterjee said. “But he must sustain that momentum while positioning Apple to disrupt itself in the near future, when the iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter, will cease to be the consumer’s primary conduit to the world.”

Last year’s iPhone 17 lineup, which included a new ultra-thin model, has been selling well. That generation saw a new slimmed-down model that adopted the “Air” name that Apple already used for its sleekest iPads and Mac computers.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Three prominent rabbinical judges in Bnei Brak have issued an unusually forceful ruling calling for a stronger fight against dangerous driving, declaring that road safety and compliance with traffic laws are both a religious and civil obligation.

Rabbi Sariel Rosenberg, Rabbi Yehuda Silman and Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin of the Bnei Brak Rabbinical Court published the ruling Wednesday under the title “And You Shall Guard Yourselves Very Carefully.”(V’Nishmartem). The rabbis warned that careless driving constitutes a continuing danger to human life and that those who disregard safety rules could potentially violate the grave prohibition against bloodshed.

The ruling emphasizes that traffic regulations are not merely government recommendations but must be strictly followed as part of the obligation to protect human life.

Particular attention is given to distracted driving, including the use of cellphones by drivers. The rabbis specifically condemned writing, dialing and talking on a phone while driving, describing such behavior as placing the lives of passengers, pedestrians and other motorists at risk. The ruling also focuses on drivers of passenger-transport services, urging the community to take the issue especially seriously when a driver’s actions put multiple passengers at risk.

Perhaps the most significant portion of the statement addresses what a person should do after witnessing dangerous driving. The rabbis instruct anyone who sees a driver engaging in dangerous behavior to warn the driver immediately, even if the driver is a friend or family member. If the driver continues the dangerous conduct, the person who witnessed it should consult a rabbinic authority regarding further action, including contacting the appropriate authorities in order to prevent the driver from continuing to endanger others. The ruling says that preventing a threat to human life takes precedence over concerns about reporting another person to government authorities.

The issue is particularly significant in the charedi community, where questions involving the reporting of fellow Jews to state authorities have historically been subject to halachic considerations. In this case, however, the rabbis make clear that the prevention of a potentially fatal accident is the overriding concern.

The rabbis also emphasize that dangerous driving should be addressed before an accident occurs, rather than waiting until someone is injured or killed.

Their statement comes as Israel continues to struggle with a serious road-safety crisis. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, 459 people were killed in road crashes in 2025, the highest annual toll in 19 years. There were 438 fatal crashes during the year. Preliminary figures for the first four months of 2026 showed 139 road deaths, still a substantial toll despite a decline compared with the same period in 2025.

The National Road Safety Authority has identified distracted driving, dangerous overtaking, impaired driving and aggressive driving among the factors contributing to Israel’s road deaths.

A facsimile of the original Hebrew ruling, bearing the signatures of the three rabbinical judges, was published online by JDN.

DETROIT (VINnews) — A coalition of Michigan rabbis and Jewish leaders has issued an open letter outlining five “nonnegotiable” principles that Democratic candidates must affirm to earn their votes, an effort organizers said is directed at U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed even though it does not name him.

The letter, released this week under the banner Nonnegotiable Michigan and backed by the Zioness Action Fund, lists as nonnegotiable: Jewish safety, including for Zionist Jews, in Michigan and across America; the right of Jews to define their own identities; Jewish sovereignty in Israel; full Jewish participation in American political life; and an affirmative vision for a better future in the Middle East.

“Every constituency must occasionally remind its party that support is earned, not owed,” the letter states. “This is a good faith effort to make our needs unmistakably clear.”

Initial signers include more than a dozen rabbis and cantors. Among the organizers are Rabbi Aaron Starr, president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis and spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, and Rabbi Josh Whinston of Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor.

El-Sayed, a former Detroit public health official, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary after a campaign marked by sharp disagreement over Israel. He has criticized Israeli policy and told The New York Times he does not “believe in ethno-states.” Organizers said some of his rhetoric and that of his allies has left Jews feeling unsafe.

El-Sayed has since met with Jewish leaders and apologized for comments after a March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township. Starr said El-Sayed has taken steps forward but “just not far enough.” Whinston said he has spoken directly with the nominee and wants to “continue to move the needle.”

El-Sayed faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in the Nov. 3 general election in a contest that could help decide control of the Senate. The letter is a demand for clearer commitments, not an endorsement or a final electoral judgment.

The campaign is asking Michigan Jews to sign a petition calling on candidates to meet the stated baseline needs.

BROOKLYN (VINnews) — A limited-edition silver coin featuring the image of the Lubavitcher Rebbe has been issued to commemorate 75 years since the Rebbe formally assumed the leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The commemorative coin was produced by Collect 2 Connect in cooperation with the Government of Niue and New Zealand. Organizers say it is the first legal-tender coin ever issued bearing the Rebbe’s portrait.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

The project, titled “Spreading the Light,” was created to reflect the Rebbe’s worldwide mission of bringing Torah, mitzvos and Jewish life to communities across the globe through the work of thousands of Chabad shluchim.

Each coin is struck from one troy ounce of .999 fine silver and carries an official denomination of one Niue dollar. Although its face value is symbolic, its designation makes the coin official legal tender issued under the authority of the Pacific island nation.

One side of the coin displays a high-relief portrait of the Rebbe surrounded by the words “Bracha V’Hatzlacha,” or “Blessings and Success,” in several languages. The phrase was closely associated with the Rebbe, who frequently offered the blessing to those seeking his guidance.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

The reverse features the iconic Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Beneath the building is an eight-branched menorah radiating beams of light across the world, representing the continued work of the Rebbe’s shluchim and the dissemination of Torah and Chassidus.

The coin was designed by internationally recognized Italian medal and coin artist Sandra Deiana, whose work has appeared on commemorative pieces produced for several international mints.

According to the project’s organizers, rabbinic guidance was consulted during the coin’s development.

The coin also contains a distinctive physical connection to the Rebbe. A dime that had previously been distributed by the Rebbe for tzedakah was melted into the silver used during production, meaning that a portion of the original coin was incorporated into the commemorative minting.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

“We wanted to create something that would not only mark 75 years of the Rebbe’s nesius, but would also capture the Rebbe’s message and mission,” the organizers said. “The theme of ‘Spreading the Light’ reflects the Rebbe’s call to bring the light of Torah and mitzvos to every corner of the world.”

Only 5,786 coins were minted, corresponding to the Hebrew year 5786. The limited production is expected to make the release particularly sought after among Chabad chassidim, shluchim and Judaica collectors.

The Rebbe formally accepted the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch on Yud Shevat 5711, one year after the passing of his father-in-law and predecessor, the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

During the following decades, the Rebbe transformed Chabad into a worldwide Jewish movement, sending emissaries to establish Jewish institutions, schools, synagogues and Chabad Houses in communities around the globe.

The commemorative coin is being offered through the Collect 2 Connect website.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts shows that while mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, it’s also higher than it was at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, underscoring how his recent attempts to dismantle parts of the federal bureaucracy may have affected public confidence in the executive branch, particularly among Democrats.

Those suspicions extend to the results of the coming midterm elections. Only 34% of U.S. adults trust government certifications of election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” which is down slightly from 40% in 2024. Certification is a typically routine process in which local and state officials confirm the vote count, but it’s become politicized since Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

Trust in government information has also become more partisan since Trump’s first term, the survey found.

“It’s pretty hard to trust anything that’s being communicated,” said Shannon Ingram, 46, a Democrat who lives in Maryland, pointing to shifting health recommendations as an example of “questionable” government information she’s seen since Trump regained office. “There is a significant amount of bias, and it comes from the people who are authoring the content.”

Lower trust in federal government information
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have low trust in information from the federal government about the environment, foreign affairs, elections and politics, abortion or immigration — saying they trust it “only a little” or “not at all.”

Mistrust in what the federal government says has risen at least slightly on nearly every topic that was asked about in an AP-NORC/ USAFacts survey from 2019. That includes education — which has risen from 37% in 2019 to 53% now — with a 9-percentage point spike in the last year.

The findings come after a year and a half of upheaval in the executive branch. Trump began to dismantle key parts of the federal bureaucracy soon after entering the White House for the second time, moving to end longstanding programs and shutter entire agencies.

Since then, thousands of federal employees have been fired or left their jobs, substantially reducing the ranks of the government statisticians and leading experts to warn about risks to data quality.

Shifting regulations and recommendations have also led to dramatic changes in government policy. Recent changes to longstanding health advice have put doctors and medical organizations at odds with the Trump administration on vaccination recommendations. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded a scientific finding that has underpinned government action to fight climate change for more than a decade.

Jeremy Cove, a 44-year-old Republican from Missouri, trusts the Trump administration’s guidance on matters like vaccines, but he disagrees with their assertion that climate change is not happening, or that humans are not contributing to it.

“I love Trump; I voted for Trump, but some of the things he’s doing just makes me distrust more,” Cove said. “Stuff like renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, it just makes you think about what their priorities are. Then you realize it’s not what it should be, which in turn, makes you distrust even more.”

Belief in government information has become more partisan
The gap between Republicans’ and Democrats’ trust in government information is much wider than it was during Trump’s first term, a shift that first began to appear under former President Joe Biden.

Democrats were generally less likely to trust government information in Trump’s first term, but not dramatically more than Republicans. That shifted when control of the White House changed hands. Republicans’ mistrust in government information rose while Biden was president and fell after Trump took office. Meanwhile, Democrats’ doubts declined under Biden and spiked when Trump regained power.

For example, 61% of Democrats now have low trust in information about the federal budget, compared with 42% of Republicans, while 60% of Democrats have low trust in information about crime, compared with only 32% of Republicans.

Larry Haith, a 76-year-old Republican from Idaho, says he tends to trust the federal government — though, he acknowledges that it can vary based on the current administration.

“Generally speaking, I’ve got more confidence in the federal government today than I’ve had in years,” he said.

Independents, meanwhile, became more mistrustful of government information under Biden and haven’t shifted under Trump.

The only issue without a substantial partisan divide in the new survey is vaccination recommendations and safety: about 6 in 10 Democrats, Republicans and independents trust the federal government on vaccination recommendations and safety “only a little” or “not at all.”

Few trust political messages, even from their own party
As the 2026 midterms approach, public concern about the accuracy of the election results is widespread. Just under half of U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned the federal government will publicly discredit or question election results, tamper with election results, or pressure state election officials to change how they certify or report results.

Over the past few months, Trump has repeated long-debunked allegations of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election, attempted to place new restrictions on mail voting in time for the midterms and pushed Congress to enact a proof-of-citizenship requirement to register and vote. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also warned state officials that they could lose funding or face investigations if they fail to go along with Trump’s election security demands.

At the same time, few Americans trust the information they get from political campaigns. Only about 1 in 10 U.S. adults say the Democratic Party or Republican Party campaign messages are “always” or “often” based in factual information.

In a sign of how deep the mistrust runs, only about one-quarter of Democrats trust their party’s campaign messages to be factual at least “often,” while a similar share of Republicans say this about their party.

Less than half of Democrats, 44%, trust government certifications of election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” a substantial decline from 65% in 2024.

Even with Trump back in the White House, though, Republicans haven’t seen a similar increase in confidence. Only 29% of Republicans have high trust in government certifications of election results, up just slightly from 2024.

Trust in other sources of information about election outcomes — such as national news outlets or cable news networks — is also low overall.

Kim Murza, a Democrat from Colorado, has faith in the country’s ability to run fair elections but blames the Trump administration for eroding Americans’ trust in the process.

“My concern is more about what the current administration is doing,” said 45-year-old Murza. “I think they are doing whatever they can to try to put that distrust in people’s minds.”

A Letter From a Grieving Mother: Protect our Children this School Year

To my dear community, and to fellow parents everywhere, 

A few months ago, our precious 4-year-old daughter, Adina, was taken from us in a tragedy that no parent should ever even be able to comprehend. 

My daughter was vibrant, full of life, and loved with every fiber of our being. She was truly the light of our lives. Adina was being driven to school in her routine carpool since August of last year. The driver mistakenly left her inside the vehicle on a hot day. The alarm bells went off when I went to pick her up at the end of the day and her teacher said she was absent. By the time anyone realized, it was already too late and my Adina was gone. 

Since that dark day, our world has been shattered and the silence in our home is unbearable. What was once filled with giggles and simcha is now filled with an eerie silence. But as the new school year approaches, my family and I will not remain silent while other precious children remain at risk. 

Over this past summer alone, Klal Yisrael has wept for precious neshamos lost in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Eretz Yisrael. These horrific incidents happen because human memory is fragile and our days are filled with distractions.

That is why I am writing directly to you today. I am pleading with every parent, school administrator, and community leader to take immediate action and implement the life saving initiatives led by Team Protect – an organization devoted to keeping children safe.

Team Protect is imploring schools and daycares to operate a multi layered defense to do our part to make sure no other family ever experiences this excruciating pain and grief BEH:

In Our Vehicles: The Clever Elly Device

The Clever Elly is a small safety device that plugs directly into a car’s 12V auxiliary port. Every single time the car engine is turned off, it plays a clear, safety reminder: Check the backseat.

It doesn’t rely on Bluetooth, apps, or complex setups. It just works—every single time. I urge every shul, preschool, and daycare to organize community distribution drives so that every parent, grandparent, and carpool driver has this device in their car.

In Our Schools: Mandatory Automated Attendance Systems

Every elementary school, preschool, and daycare must implement automated attendance tracking protocols that immediately alert parents via text, phone call, or app if a child is marked absent without prior notice. As our precious children are returning to school within the next few weeks, it is incumbent on the administration of every school to ensure these systems are in place prior to the start of the new school year. 

Recently in Miami, one of these systems saved a child’s life after their mother was alerted that her child hadn’t arrived at school. The child was found in the back of a carpool van just in time. Every minute counts. If a child doesn’t show up, parents must know immediately. Please, do not wait to update your attendance systems. 

If your school currently has an attendance system, please consider sharing your name on the website. If your administration is open to looking into this, consider signing a pledge – it’s quick, free and creates momentum to encourage others to do the same. Team Protect also offers a comparative analysis of different attendance systems to look over. 

Team Protect can help make sure that every parent has a Clever Elly in their car and guide all early childhood administrators to implement an attendance alert system that works for them. 

Check out Team Protect’s campaign, which details their mission and the importance of their cause. 

Please, in honor of my sweet Adina, take action today so that no mother ever has to write a letter like this again.

May the memory of Adina Liba bas Zev Chaim A”H be a blessing, and may Hashem protect all of our children as we begin this new school year BEH.

To learn more about hosting a Clever Elly drive or implementing automated attendance protocols in your school, visit Team Protect or contact [email protected]

LOS ANGELES (VINnews) — More than 5,000 public figures from entertainment, academia, government, business and religious life have signed an open letter rejecting accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and warning that such claims are contributing to antisemitism around the world.

The letter, released Wednesday by Creative Community for Peace, brings together prominent politicians, scholars, entertainers, writers and Jewish communal leaders.

Among the signatories are former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Harvard professor Steven Pinker, historians Benny Morris and Niall Ferguson, former U.S. antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt and author Yossi Klein Halevi.

Entertainment figures listed as signatories include actors Debra Messing, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anthony Edwards, Mayim Bialik, Patricia Heaton and Jerry O’Connell, along with producers and media executives including Sherry Lansing, Shari Redstone, Haim Saban and Jane Rosenthal.

The letter argues that the legal definition of genocide requires specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, and says the signatories believe that standard has been improperly applied to Israel’s war in Gaza.

The signatories acknowledge that there is legitimate debate over Israel’s conduct of the war and express concern over civilian deaths. They argue, however, that criticism of Israel’s military actions should be distinguished from the legal accusation of genocide.

The statement also links the genocide accusation to what its authors describe as a worldwide increase in antisemitic harassment and violence. It says rhetoric surrounding Israel has contributed to the exclusion and targeting of Jews in different countries.

Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister, called the accusation a distortion of historical, legal and moral standards. Lipstadt likewise argued that the charge has been repeated so frequently that it has gained acceptance in public discourse.

Creative Community for Peace Executive Director Ari Ingel said public figures have a particular responsibility because their statements can influence millions of people. He distinguished criticism of Israel from what he described as an inflammatory and false accusation of genocide.

The letter comes amid continuing international debate over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the conduct of the war and the humanitarian consequences for Palestinian civilians.

The signatories conclude by urging Jews and their non-Jewish allies to reject what they characterize as a dangerous accusation against Israel and warning that anti-Israel rhetoric can have consequences for Jewish communities worldwide.

To sign the letter, click here: [LINK]

WASHINGTON D.C — U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Wednesday a major federal enforcement action against an illicit Chinese-language marketplace operating on Telegram that authorities say had more than 650,000 users and supported large-scale fraud, money laundering and human trafficking.

Officials said the platform was used to build fake investment websites, launder stolen funds and recruit trafficking victims to work inside scam compounds in Southeast Asia. The announcement came from the Scam Center Strike Force, which Pirro launched in 2025 to target Chinese-linked organized crime groups running industrial-scale “pig butchering” and cryptocurrency investment fraud operations against Americans.

Authorities identified the marketplace as Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based service that sold customized scam websites, cryptocurrency laundering services and recruitment tools to operators of overseas fraud compounds. Court-authorized action included sealing the group’s Telegram channel and freezing more than $52 million in cryptocurrency, including two wallets holding about $12 million and 47 additional linked wallets. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control simultaneously designated Xinbi a significant transnational criminal organization and imposed sanctions.

The strike force said the cumulative value of cryptocurrency it has restrained in related cases now stands at roughly $938 million. Officials also reported coordinated work in Madagascar, where teams helped local authorities dismantle 13 scam centers, process more than 3,200 electronic devices, make nearly 400 arrests and deport about 30 alleged Chinese ringleaders.

Cryptocurrency investment scams remain one of the fastest-growing forms of fraud targeting U.S. victims. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost $8.65 billion to such schemes in 2025, an 89% increase from 2023. Many operations rely on trafficked workers held in compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia and neighboring countries who are forced to run romance and investment cons against people in the United States.

Pirro has repeatedly described the networks as Chinese transnational organized crime groups that exploit U.S. internet platforms, social media and financial infrastructure. Previous strike force actions included charges against compound managers, seizures of hundreds of fake investment websites and the first federal seizure of a Telegram recruitment channel used to lure workers into Cambodian compounds.

Telegram has faced repeated criticism for hosting Chinese-language “guarantee” marketplaces that function as escrow services for scammers, money launderers and compound operators. Earlier research by blockchain analytics firms estimated that Xinbi and related platforms processed billions of dollars in USDT and other cryptocurrency. Officials said Wednesday’s action was intended to disrupt the infrastructure that supplies those operations rather than only individual scam sites.

The Justice Department urged anyone who believes they have been victimized by cryptocurrency investment or romance scams to file a report at ic3.gov.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sal Argano got lucky. When the World Trade Center was struck by hijacked jets on Sept. 11, 2001, the New York City firefighter was in Brooklyn, on loan to another station, rather than at his usual post at the small Manhattan firehouse just across an intersection from the twin towers.

He rushed downtown to find his firehouse badly damaged but still standing. Six of its members, he’d later learn, were among the 343 New York City firefighters killed in the World Trade Center’s collapse.

“If I wasn’t sent out on rotation there would have been a good chance I would not be here today,” Argano says. “I think about that all the time.”

Almost 25 years later, Argano, now 65, is still on duty at the firehouse — the last of the firefighters assigned there in 2001 who still works there.

Today, the crews at the firehouse respond to emergency calls but also serve as a de facto part of the 9/11 memorial, visited by crowds of tourists daily.

A tour guide talks about Daniel Suhr, the first firefighter to die in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Some visitors come specifically to see the large bronze relief along the side of the building listing the names of the firefighters killed on 9/11.

Others pause to take selfies as they pass by on their way to the National 9/11 Memorial plaza across the street, drawn by the sight of Engine 10 and Ladder 10, the gleaming trucks sitting in the garage that give the station its nickname: Ten House.

“This is definitely one of those companies where if you don’t want to ingratiate yourself to the public, it’s definitely not the right place,” said Capt. Terence Brody, who commands Ladder 10 and has worked at the station since 2016. “People around the world know this firehouse. They’re going to come by and say hello.”

Ten House served key roles during and after 9/11
Brody, now 55, was still in the fire academy on 9/11. Cadets grabbed their gear and were bused to ground zero.

The debris hung so thickly in the air around the fallen towers that it looked like it was snowing, he said.

“It was a beautiful sunny Tuesday, and then you’re in this kind of apocalyptic atmosphere,” Brody said. “It was a little overwhelming, to say the least.”

In the days after the attack, Ten House served as both command center and safe space for weary first responders, he said. As the years passed, its crew had a front-row seat to the area’s rebirth.

Robert Favata joined Ladder 10 in 2008, fresh out of the academy.

In those early years, he worked beside a giant hole teeming with construction activity. Now 46, he looks out at a transformed landscape.

A pair of waterfall pools sit in the footprint of the old towers, ringed by parapets etched with the names of nearly 3,000 victims. Below ground, the 9/11 Museum houses mangled steel beams, a destroyed fire truck and other artifacts. New skyscrapers ring the memorial.

“When I got here, there was nothing,” Favata says. “I never thought they were gonna finish.”

Today, an endless stream of visitors stop at firehouse
Argano can be found most days perched near the station’s open bay doors, patiently answering questions, shaking hands and posing for photos.

He says Ten House firefighters have a unique charge: they’re both living testimonials to the events of 9/11 as well as public faces of the centuries-old FDNY.

Argano says he tries to impress on younger firefighters — many increasingly not even born before the attacks — the importance of treating every visitor with respect.

“This is not like any other firehouse,” he said. “We have our fire duty, we have our responses, and then we have a responsibility toward the people outside.”

He acknowledges the task is not always easy. The packs of gawking tourists can be relentless. Their questions can sometimes come across too personal, too insincere or just simply too out there.

Many of the younger firefighters tend to keep a lower profile for that reason, he said.

After responding to an early morning call this particular day, most of the crew heads to the back of the station to stow their gear or upstairs to help prepare lunch.

Argano meanwhile chats up a firefighter from France and his wife and then invites them into the station.

He points to a wall of patches from fire departments across the world that have been gifted over the years, as well as the well-worn helmets hanging in the rafters.

At another point, though, a lady asks — perhaps a bit too flippantly — what’s so special about Ten House.

Argano shrugs: “It’s just a fire station.” After she departs, he says it simply wasn’t worth the effort.

“If I need to explain to you all of that, then it’s like, ‘Pull up a seat’,” Argano said. “Let me get another cigarette. It’s gonna be a long one.”

Ten House members reflect on 9/11 milestone
Favata considers the approaching 25th anniversary as likely one of his last before retirement. He worries, though, if he’s done enough to keep the memories of Ten House alive.

“When I got here, so many of the guys worked 9/11 and they told me their stories of that day,” Favata said, choking on tears. “I just hope I can give like a percentage of what they’ve told me to the younger guys.”

Brody, meanwhile, handed in his retirement papers Tuesday. His last day will be in October.

“It’s interesting to think that my first day in the field was right across the street, and this is where I’m gonna end my career,” said Brody, who writes screenplays in his spare time and has already had two of them turned into Hallmark Channel movies.

But Argano, who drives Engine 10, isn’t quite ready to pack it in. He fears something will be lost when no one is there who still remembers.

“I’m not done. I’m gonna be here as long as I can,” Argano said. “I’m going to keep telling them what I know, what I saw, what I’ve been through. Telling them the history of this firehouse. Everything I can remember.”

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Retired Associated Press photographer Amy Sancetta reflects on her experience covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as the 25th anniversary approaches.

Sancetta was in New York City for the U.S. Open when she was sent to Lower Manhattan after reports that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. Her photographs captured people fleeing the collapsing towers and the devastation that followed.

Her images became part of the AP’s visual record of one of the most consequential stories in American history.

LONDON (AP) — Airlines scrambled Wednesday to dig out from the backlog triggered by technical problems at Britain’s air traffic control system that has forced the cancellation of more than 1,750 flights.

Delays continued for a second day Wednesday, rippling across 15 U.K. airports and beyond as airlines and airports worked to clear a huge backlog of canceled and delayed flights. The problems stranded passengers for hours on airport runways and in terminals.

Flight delays were expected to continue through the day Wednesday as airlines rebook stranded passengers and work to reposition aircraft left at the wrong airports by the cancellations.

NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, which operates Britain’s air traffic control system, attributed the problems to “an issue in our flight processing system.” The company said it was supporting airlines and airports while they recover from the “ongoing disruption,” although the original technical issue was resolved Tuesday afternoon.

But airlines were furious, demanding that the head of NATS, Martin Rolfe, consider resigning after the second air traffic meltdown in three years.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met with Rolfe on Wednesday and gave him one week to complete a full investigation into the incident to make sure lessons are learned. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s office said Rolfe retains the confidence of the government.

The UK government owns 49% of NATS, making it the largest shareholder and giving it a veto over key decisions. Airlines, airports, investors and employees own the remaining shares in the public-private partnership.

Rolfe on Wednesday apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage but said the U.K. air traffic control system remains one of the safest and most efficient in the world.

“Our job is also to make sure that people stay safe,” he told the BBC. “We never do this lightly. We only ever do it when there is an issue that cannot be resolved quickly, and we have to take action to make (sure) those who are flying, who are in the air at that time, are safe. And when we can restore these incredibly complex systems we do so as quickly as we can.”

Meanwhile, passengers were left to fend for themselves.

Cartoonist Charlie Adlard, who worked on the “Walking Dead” comic book series, was traveling from his home in western England to a comic book convention in Palermo, Sicily, when he was derailed by the air traffic issues. After running into the chaos at Heathrow, he tried and failed to reach his carrier, British Airways, by phone.

“Due to the lack of information, due to everything crashing now, due to the fact that apparently BA have now switched off their customer service phone number because there’s so many calls, we’re not really sure what to do,” Adlard, 60, said.

After losing a day of work, spending money on an airport hotel and paying for dinner and breakfast, he decided to turn around and go home.

“So yeah, I’ve lost quite a bit of money on this rather wasteful journey,” Adlard said.

Other airports experience similar problems. At Gatwick Airport, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of central London, passengers stretched out on the bare floor beside their suitcases. Others huddled around message boards, hoping for information.

In a statement on X, Heathrow, Europe’s largest airport, urged passengers to check their flight status before traveling to the airport and to “only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.″

“We apologize to those affected and have extra colleagues across our terminals to support passengers while we work with NATS and airline partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible,” Heathrow said.

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Noam doesn’t take over the kitchen, but it makes its presence known in the best way. It’s clean, compact enough for any counter, and adds a modern, organized feel to the space. The design is thoughtful and built for real homes

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When it comes to technology on Shabbos, Noam checks all the boxes. With built-in Shabbos mode and a full CRC certification, it’s ready for the most mehudar homes — no explaining needed

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LONDON (AP) — British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Wednesday he was disappointed with Israel’s response to the government’s decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and rejected criticism from the U.K.’s chief rabbi.

Israel responded Tuesday by closing the British consulate in east Jerusalem and banning 11 lawmakers from the country.

“I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I’m proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do,” Miliband told Sky News.

The U.K.’s tougher stance was followed by France and Canada’s leaders saying they would take similar action to prevent expanding settlements and growing violence from making it impossible to establish a future Palestinian state.

The foreign secretary has told Sky News that he is 'proud' of the action the British government has taken over Israel.

Safety of British jews is of great importance, and the issue is with the Israeli government, "not its people", says Ed Miliband.https://t.co/W9MZsAqjy5 pic.twitter.com/PdZMOhG2SR

— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 9, 2026

Miliband said “settler terrorists” were carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in the U.K. government’s biggest pushback to Israel since it recognized Palestinian statehood a year ago. He said there had been “houses bulldozed, roads and public infrastructure destroyed, families displaced from their homes.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the “despicable” move and said Israel would expel U.K. representatives from a joint military center monitoring the Gaza ceasefire and end U.K. training of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the West Bank. In addition, Israel barred entry to a dozen British lawmakers and other U.K. citizens whom Sa’ar said were “involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity.”

Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi in the U.K., accused the government of “gesture politics” that would bolster “the very extremism they seek to target.”

Miliband, who is Jewish, said he respected Mirvis but disagreed with him.

“We all need to do more to tackle antisemitism, but I believe we can do that and stand up for British values,” he said.

The ban covers imports of all goods from the settlements and bars companies from providing services for the settlements, including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising. It will take effect in up to nine months.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden have pledged to “support further action,” Miliband said. The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods from settlements or are in the process of doing so, he said.

Miliband also tightened Britain’s embargo on weapons sales to Israel for use in Gaza to include arms “that materially contribute to the occupation” of Palestinian territories.

The economic impact is likely to be limited, since the settlements produce only a small amount of largely agricultural exports. But the move is a symbolic expression of displeasure with Israel by some of its closest allies, and it offers a new sign of the Israeli government’s growing isolation as a result of the Gaza war.

Under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s ultranationalist government, settlement construction in the West Bank — seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — has surged. Netanyahu’s government views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.

The international community overwhelmingly considers such construction to be illegal. Britain and other countries have voiced particular concern about the E1 settlement project approved by Israel, which would effectively cut the territory in two.

There have been marked increases in attacks by settlers on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns, Israeli military operations and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A 27-year-old woman was killed early Wednesday when a Tesla in which she was a passenger crashed into scaffolding in Midtown Manhattan, police said.

The gray 2024 Tesla Model Y was traveling east on East 42nd Street shortly before 3 a.m. when it struck a mailbox, a sidewalk shed outside 315 Madison Ave. and a bus stop, according to the New York Police Department. The vehicle continued several blocks before coming to a stop at the intersection of East 42nd Street and Second Avenue.

Both occupants were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where the passenger was pronounced dead, police said. The driver, also a 27-year-old woman, was in stable condition and in police custody. She had not been charged as of Wednesday morning, and authorities said charges were pending. Identities were not released pending notification of relatives.

Police did not say what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The investigation was continuing. East 42nd Street remained closed west of Second Avenue as officers examined the wreckage.

No other injuries were immediately reported.

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JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel is entering the Hebrew year 5787 with a population of more than 10 million people, continued strong population growth and one of the highest fertility rates in the developed world, but also a growing number of Israelis leaving the country.

Figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Rosh Hashanah provide a broad snapshot of the country’s demographic and economic situation, covering population growth, births, immigration, housing, household income and life expectancy.

At the end of 2025, Israel’s population was estimated at approximately 10.203 million people, including about 9.916 million Israeli residents and approximately 286,700 foreign residents. Of the Israeli population, roughly 7.767 million were Jewish (about 46% of the world population), 2.149 million were Arab residents and the rest were other denominations.

The Israeli population grew by approximately 1.1% during 2025, according to the CBS. The broader population, including foreign residents, continued to expand despite a negative international migration balance.

One of the most striking features of Israel’s demographic picture remains its high birthrate. During 2025, 183,678 babies were born in Israel, while the country’s total fertility rate stood at approximately 2.88 children per woman. That rate is exceptionally high by Western standards. The average fertility rate across OECD countries is approximately 1.4 children per woman, meaning Israel’s rate is more than twice the OECD average. Approximately 51,900 people died in 2025, according to the CBS.

The high fertility rate has helped Israel maintain relatively rapid natural population growth even as the country has experienced a significant increase in emigration since the outbreak of the war with Hamas in October 2023.

Migration has become one of the most notable changes in Israel’s demographic picture. During calendar year 2025, approximately 20,900 new immigrants arrived in Israel, while 69,542 Israelis were recorded as emigrants. Another 18,780 Israelis returned to the country after living abroad. The result was a negative international migration balance of approximately 50,800 Israelis for the year under the CBS’s annual methodology.

The figures represent a sharp change from the years before the war. In 2024, approximately 82,800 Israelis left the country, while about 24,200 returned, producing an even larger negative migration balance. In 2023, the number of Israelis recorded as emigrants was approximately 59,400.

The CBS methodology is important when interpreting these numbers: a person is classified as an emigrant only after meeting the bureau’s criteria for extended residence abroad. As a result, the number of people physically leaving Israel during a particular year is not necessarily identical to the number ultimately classified as emigrants.

A separate analysis cited by The Jerusalem Post, based on CBS data, found that nearly 269,000 Israelis were recorded as leaving the country during 2023-2025, although some subsequently returned.

At the same time, immigration to Israel has continued. The Aliyah and Integration Ministry reported a somewhat higher 2025 immigration figure — more than 22,500 new immigrants — reflecting differences between the ministry’s immigration data and the CBS’s population methodology. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, approximately 3.5 million people have immigrated to the country.

The CBS also examined how Jewish Israelis age 20 and older describe their religious identity.

According to the figures, 39.6% identified as secular or nonreligious, while 21.8% described themselves as traditional but not particularly religious. Another 14% identified as traditional-religious, 12.4% as religious and 11.5% as charedi. The figures are based on self-definition, rather than an external classification of religious observance.

The relatively high fertility rate among Israel’s Haredi and religious populations is one of the major factors behind the country’s unusually young demographic profile. The CBS has separately published long-term fertility data broken down by religiosity, showing significant differences between population groups.

Israel had slightly more than 3 million households, with an average of approximately 3.17 people per household. Housing remains a central feature of household finances. According to the latest CBS Household Expenditure Survey, 64.1% of Israeli households lived in homes they owned, while 32.2% of owner-occupied households were paying a mortgage.

The latest available household income figures are based on 2023 data, rather than 2025. The CBS reported average monthly gross money income of 26,330 shekels per household and average net money income of 21,606 shekels. Average monthly money expenditure was 14,823 shekels, while total consumption expenditure, including the estimated value of housing services for homeowners, was 18,088 shekels.

The CBS cautions that the 2023 survey represents a methodological break from previous income statistics because of increased use of administrative data, meaning comparisons with earlier years should be made carefully.

The income figures also reveal significant inequality. The top 10% of households accounted for 22.1% of total net money income, compared with just 2.6% for the bottom 10%.

Israel also continues to rank relatively high in life expectancy. Life expectancy is approximately 81.4 years for men and 85.9 years for women, according to the latest CBS mortality data.

The combination of high fertility and high life expectancy gives Israel an unusually young population compared with many other developed countries, even as the share of older Israelis continues to increase.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — President Donald Trump renewed a disputed account of his actions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying Tuesday that firefighters carried him to safety after he traveled to Lower Manhattan shortly after the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

Trump made the claim while speaking at an event honoring those killed in the attacks. According to The New York Times, Trump said two firefighters grabbed him and carried him away after he encountered a building that appeared to be in danger of collapsing.

Trump said he had traveled to Lower Manhattan with a construction crew shortly after the attacks and described the scene as a massive field of steel and debris.

The account adds to years of disputed statements by Trump about his involvement at Ground Zero. The New York Times reported that there is no evidence supporting Trump’s claim that firefighters carried him from the area.

Richard Alles, a retired New York City Fire Department deputy chief who spent months at the recovery site, previously disputed Trump’s broader claims about his presence there. In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, Alles said he never saw Trump at Ground Zero.

Trump has also given different accounts of when he went to the area. In a 2016 campaign speech, he said he traveled to what was then the U.S. Steel building, now known as 1 Liberty Plaza, with a crew “a couple of days after” the towers collapsed. On Tuesday, he described the visit as occurring “right after” the attack.

The White House responded to questions about Trump’s latest account by providing video of his 2016 remarks, according to The New York Times.

Trump was a prominent New York real estate developer when the attacks occurred. On Sept. 11, he spoke by telephone with a New York television station and discussed his buildings in Lower Manhattan. Trump Tower was several miles from the World Trade Center site.

In the days following the attacks, Trump became a prominent public commentator on the destruction and recovery effort. His subsequent claims about his role at Ground Zero have periodically drawn scrutiny.

Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer, told The New York Times that the Trump Organization had only about a dozen workers in the area at the time, casting doubt on later claims that Trump arrived with hundreds of employees.

Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive, also questioned whether Trump could have been escorted from a dangerous building by firefighters without the incident becoming widely known at the time.

Trump’s latest comments come as the United States marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

The renewed scrutiny centers on the details of Trump’s account, particularly his assertion that firefighters physically carried him away from danger — a claim for which no independent evidence has been identified.

NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time since July after attacks on oil facilities and ships in the Middle East threatened to debilitate an already weakened supply chain.

Brent crude, the international standard, jumped nearly 3% to $100.72 early Wednesday.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 2.4% to $95.25 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices rose sharply overnight.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked up 7 cents overnight to hit $4.22, now more than a dollar above what it cost at this point last year, according to AAA.

Diesel prices, which can have an outsized impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and has continued to climb since. The average price for a gallon reached $5.94 overnight and is now 9 cents higher than it was Friday.

Jet fuel has become so expensive that U.S. and international carriers have cut flights while raising fares and fees.

Markets reacted after the U.S. military reported striking five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship and after attacks by an Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group ignited fires at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Crude oil prices shot up after Israel and the United States initiated a war with Iran, and they have fluctuated considerably during the more than six months since then. The fighting has halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began.

Brent traded between about $70 to $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May. In July, prices swung between $72 and $102, reflecting rising and falling hopes that the U.S. and Iran would agree on a plan that would allow stranded tankers to move oil safely out of the Persian Gulf.

“In our view, reaching a durable deal before the U.S. midterm elections is increasingly unlikely, and it could remain elusive even beyond that,” Bank of America analysts said in a Tuesday research note.

The analysts increased their oil price forecast for the second half of the year to $83 a barrel “in light of more persistent disruptions to Hormuz,” but said they still expected shipping through the strait to gradually pick up. If attacks keep a chokehold on traffic, prices could reach $95 to $120 a barrel, while damage to major energy infrastructure could produce spikes of up to $150 a barrel, the analysts wrote.

Negotiations over a preliminary deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict broke down over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran insists it has the right to set the terms and charge fees for ships traveling through the waterway off its coast. The U.S. wants passage to remain free and has used a Navy blockade to block Iran’s ports and oil tankers.

Recent stepped-up attacks by Yemen’s Houthis could constrain global oil supplies even more because they targeted an alternative shipping route that Saudi Arabia has relied on to transport oil during the war.

Higher energy costs have weighed on consumers, businesses and national economies this year, particularly outside of the U.S. Refinery outages in Russia, reduced refining activity elsewhere and sharply declining inventories have pushed diesel and gasoline prices sharply higher globally, Bank of America said this week.

Yet rising prices may have an outsized impact on the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, now just 8 weeks away.

LONDON (VINnews) — British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband invoked his family’s Holocaust history and his personal ties to Israel on Tuesday before announcing a series of measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Speaking to the House of Commons, Miliband described himself as a proud British Jew and said Israel had given his grandmother a place of refuge after the Nazis murdered her husband and 60 other members of their family.

He recalled visiting his grandmother in Tel Aviv during the 1970s and spending time on the kibbutz where his cousins lived. Miliband said those experiences helped shape his opposition to efforts to deny Israel’s existence as the Jewish homeland.

Miliband also condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and said Israel has a right to defend itself. He identified Iran as a threat to Israel and Jews worldwide and said Britain would maintain security cooperation with Israel.

The foreign secretary announced sanctions against Hezbollah’s financial arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, and said Britain would restore major economic sanctions on Iran. He also said Britain would work with allies to refer Iran’s nuclear violations to the U.N. Security Council.

Miliband devoted part of his address to rising antisemitism in Britain, calling it an “evil” and a “scourge.” He said the government would provide an additional £250 million for security protecting Jewish communities and announced that Britain would host a J7 meeting in October focused on combating antisemitism, including online hate.

He said criticism of Israel should not be confused with targeting British Jews, arguing that holding British Jews responsible for decisions made by Israel’s government is antisemitic.

Miliband then turned to Gaza and the West Bank, saying Britain was deeply concerned about Palestinian suffering. He accused violent settlers of displacing Palestinians and said Britain considers Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank unlawful.

Britain plans to ban imports from Israeli settlements, restrict advertising for settlement properties in the country and impose sanctions on people and companies involved in financing, construction and infrastructure linked to settlement expansion. The government said the measures would target settlement activity rather than trade with Israel itself.

Miliband said Britain would continue trading with Israel and opposed the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

On Gaza, he said there was evidence warranting investigations into possible war crimes but said Britain would not determine whether genocide had occurred, leaving that question to the relevant courts.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – U.S. officials in the Biden administration were not aware of a specific warning from the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was preparing a major attack against Israel before the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, according to two sources familiar with the matter cited by The Jerusalem Post.

The sources said American officials also were not informed of such a warning after the attack.

The claims follow a Haaretz report that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke with then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about 10 days before Oct. 7 and warned that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation.

According to the report, the roughly 45-minute conversation included concerns that an attack could cause significant bloodshed, destabilize the region and threaten the Abraham Accords. The report also said then-CIA Director William Burns was aware that bin Zayed had tried to convey concerns about an impending escalation.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Biden administration had no knowledge of any such specific warning. That does not establish whether the UAE actually delivered the warning to Netanyahu, however, and the account remains disputed.

Netanyahu’s office has denied the Haaretz report, saying he did not speak with the UAE president during the period in question and did not receive a warning from him. The prime minister has since instructed his lawyers to pursue a libel lawsuit against Haaretz and the journalist who reported the story.

The UAE Foreign Ministry has declined to directly confirm or deny the reported conversation. It said UAE and Israeli officials have maintained direct communications and that relevant intelligence has been shared between the countries when necessary.

The UAE had separately raised concerns with Israeli officials in 2023 that Israeli policies and rhetoric could threaten regional stability, according to the Post.

The conflicting accounts leave unanswered whether a specific UAE warning about Hamas was delivered to Netanyahu before Oct. 7 and, if so, whether it was passed to Israel’s security leadership or U.S. officials.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to sue the newspaper Haaretz and three of its journalists for more than 2.5 million shekels, or roughly $800,000, over a report alleging that he was personally warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates about plans by Hamas to launch a major attack against Israel days before Oct. 7, 2023.

Netanyahu’s attorneys sent a formal notice Wednesday to Haaretz and journalists Shlomi Eldar, Ruth Yuval and Uri Misgav, demanding that the report be removed from the newspaper’s website and social-media accounts and that the paper publish a prominent retraction and apology, according to a report by Channel 14.

The letter also demands 1 million shekels, roughly $300,000, as an out-of-court settlement. The newspaper and journalists were given 72 hours to comply. If they do not, Netanyahu says he will file a civil defamation lawsuit seeking at least 2.5 million shekels, in addition to legal fees and expenses.

Netanyahu has categorically denied the central allegation. Through his attorney, Uriel Nizri, Netanyahu described the report as an “absolute fabrication” and a malicious falsehood. His office has said that Netanyahu did not receive such a warning from either the UAE or Egypt and did not have the alleged conversation with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

According to a statement cited by Israeli media, Netanyahu’s office, the National Security Council and his military secretary reviewed records of the prime minister’s calls and found no record of a conversation between Netanyahu and bin Zayed between the beginning of September 2023 and the Oct. 7 attack.

The dispute stems from an investigation published Tuesday by Haaretz based on reporting by Eldar and Yuval for their forthcoming book, Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment.

According to the investigation, bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu by phone for about 45 minutes in late September 2023, roughly 10 days before Hamas launched its surprise attack.

The Emirati leader allegedly warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation against Israel and urged him to take the threat seriously. According to the report, bin Zayed warned that an attack could cause extensive bloodshed, destabilize the region and threaten the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries.

The report further alleges that Netanyahu reacted calmly and told bin Zayed that Israel believed Hamas was more likely to launch an operation in Judea and Samaria. It says Netanyahu assured the Emirati leader that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

Most significantly, the investigation alleges that Netanyahu did not pass the warning to the heads of the Shin Bet, Mossad or the Israel Defense Forces.

The report was based, according to Haaretz, on dozens of sources in Israel and abroad, including senior officials, as well as recordings, internal documents and correspondence. Other international news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported the existence of the Haaretz investigation but have not independently established that the alleged conversation took place.

The allegations have caused a new political storm in Israel, where the government’s handling of the intelligence failures preceding the Oct. 7 attack remains one of the country’s most contentious issues.

Opposition leaders have called for an independent investigation into what Netanyahu knew before the attack and whether warnings were adequately passed to Israel’s security establishment. Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have been among those demanding answers. The controversy comes as Israel approaches another election campaign, making the question of Netanyahu’s personal responsibility for the failures surrounding Oct. 7 particularly politically sensitive.

The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault killed about 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in the abduction of 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. The attack triggered the war in Gaza and a broader regional conflict.

Netanyahu’s legal warning letter argues that the Haaretz report was not merely inaccurate but was deliberately published to damage the prime minister and improperly influence the outcome of Israel’s elections. His lawyers are demanding that Haaretz remove the article from all of its digital platforms, including the newspaper’s website and the social-media accounts of both the publication and the journalists. They are also demanding a prominent correction and denial on the newspaper’s front page and as the site’s main headline, with the wording subject to approval by Netanyahu’s attorneys.

If those demands are not met within 72 hours, the letter says, Netanyahu will proceed with a lawsuit seeking damages of no less than 2.5 million shekels.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Police are asking the public for help identifying a man accused of knocking a Jewish man’s yarmulke off his head in an unprovoked attack in Lower Manhattan in May.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force said a 39-year-old man was struck from behind as he entered a business near Whitehall Street and Stone Street about 1 p.m. on May 5. The attacker slapped the victim’s yarmulke off his head. The skullcap fell to the ground. No injuries were reported, police said.

The suspect fled on foot after the incident, which occurred at 1 Whitehall Street, a building that houses a Duane Reade pharmacy and a post office.

Police released photos of the suspect Tuesday evening. He is described as having a dark complexion, short or possibly shaved hair and a moderate build. At the time of the attack, he was wearing a gray camouflage tracksuit, a black flat-brim snapback hat and white sneakers. He was also carrying a black-and-gray crossbody bag and a black plastic bag.

The department classified the case as a hate crime and is seeking the public’s assistance.

Anyone with information is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. Tips may also be submitted at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X at @NYPDTips.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — While Hamas committed under the Gaza ceasefire agreement to disarm, Israeli security officials say the group is instead taking active steps to restore and consolidate its military presence in parts of the Strip.

According to information obtained by Israel’s N12 news and confirmed for the first time officially by the IDF, Hamas terrorists have recently returned to weapons storage facilities in areas still under the group’s control, retrieving weapons and using them to carry out security operations and reinforce Hamas’s control over the territory.

Israeli security officials told N12 that Hamas members have been accessing weapons depots containing large quantities of military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles, other small arms, military gear and rockets. The weapons are reportedly being used by Hamas while they conduct patrols and guard positions in areas controlled by the organization.

The developments appear to directly contradict the disarmament requirement contained in the ceasefire framework. The first phase of the U.S.-backed ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, 2025, called for Hamas to return the remaining hostages and fully disarm. The IDF says that while the hostages have since been returned, Hamas has not fully disarmed and continues to pose a threat to Israeli forces deployed along the so-called Yellow Line.

Israel has responded with a series of targeted strikes intended to prevent Hamas from restoring its military infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Southern Command forces, acting on precise intelligence supplied by the Shin Bet, carried out a major operation in which three Hamas weapons depots containing dozens of weapons were destroyed. The IDF also destroyed a rocket-launching site that had previously been used to fire rockets toward Israel during the war.

The operation followed a broader increase in Israeli military activity in the Gaza Strip. According to the N12 report, Southern Command carried out 16 targeted strikes against Hamas’s command structure during the past week, killing 14 Hamas terrorists, including five company commanders and four platoon commanders.

The IDF has repeatedly reported similar operations against weapons-storage sites since the ceasefire. In August, for example, the military said it and the Shin Bet dismantled five Hamas weapons facilities containing Kalashnikov rifles, explosive devices, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military equipment. The military said the weapons were intended for attacks against Israeli troops operating near the Yellow Line and against Israeli civilians.

Israeli officials say the most significant development is not simply Hamas’s continued possession of weapons, but what they describe as a growing willingness by the organization to use them in direct confrontations with Israeli troops.

According to the N12 report, the change became apparent approximately two weeks ago, initially with the launching of kites from Gaza. In recent days, the incidents have escalated to direct fire toward Israeli troops positioned along the Yellow Line and the use of an explosive device against an Israeli military engineering vehicle.

On Sunday, an explosive device attributed by the IDF to Hamas struck an engineering vehicle operating on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line in northern Gaza. No soldiers were wounded. The IDF described the incident as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire and subsequently carried out strikes against Hamas infrastructure used to advance attacks.

The IDF has also recently issued warnings concerning kites crossing from Gaza. While the military acknowledges that the kites recently detected were not weaponized, it says Hamas previously used kites and balloons as weapons, including to ignite fires in Israeli communities and agricultural areas.

The latest incidents highlight the growing gap between the formal ceasefire framework and conditions on the ground. The agreement was intended to lead toward Hamas’s disarmament and an eventual Israeli withdrawal, but the two sides remain sharply divided over the sequence and enforcement of those steps.

Reuters reported last month that President Donald Trump’s subsequent Gaza roadmap also hinges on Hamas disarmament in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal. Israel has insisted that Hamas must disarm before a full withdrawal, while Hamas has sought a phased process linked to the broader political arrangements for Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have continued conducting strikes against what they describe as immediate Hamas threats even after the ceasefire. Reuters reported this week that an Israeli strike in Gaza City killed a Hamas terrorist along with civilians, while other Israeli attacks were also reported in the Strip. Israel maintains that its operations are aimed at militants and threats to its forces, while Hamas and Palestinian authorities have repeatedly accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.

The situation has also produced a growing number of confrontations around the Yellow Line, the demarcation separating areas where Israeli forces remain deployed from the rest of Gaza. The IDF says its troops remain deployed there under the terms of the ceasefire and will continue to act against immediate threats.

For Israel, the emergence of armed Hamas personnel returning to weapons depots represents a particularly sensitive development: rather than moving toward the disarmament envisioned by the ceasefire, Israeli officials believe Hamas is attempting to reconstruct the basic military infrastructure needed to maintain control of territory and, potentially, resume armed operations.

The developments raise further questions over whether the ceasefire can evolve into a durable political arrangement, or whether the gradual restoration of Hamas’s military capabilities will lead to renewed and more serious confrontation.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — OpenAI says an artificial intelligence system has solved one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics, producing a proof of a finite-time “blow-up” in the equations used to describe the motion of fluids such as water and air.

The company announced on Tuesday that an internal AI system had solved the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems established by the Clay Mathematics Institute. Each problem carries a $1 million prize for a mathematically valid solution.

The claim, however, has immediately generated controversy, according to a Guardian report. While OpenAI describes the result as a major mathematical breakthrough, outside mathematicians will need to examine the proof in detail before the result can be regarded as an established solution to the Millennium Problem.

The Navier–Stokes equations have been used for more than a century to model fluid motion, including the behavior of water, air and other liquids and gases. They are fundamental to fields ranging from physics and engineering to meteorology.

The central mathematical question is whether smooth, physically reasonable starting conditions can always produce smooth solutions that remain well behaved over time or whether the equations can develop a singularity in finite time.

OpenAI says its system found a scenario in which the equations “blow up”: the velocity of the modeled fluid becomes mathematically infinite in finite time.

That would answer the Clay Institute’s question in the direction of breakdown, rather than proving that smooth solutions always exist. The institute’s official formulation specifically allows a solution to the problem by proving that a singularity can occur under the prescribed conditions.

OpenAI published a technical paper alongside its announcement, including a formalized version of the proof. The result is now expected to undergo intense scrutiny from mathematicians.

Nature described the announcement as the first time a computer had reportedly produced a solution to a truly major open problem in mathematics, while emphasizing that the work must still be evaluated by experts.

OpenAI said it began concentrating its resources on the problem after hearing reports that mathematicians were making progress on it. The company deployed approximately 10,000 autonomous AI agents working simultaneously on different aspects of the problem. According to OpenAI, the system produced its solution after approximately 88 hours of work.

The internal system used for the effort was more powerful than OpenAI’s latest publicly released GPT-6 Astra model.

A separate GPT-6 Astra system subsequently spent about 17 hours verifying the proposed solution, according to OpenAI.

The scale of the computation reportedly cost millions of dollars, illustrating the enormous computing resources increasingly being devoted to AI-assisted mathematical research.

OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck described the result as “a spectacular culmination of the arc we have seen over the past 12 months.”

The company said the work was intended not merely as a demonstration but as evidence of how rapidly AI systems are beginning to contribute to fundamental scientific research.

“A major goal of our work is to empower scientists to advance research and technology that benefits all of humanity,” OpenAI researchers wrote.

The announcement was quickly overshadowed by an unusual dispute involving mathematician Tristan Buckmaster, a professor at New York University, and Levent Alpöge, a mathematician at Anthropic. Buckmaster and Alpöge had been working on related Navier–Stokes questions using AI tools, including Anthropic’s Claude as well as OpenAI’s Codex and Astra models.

The two researchers published their own work on Monday, shortly before OpenAI announced its result. Their research addressed a related version of the problem and also produced a finite-time singularity, although under different assumptions from the full problem OpenAI says it solved.

Buckmaster subsequently raised concerns about the timing of OpenAI’s effort and whether information from his and Alpöge’s work could have influenced the company’s system.In a statement published on his website, Buckmaster wrote:

“I do not know what their model did, or how. I do not know whether our data was used. I am not accusing anyone of anything.”

His concern was heightened because drafts of the researchers’ work had been entered into OpenAI’s Codex, the company’s AI coding platform. OpenAI strongly denies that its researchers accessed the pair’s unpublished work.

“We did not see any of their work until they released it publicly last night,” Bubeck said, adding that OpenAI’s proof and the researchers’ proof differ significantly.

OpenAI nevertheless acknowledged that it could not completely exclude the possibility that de-identified data derived from users’ interactions with its products may have contributed indirectly to model training. The company said no specific user data was accessed in order to solve the problem.

The dispute has raised broader questions about intellectual property, attribution and the use of researchers’ work in training increasingly powerful AI systems.

The claimed breakthrough comes amid a rapid expansion of AI’s role in mathematical research. OpenAI has reported other mathematical advances in recent months, while Google DeepMind has demonstrated AI systems capable of solving difficult problems at near-human competition levels. Anthropic has also been using its models to explore major mathematical questions.

The Navier–Stokes claim is potentially far more significant, however, because it concerns one of the six Millennium Prize Problems that remained unsolved after the Clay Mathematics Institute established the list in 2000. Only one of the original seven problems, the Poincaré conjecture, had previously been officially solved.

Mathematicians have nevertheless cautioned against treating the announcement as the end of the story. A computer-generated proof must still be understood, checked and accepted by the mathematical community.

The Clay Mathematics Institute’s prize is awarded only for a solution that meets its formal requirements and undergoes the required mathematical scrutiny. OpenAI said it does not intend to claim the $1 million prize.

If the proof survives independent examination, the achievement could mark a historic moment—not simply because an AI system solved a problem that resisted mathematicians for decades, but because it would demonstrate that AI can generate genuinely new mathematical knowledge rather than merely assist humans in applying known techniques.

For now, however, the crucial question is no longer whether an AI can produce a proposed solution. It is whether mathematicians can independently verify that the solution is correct.

LISBON (VINnews) — Several Portuguese performers have withdrawn from a new comedy festival in Lisbon after organizers announced that Jewish-American comedian Jerry Seinfeld will headline the event, in an apparent protest of his support for Israel, according to Hollywood Reporter.

The inaugural MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest, also billed as the Lisbon International Humor Festival, is scheduled for Oct. 29 through Nov. 1 and is set to mark Seinfeld’s first live performance in Portugal. Tickets for his show are listed at 60 to 220 euros ($70 to $256).

None of the artists who canceled named Seinfeld or stated that they were leaving because of his support for Israel. Several made indirect references.

Actress and comedian Inês Aires Pereira announced Saturday on Instagram that her show “Namastê” would no longer appear on the lineup.

“A festival includes many artists, and in this case, one of the names insistently defends ideas and actions that I consider indefensible,” she wrote. “We cannot relativize or normalize genocide.”

Comedy duo Cebola Mol, consisting of Eduardo Madeira and Filipe Homem Fonseca, also canceled their Oct. 31 appearance. Their social media post featured a watermelon-themed graphic, a symbol widely used by pro-Palestinian activists, and said they would “celebrate justice, freedom, and joy at a future opportunity.”

Other acts that withdrew include the groups Tributo Pop and Conjunto Cuca Monga, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils (Alexandre Farto). Festival organizers announced some of the cancellations without giving reasons.

Seinfeld has been one of Hollywood’s most visible supporters of Israel since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages.

In December 2023, months into the war, Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, traveled to Israel. They met freed hostages and families of those still held in Gaza and visited Kibbutz Be’eri, which lost more than 100 of its residents in the attack. Seinfeld later called the trip “the most powerful experience” of his life.

He has been heckled at shows and at a Duke University commencement address over his stance. After a disruption at an event with freed hostage Omer Shem Tov, Seinfeld said the Ku Klux Klan was “more honest” in its antisemitism than some who chant “Free Palestine.” On other occasions he has said of that slogan, “It doesn’t exist,” and “I don’t care about Palestine.”

Festival organizers have not issued a detailed public explanation of the withdrawals. Some Portuguese reports said the event was considering whether to proceed with replacements after the cancellations.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  Thomas Friedman, in a New York Times Op-Ed, has informed his readers that “self-destruction is on the ballot” in Israel and in America. It is a bold claim from a man whose track record includes the Iraq war he championed, the Chinese authoritarianism he admired, and the flat world that turned out to have quite a few hills. The column is as far from journalism as mankind is from the amoeba and completely collapses when checked against the record. Claim by claim, there is nothing left standing.

“The future of democracy” is on the ballot in Israel

Here is Friedman’s “democracy on the brink.” The outgoing 25th Knesset became the first Israeli legislature since 1988 to complete its full four-year term without early dissolution. The election is being held on schedule, on October 27. The motion to dissolve parliament passed 62-0, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voting in favor. That’s 62 to 0.  And the incumbent is trailing: Channel 12’s August 25 poll shows Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot beating Netanyahu 44 percent to 34 on the question of who is fitter to be prime minister.

And now let’s look at what Friedman is asking readers to believe. A regime that is “strangling democracy” schedules an on-time election, watches the polls turn against it, and then votes unanimously to hold the election anyway. That is not how autocracies behave. It is how democracies behave. Friedman has mistaken the thing itself for its absolute opposite.

The coalition partners are “worse than the Ku Klux Klan”

Whatever one thinks of Itamar Ben-Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich, they hold office because Israeli citizens voted for them in a free election, and they will leave office the same way. The Klan lynched thousands of Americans outside any legal process. To place an elected parliamentary faction beneath a terrorist organization is not a moral judgment; it is a sever moral collapse. It insults the Klan’s actual victims, and it reveals far more about the speaker’s contempt for Israeli voters than about the men they chose. Friedman printed it anyway. He should be ashamed.

The coalition will “complete” the destruction of the Supreme Court

The record says precisely the reverse. In July 2023 the Knesset amended Basic Law: The Judiciary to bar courts from applying the “reasonableness” standard to government decisions. On January 1, 2024, the Supreme Court struck that amendment down, 8–7. The government complied.

A court that voids a Basic Law and is obeyed without a murmur is not a court under siege. It is the most powerful judicial body in the democratic world. Israel has no written constitution, its justices hold what amounts to a veto over their own successors, and the “reasonableness” doctrine the coalition sought to trim exists nowhere else in comparable form. Canada’s Charter contains a legislative override clause; no one at the New York Times has ever described Canada as a dying democracy. The difference is not the policy. The difference is who is proposing it.

Annexation and “ethnic cleansing” come next

This is a disgusting prediction wearing the costume of a fact. No Israeli government has adopted a policy of expelling Palestinians, and Friedman offers not a shred of evidence that one will. Stranger still is his chosen redeemer. Eisenkot, we are told, has “much in common with Yitzhak Rabin.” Yet Eisenkot supports continued settlement in the West Bank, rejects a Palestinian state outright, and favors retaining and protecting the major settlement blocs. If that is Rabin, then the gulf Friedman describes between the two camps is a matter of tone and temperament, not the distance between democracy and its grave. Friedman cannot have it both ways: either Eisenkot is a moderate and the stakes are ordinary, or the stakes are existential and his savior is no savior at all.

Israel is becoming apartheid South Africa, and its best and brightest are fleeing

The centerpiece of the column is a study of 1,370 departing doctors. But let’s take a look at the fine print Friedman skipped. The researchers themselves cautioned that a year abroad does not mean a physician has emigrated; many leave for fellowships, training, or research and return. After accounting for those who came back, Israel’s net loss was 509 doctors across 2023 and 2024, out of a physician workforce in the tens of thousands.

The lead author heads the Economists for Democracy forum, a group that has already published a series of reports documenting emigration since 2023. That is advocacy research, and Friedman cites it as though it were a census. Meanwhile, in the direction he neglected to look, 541 physicians immigrated to Israel in 2025 through the International Medical Aliyah program alone.

The larger “pariah state” thesis fares worse. In 2025 the United States sent 4,150 olim, up 12 percent from the year before, and France saw an estimated 45 percent jump to roughly 3,300 arrivals. Apartheid South Africa did not draw immigrants from Paris and Manhattan.

As for the economy: Israel recorded its two largest foreign investment deals ever last year, Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Wiz and Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion purchase of CyberArk, and Moody’s held Israel’s sovereign rating at Baa1 with a stable outlook, citing high income levels and a robust technology sector.

Pariahs do not attract $57 billion in American capital in a single year. Countries the world has written off do not have Silicon Valley lining up to buy their companies.

Ya’alon’s warning has reached “a remarkable new level”

The “Mein Kampf in reverse” line is presented as breaking news. It is a rerun. Ya’alon was using it as early as April 2023, and he has been a political opponent of Netanyahu since leaving the government in 2016. A three-year-old stale soundbite from a longtime rival is not a warning that has “reached a new level.” It is a campaign talking point that has reached Friedman’s inbox. And a columnist who is, to his credit, vigilant against Holocaust trivialization here amplifies without a flicker of hesitation a comparison between Jewish villagers in Judea and the architects of Auschwitz. That comparison should have been beneath him. It was not. He should once again be ashamed.

Chareidi schools teach “no lessons for modern life or work skills”

Here Friedman does not merely misjudge; he gets the numbers wrong. He puts Chareidi fertility at “about seven.” The Israel Democracy Institute’s own 2025 yearbook puts it at 6.5, largely unchanged over a decade. He describes a community deliberately stripped of the capacity to work, yet employment among Chareidi women stands at 81 percent, the number of Chareidi students in state-recognized engineering and technology programs reached 9,600 in 2024, triple the 2014 figure, and 75 percent of Chareidim own their own apartment, a higher rate than among non-Chareidi Jews. Despite being far poorer, Chareidi Israelis are markedly more likely to give to charity and to volunteer than their fellow Jewish citizens.

The assertion that a population which reads Aramaic legal texts by age twelve receives “no basic education” is not a demographic finding. It is a diabolical antisemitic self-hating sneer, and it is the kind of sneer that would end a career at the Times if aimed at any other minority. And the charge that Netanyahu traded away Israel’s security to the Chareidim ignores an inconvenient fact: this same coalition, in its final week, passed a law extending mandatory military service from 30 to 32 months.

Trump “coddles” Putin

This is the most inverted claim in the column, and Friedman’s own paragraph demolishes it. He concedes that Putin is openly supplying Iran in its war with the United States. Indeed he is: Putin has publicly acknowledged for the first time that Moscow is providing Tehran with equipment and assistance, and Russia has backed Iran with intelligence, including on American assets in the Persian Gulf, and with drone components.

Follow the logic. The United States under Trump is at war with Russia’s principal Middle East ally, the regime that armed Hamas and Hezbollah and swore to erase the Jewish state.

The president who destroyed Iran’s enrichment facilities at Fordow in June 2025 and is now fighting Tehran in the Gulf is, on Friedman’s telling, Putin’s friend. Even Kyiv sees it differently: 200 Ukrainian specialists were deployed to help coordinate air defenses in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reportedly working alongside American personnel to protect US bases. Ukraine is fighting shoulder to shoulder with Trump against Putin’s ally. Friedman is not. He is writing fanciful columns.

The crypto earnings prove Trump does not value democracy

The figure is real. Here is where it came from: a financial disclosure filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, running to 927 pages. President Obama’s final disclosure ran eight. Friedman’s proof that transparency is dead is a 927-page public disclosure filed under the very ethics regime he says has been dismantled. One may object to a president’s business dealings, and many do. One cannot cite a legally mandated disclosure, dutifully filed and publicly available, as evidence that the law no longer functions. That is not an argument. It is a contradiction with a byline.

The institutions are “not intact”

The evidence is a private remark from an unnamed former president and a list of agencies Friedman dislikes. Courts continue to rule against the administration, and the administration continues to obey. Congress sits. The midterms are being held on schedule. The claim that the president is “declining mentally and physically” is a diagnosis delivered by a columnist with no medical training about a man he has never examined, and it would be laughed out of any newsroom, including his own, if aimed at a president Friedman preferred.

Self-destruction on the ballot

What is actually on the ballot in both countries is the ordinary business of self-government: voters choosing among candidates. Friedman’s closing move is to announce that if his side loses, democracy itself has lost. That is the one authentically anti-democratic idea in the entire column. It is the argument of a man who has stopped trusting the voters and started grading them.

Democracies survive elections their pundits lose. They do not survive the belief that only one outcome counts. Thomas Friedman has spent decades fancifully  explaining the world to the world. It may be time for the world to explain something real back to him.

NEW YORK (VINnews) – A researcher who spent the past three years working on artificial intelligence pretraining at OpenAI and Anthropic has resigned, saying he believes both companies are moving too quickly toward increasingly autonomous and self-improving AI systems.

I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.

— Jacob Coxon (@hilbertspaess) September 9, 2026

Jacob Coxon announced his resignation from Anthropic on Tuesday in a series of posts on X. He said neither company is acting responsibly and accused the AI industry of “racing” toward superintelligence while taking potentially dangerous risks.

Coxon warned that future AI systems could become capable of hacking systems, rapidly transforming industries and accumulating significant resources and influence. He said some people working in AI privately believe the technology could pose an existential threat by the end of the decade.

At Anthropic, Coxon said, researchers understand the potential risks but remain caught in a competitive race, believing they must continue developing the technology because other companies will do so regardless.

Coxon argued that accelerating the development of advanced AI should not be left to private companies alone. He called for greater coordination among U.S. AI laboratories and said a temporary halt on improving model capabilities could ultimately be necessary.

Coxon also urged other AI researchers to consider whether they are prepared to launch increasingly powerful systems without a rigorous understanding of how those systems reason and behave.

Coxon previously worked at OpenAI before joining Anthropic. His departure comes as concerns over the pace and safety of advanced AI development continue to grow within the industry.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans are working to lower costs for American workers and families and pledged to stop what he described as a Democratic push toward communism.

“Republicans are working hard every day to lower costs and make life easier for American workers and families,” Johnson wrote on X. “We’ll keep fighting for common sense and REFUSE to let Democrats lead us down the dangerous, dark road to communism.”

The post included a clip of Johnson’s appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show,” where the Louisiana Republican discussed affordability, midterm messaging and how Republicans should respond to socialist politics. On-screen topics during the interview included a White House draft proposal to pay stay-at-home parents, the job market for workers without college degrees and the November elections.

Johnson’s comments track a message he has used for months as House Republicans try to frame the midterms as a choice between what he calls “common sense” and “communism.” He has argued that a wave of Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates winning Democratic primaries shows the party is shifting toward policies he says include abolishing prisons, defunding police, weakening borders and expanding government control of the economy.

“This is a ‘contrast for America year,’” Johnson said earlier this month. “It’s a contrast between common sense and crazy, and now common sense and communism.”

Democrats have rejected that characterization, saying Republican leaders are inflating the influence of the party’s left flank to distract from kitchen-table issues and the congressional calendar. Johnson posted the remarks as House Republicans are spending much of the fall campaigning. Leadership recently canceled the chamber’s final two scheduled workweeks in September, leaving a brief mid-month session before members leave Washington until after the Nov. 3 midterms.

Johnson, R-La., has said House Republicans will campaign on tax cuts, energy production, border security and lower household costs while arguing that a Democratic-controlled Congress would take the country in the opposite direction.

MIAMI (VINnews) — Former pilots for 21 Air, the cargo carrier operating the Amazon Prime Air jet involved in Sunday’s deadly runway crash at Miami International Airport, had raised concerns about the company’s safety practices, according to documents and testimony obtained by the Miami Herald.

Five people were killed when the Boeing 767 went through a fence and struck vehicles at the airport.

In a federal Labor Department dispute, former pilot Karl Seuring alleged that 21 Air gave pilots insufficient rest between flights, violated takeoff procedures and retaliated against him after he raised safety concerns.

Seuring’s attorney said the pilot believed the company’s lengthy preflight checklist and scheduling practices could create safety risks. Seuring later became head of the company’s pilots union before being fired.

21 Air denied the allegations. The company said Seuring was fired because he misrepresented his employment history and disputed his account of his departure from Delta Air Lines.

Another former 21 Air pilot, Don Helmig, resigned in 2021, saying management was ignoring significant safety problems. Former chief pilot Bruce Joseph also testified that at least three pilots had refused to fly because of safety concerns and that company executives had discouraged employees from formally reporting safety issues.

The allegations predate Sunday’s crash, but the documents do not establish that any of the reported safety concerns contributed to the accident.

Federal investigators are continuing to examine what caused the Amazon cargo jet to leave the runway.

BANGKOK (VINnews) — Thailand has ordered the deportation of a French co-owner of a zoo on Koh Samui who banned Israeli visitors, following a separate case in which an Israeli tourist was convicted of threatening the zoo’s owners.

Kevin Dimino, co-owner of Samui Exotic Park, was ordered deported after Thai authorities accused him of threatening, harassing and physically abusing people. He was also fined 5,000 baht, about $150, in a separate case involving a traffic-related offense.

Très bonne nouvelle !

La Thaïlande a officiellement ordonné l’expulsion de l’antisémite Kevin Dimino, propriétaire d’un parc à Koh Samui, où il avait interdit son accès aux Israéliens et s'en était également pris à des familles juives en les insultant.

Justice ! pic.twitter.com/0JjqPeFNLP

— Jérémy Benhaïm (@JeremBenhaim) September 7, 2026

The Israeli involved in the dispute, Yaacov Ohayon, was also ordered deported by Thailand last week. Authorities said Ohayon was given a suspended 15-day jail sentence and fined 5,000 baht after being convicted of making threats that caused fear or panic.

According to AFP, Ohayon had visited the zoo and confronted staff after seeing a Palestinian flag displayed by Dimino. Dimino said he had put up the flag after what he described as bad behavior by some Israeli visitors. The dispute escalated, and the zoo owners filed a complaint against Ohayon alleging that he had threatened them.

The incident became part of a wider controversy after video of Dimino arguing with an Israeli family circulated online. Dimino later received threats and responded with statements that were condemned as antisemitic.

Both Dimino and Ohayon face deportation under Thailand’s new rules allowing authorities to remove foreigners accused of inappropriate or disruptive behavior. The orders can be appealed within seven days.

Thai Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said foreigners are welcome but must obey Thai laws and respect the country’s customs.

“We want tourists, but when they come, they have to respect our laws, Thai people and our customs and tradition,” Anutin said.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Anthropic has walked away from a potential $6 billion acquisition of Israeli AI startup Decart, prompting widespread speculation in Israel about what caused the deal to collapse.

One explanation that gained traction on Israeli social media and among Israeli tech commentators, including Hillel Fuld, was that Decart’s founders wanted the company to remain in Israel rather than move key operations to San Francisco.

That narrative was widely celebrated as a story of Israeli founders refusing to leave the country. But there is no public evidence establishing that nationalism was the reason Anthropic abandoned the deal.

If true, this is unbelievable!

Anthropic, one of the most exciting and fastest-growing companies in the AI world was prepared to buy the Israeli company Decart for a whopping $6 billion.

The founders, however, turned down the offer when they heard that they’d have to move the… pic.twitter.com/KjZrc2Cop7

— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) September 8, 2026

Bloomberg reported that Anthropic had conducted extensive due diligence before deciding not to proceed. Other reporting has raised questions about Decart’s technology, business model and valuation, offering a potentially very different explanation for the collapse.

Decart had been valued at about $4 billion in its most recent funding round, making the reported $6 billion-plus acquisition proposal a substantial premium.

Neither Anthropic nor Decart has publicly explained why the deal fell apart.

For now, the claim that the founders rejected the deal because they wanted to keep Decart in Israel remains unverified speculation — while the actual reason Anthropic walked away remains unknown.

TAMPA, Fla. (VINnews) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Tuesday he is asking the Florida Board of Medicine to investigate whether OpenAI’s ChatGPT has engaged in the unlawful practice of medicine by giving users medical recommendations.

Speaking at a news conference in Tampa, Uthmeier said people have treated the chatbot’s answers as professional medical guidance even though the system is not a licensed physician.

“This is not a licensed doctor,” Uthmeier said. “People wrongly take this medical advice.”

He said some users have suffered adverse health effects after relying on AI-generated recommendations. He did not identify specific patients or cases.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, who joined Uthmeier at the briefing, said AI-generated health information can appear authoritative enough that users treat it as advice from a medical professional.

The request to the Board of Medicine came as Uthmeier also said he would press state lawmakers for legislation that would create criminal penalties for companies whose AI chatbots are involved in illegal activity. Potential penalties under the still-unwritten proposal could include heavy fines, payments to victims, court-ordered monitoring and, in some cases, suspension of business operations in Florida.

“We’re already investigating criminally ChatGPT, and this is novel,” Uthmeier said. “You can’t lock a company up behind bars.”

Uthmeier’s office has been investigating OpenAI since the spring. In April, prosecutors opened a criminal inquiry after reviewing chat logs between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, the gunman in the April 17, 2025, shooting at Florida State University that killed two people and wounded several others. Officials later expanded the probe to include the slayings of two University of South Florida doctoral students after court records showed the suspect had asked the chatbot questions about disposing of a body.

On June 1, Florida filed what Uthmeier called the first state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the company marketed ChatGPT as safe while concealing serious risks. Uthmeier said Tuesday that additional subpoenas would be issued in the coming weeks.

OpenAI has long said ChatGPT is not a substitute for professional medical or legal advice and that users should consult licensed clinicians for diagnosis and treatment. The company has also said it continues to strengthen safeguards against harmful uses.

Uthmeier said the legislative effort is in its early stages and is not intended as a ban on artificial intelligence. He said Florida should set rules rather than wait for Congress.

“We’re gonna do what we do in Florida,” he said. “We’re gonna lead the way.”

(AP) – Taking a commercial flight from a U.S. airport generally requires security screening controlled by the federal government, a boarding pass or prior authorization to get anywhere near a gate, and careful attention to the contents of carry-on bags.

It wasn’t always this way. Travelers once passed through security checkpoints staffed by private contractors selected by airlines. Full-sized bottles of shampoo and cans of shaving cream didn’t get tossed for exceeding liquid limits. Friends and relatives didn’t need advance clearance to exchange goodbye hugs with departing passengers just before boarding time.

The procedures air travelers follow today were built layer by layer, often after attacks or attempted attacks exposed new safety vulnerabilities and threats — from bombs hidden in luggage to hijackers who turned airplanes into weapons.

“Attacks on aviation have an impact much greater than attacks on anything else because aviation commands the attention of the world as the thing that links the world,” said Mary Schiavo, a pilot and aviation disaster attorney.

As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 nears, here’s how those attacks, the earlier bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and subsequent plots helped shape airline and airport security.

9/11 requires authorities to consider aircraft hijackings in new ways
No single day changed air travel more dramatically than Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 al-Qaida hijackers commandeered four commercial airplanes, crashed two into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and another in a Pennsylvania field.

Before then, authorities presumed aircraft hijackers would seek to negotiate, not deliberately crash a plane as part of an attack, according to Schiavo, who served as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general from 1990 to 1996.

“The focus at the time, generally, was not on suicide attackers,” she said.

U.S. officials introduced changes before the 9/11 Commission identified systemic failures and missed warning signs that allowed the plot to proceed.

The Federal Aviation Administration immediately restricted gate access at airports to ticketed passengers and banned knives and box cutters from carry-on bags. The hijackers used small knives to threaten passengers, attack crew members and seize the planes.

Congress created the Transportation Security Administration, shifting airport screening responsibility to government workers. Lawmakers The same law required reinforced cockpit doors, more federal air marshals on flights and 100% of checked luggage to undergo screening for explosives.

With screening times and lines getting longer, TSA looked for ways to move pre-vetted travelers through more efficiently, said Sheldon Jacobson, a University of Illinois professor whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck.

TSA increasingly used watchlist checks, voluntary background investigations and other information to sort passengers based on assessed risk. Travelers selected for additional scrutiny faced more intensive checks. Civil liberties advocates warned that opaque selection criteria and inaccurate watch lists would encourage discriminatory profiling based on race or religion.

The range of security flaws that 9/11 bared came after authorities and the aviation industry spent more than a decade trying to address gaps that earlier attacks brought to light.

A bombing high above Scotland puts a spotlight on checked bags and hidden explosives
Almost 13 years before 9/11, a bomb destroyed a jumbo jet operated by a U.S. airline as it flew at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 people on the ground. Investigators determined an explosive device hidden in a radio-cassette player had been inside a suitcase that was checked in Malta and ultimately transferred to Pan Am Flight 103 without an accompanying passenger.

The Dec. 21, 1988, attack on the London-to-New York flight “stimulated the most significant changes in aviation security since the early 1970s,” former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey told the 9/11 Commission in 2003.

The FAA ordered U.S. carriers at airports in Europe and the Middle East to X-ray or physically search all checked baggage, to conduct additional random checks, and to confirm that checked bags belonged to flying passengers.

Acting on a presidential commission’s recommendations and orders from Congress, the FAA elevated security as an agency priority, established intelligence-sharing agreements, instituted tighter cargo controls, developed training standards for private screeners and researched explosives-detection technology.

The FAA also covertly tested airport and airline security systems by assigning a team “to simulate the criminal and terrorist attacker modus operandi,” Garvey testified. On Sept. 10, 2001, the agency saw attacks with explosive devices as the most dangerous threat to an airliner and the people on it, she told the 9/11 Commission.

“The challenge is not formulating attack scenarios,” Garvey said. “The challenge is figuring out how best to allocate finite resources in an environment of uncertainty.”

Footwear and beverage bottles emerge as security concerns in the wake of foiled bomb plots
Three months and 11 days after 9/11, Richard Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. The British man tried to ignite them midflight but struggled to light the fuse before other passengers and crew members subdued him.

TSA and airlines asked passengers after the Dec. 22, 2001, incident to remove their shoes voluntarily during security screening. Shoe removal became mandatory less than five years later, when TSA also restricted outside liquids and gels on commercial planes.

The changes came after British authorities announced they had disrupted a plot to use liquid explosives concealed in beverage bottles to destroy seven transatlantic airliners. Authorities alleged the plotters planned to assemble and detonate devices in suicide attacks. Six men ultimately were convicted.

TSA immediately banned nearly all liquids, gels and aerosols from remaining with travelers beyond security screening. The agency soon replaced the prohibition with the “3-1-1” rule that limits passengers to containers of 3.4 ounces or less that must fit in a single quart-sized, clear plastic bag.

In July 2025, the Trump administration ended the shoe screening requirement that sent passengers shuffling through security barefoot or in socks.

The so-called “underwear bomber” accelerates the rollout of body scanners
On Christmas Day 2009, a passenger on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear as the plane approached Detroit. The device failed and the young man — who identified himself as a Yemen-trained member of al-Qaida — was severely burned. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, later pleaded guilty to attempting to destroy the aircraft.

The checkpoint metal detectors used at the time could not detect the plastic explosives under Abdulmutallab’s clothes. TSA already was testing full-body scanners at some airports, and the averted disaster persuaded authorities to fast-track the technology.

The radio wave scanners check for a range of prohibited items. Stepping inside one with feet apart and arms raised has become a familiar ritual for most travelers.

Aviation security continues to evolve with new technology and equipment
Security screening still is evolving. TSA launched a program thismonth at 13 airports allowing PreCheck members who apply in advance to meet arriving friends and family or to see them off at the gate.

TSA has also been expanding facial recognition technology to verify passengers’ identities. And as of last month, newly manufactured passenger airplanes must have a retractable security gate between the cabin and flight deck to protect the cockpit when its reinforced main door is open.

“Any one layer of security can be breached,” Jacobson said, “but collectively, when you put them on top of each other, what you end up with is a very resilient system.”

MIAMI (VINnews) — MIAMI — NASA astronaut Don Pettit says he has spent 23 years documenting from space how cities around the world are replacing traditional yellow-orange lighting with LEDs.

I have spent 23 years documenting the global LED transition of city lighting from space.

Across my 4 missions to the ISS, I have photographed every major city on Earth, building a data set of the gradual replacement of sodium vapor lighting with LEDs.

The warmer, yellow-orange… https://t.co/gNNiEULpkr pic.twitter.com/ChFbj8Jtgs

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) September 7, 2026

In a post Sunday on X, Pettit said he photographed major cities during four missions to the International Space Station, creating what he described as a record of the gradual global shift from sodium-vapor lighting to LEDs.

Pettit said the warmer yellow-orange glow of older gas-discharge lamps has increasingly given way to multicolored LED lighting, citing energy savings and environmental considerations.

The transition has dramatically changed the appearance of cities from orbit, he said, while also affecting how cities look and feel from the ground.

As an example, Pettit highlighted Miami, sharing a 2025 photograph taken from the ISS alongside an earlier view.

“Miami, Florida as seen from the ISS in 2025,” Pettit wrote. He said the city had changed tremendously since his previous mission, with yellow-orange sodium-vapor lights replaced by multicolored LEDs.

“The city grid really pops!” he wrote.

Pettit said the LED transition is occurring worldwide and shared a collection of what he called some of the most striking before-and-after examples he has observed during his missions.

Don Pettit’s X post

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Patrick Sullivan was sure it was a “crazy neighbor” honking a car horn nonstop while Sullivan was up feeding his infant son at 3 a.m. one night this summer.

It was a neighbor all right, but not a human one. A black bear had opened the door of a Toyota SUV and was trapped inside the vehicle in Gold Hill, Colorado, northwest of Denver.

In one of hundreds of examples of bears getting into more trouble than usual in the parched Rocky Mountains this summer, the animal kept bumping the horn as it ripped apart the Toyota’s interior, desperately trying to escape.

“It’s totaled. It’s unfit to drive,” Sullivan said of the car.

Millions of people live in or near bear habitat across the Rockies, where widespread drought has reduced supplies of nuts, berries and plants that bears eat. That’s prompting the animals to roam far and wide for food.

Sullivan’s brother-in-law eventually freed the bear trapped in the Toyota. But such encounters can be deadly for bears. One recently stuck in a car in Colorado Springs died from the heat, and wildlife officials have killed dozens of others that could endanger people.

Hungry bears are on the move
Colorado officials report twice as many bear sightings and conflicts with humans this year compared with the average, including bears roaming where they aren’t normally found. Wildlife managers in New Mexico and Utah report record numbers of hungry bears have lost their natural hesitancy to raid homes, cars and campgrounds.

A black bear up a tree in central Denver recently was tranquilized and relocated. At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, a bear had to be caught and released elsewhere during the fall semester move-in. In Utah, authorities moved four bears from the town of Moab where they had been feasting in orchards.

“Bears aren’t necessarily behaving any differently but they are definitely increasing their activity in the places that they’re looking for food,” said Travis Sauder, a state wildlife officer in southeastern Colorado.

Black bears usually stick to Colorado’s mountains and foothills. This year, they’ve been spotted on the plains more than an hour’s drive east of Colorado Springs.

“When they get that far east, there’s just zero natural food sources that they would be looking for, like oaks or chokecherries,” Sauder said.

‘A fed bear is a dead bear’
There are plenty of temptations for hungry bears around homes: pet food in open garages, bird feeders and grease traps under barbecue grills. And then there’s trash in unsecured bins, by far the biggest attractant behind this year’s surge in bear activity, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife data.

Many bears that visit populated areas are tranquilized and moved out of town. If they start associating food with people, however, they can be euthanized.

“A fed bear is a dead bear,” is the mantra of wildlife officials. They urge people to stash away anything a bear might even think of eating.

Black bears typically avoid people and are less dangerous than the larger grizzly bears of the Northern Rockies. Black bear run-ins with people are far more often destructive than violent.

But black bears can be aggressive toward humans: In June, a black bear followed and then attacked and scratched a hiker in Golden, Colorado.

Colorado has had at least four more attacks, including a bear outside an apartment building near Vail that scratched a man on Aug. 17 as he left a laundry room.

Five days later, a bear tackled and bit a fisherman in the mountains southwest of Denver. The young bear was tracked down and killed.

On Aug. 20, on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico, a black bear attacked a man who later died. Police shot and wounded the bear, which fled but was later found and killed.

A dry winter persists into summer
In Utah, over three dozen bears have been killed this year. That’s more than the past three years combined, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The number killed by wildlife officials and authorized property owners in New Mexico is already up to 187, the most since 2011.

Across the Upper Colorado River Basin spanning Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, this year’s snowpack was the worst on record. Scientists say human-caused global warming made that far more likely.

“Human-animal conflicts in the context of climate change haven’t really been fully researched yet. And we’re still starting to kind of tease out what this means for us and what this means for all the species that we share the ecosystem with,” said Samantha Miller, senior carnivore campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Add in vast areas of bear habitat scorched by record wildfires and it’s a recipe for problems.

It’s not always an unhappy ending for bears or people
A few bear-trouble stories are heartwarming, like orphaned cubs successfully released into the wild after time in a rescue facility, where they learned to live on their own without raiding.

“We’ve got to rescue a lot of bear cubs out of trees, including standing on some pretty shaky ladders to pull a bear cub that’s sleeping in a tree,” said Sauder.

While working on a deck in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, this summer, Andy Kerrigan found a cub that climbed into his truck through a window. He banged on the truck to scare it off.

“But it had found my lunch in the seat. And it was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere,’” said Kerrigan, who eventually chased it away with a piece of wood trim.

In Gold Hill, Sullivan’s brother-in-law solved the bear-in-Toyota problem by tugging a rope tied to a door handle. The bear bolted for the woods through the open door.

“It was just sitting there waiting for someone to help him, basically,” Sullivan said. “So I’m glad we could have done that for him.”

Noam – The Talk of the Town

Wherever I go, whoever I speak to… it keeps coming up.

“Noam. Did you see it?”
“We just got it.”
“My sister has one, she’s obsessed.”
“They say it’s a game changer.”

**NOAMWATER.COM
**

At first, I didn’t pay much attention. A new water machine? Nu nu. But then I saw it. In my neighbor’s kitchen. Then in my sister’s. Then at my cousin’s house in Williamsburg. Suddenly it was everywhere.

Now I Get the Hype

It’s not just that the water is filtered
Or that it’s always cold
Or that the hot water is ready for tea or coffee in a second

It’s the fact that it feels like it belongs in a frum kitchen

No timers
No “set it up before Shabbos”
No forgetting
The machine just knows and switches to Shabbos mode by itself

It Fits Right In

Noam doesn’t take over the kitchen, but it makes its presence known in the best way. It’s clean, compact enough for any counter, and adds a modern, organized feel to the space. The design is thoughtful and built for real homes

The Feature That Could Save Lives

Ask any Hatzolah member, and they’ll tell you. Too many calls. Too many burned hands. Too many accidents from urns and Shabbos kettles

With Noam, the hot water is protected. A built-in child safety lock makes sure no little hands can get hurt. It’s not a luxury. It’s not a detail. It’s peace of mind for every parent

Shabbos Mode. CRC. No Questions Asked

When it comes to technology on Shabbos, Noam checks all the boxes. With built-in Shabbos mode and a full CRC certification, it’s ready for the most mehudar homes — no explaining needed

It’s One of Those Things You Wonder How You Lived Without 

**NOAMWATER.COM
**

You don’t have to run to the grocery because you forgot to buy water bottles. You don’t have to boil, wait, or refill. You just press a button. Done

 And the best part? No one’s fighting anymore
The kids drink more water
Shabbos prep is calmer
And when guests come, it’s ready

 Noam is Everywhere, For a Reason

 It’s not a trend
It’s not a gimmick

It’s just smart

And once it’s in your home, you’ll see exactly what everyone’s talking about.

To hear more or to order, call 347-503-3082 or NOAMWATER.COM

(AP) – Meta launched on Tuesday a personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, for people 18 and over who are looking for help with day-to-day tasks like schedules, shopping and, in the company’s words, turning “long-term goals into action plans.”

Introducing Muse, your personal AI agent from Meta that gets things done across every part of life.

Download the Muse app and get started: https://t.co/KBjYWfshGo pic.twitter.com/1exp56xj93

— Muse (@Muse) September 8, 2026

The parent company of Instagram and Facebook is stressing the safety and privacy features of the agent, which for now is only available in the U.S. Muse, Meta said, runs on a dedicated, secure virtual machine that houses both the agent and the user’s data.

People can message the agent in a separate app, called Muse, or message it in WhatsApp. It can handle simple tasks like sending an email or booking travel, or bigger, long-term goals like creating a yearlong exercise plan or setting up a new business.

“Once a person shares a goal with Muse, it helps them develop a personalized plan and coordinate their time and resources, then advances the work on its own. It can open a browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on their behalf,” Meta said in a blog post.

Tech companies are touting AI agents as the next step after chatbots, which can answer questions and retrieve information but won’t take action on the user’s behalf.

At its most basic level, an AI agent works like a traditional, human-crafted computer program that executes a job, like launching an application. Combined with an AI large language model, however, it can search for knowledge that enables it to complete tasks without explicit, step-by-step instructions. That means, instead of just helping you draft the language of an email, it can theoretically handle the whole process — receiving a message from your coworker, figuring out what you might want to say, and firing off the response on its own.

For Meta, the agent fits into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of AI superintelligence that’s available to “everyone.” He outlined his vision last month in a 6,500-word essay published online.

In the document derided by critics as fantastical, Zuckerberg said his company is working toward an era where everyone will have the tools to create new businesses, receive Ph.D.-level tutoring and provide personalized lifestyle tips.

“Everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about. Your agent will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more,” Zuckerberg wrote. “It will free up time for the things you enjoy, and help you accomplish more than you could otherwise.”

The question is, will people actually use it?

TORONTO (AP) — The United States is banning dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada, the White House said Tuesday, as the trade war between the two nations escalates.

The ban will take effect in three weeks and comes after Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion in U.S. imports earlier Tuesday.

TEL AVIV (VINnews) — Israeli airline Arkia said Tuesday it will begin the first nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and Manila on Jan. 3, 2027, expanding long-haul service from Ben Gurion Airport.

The seasonal route will operate once a week from January through April. Flights will leave Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoons and return from Manila on Monday mornings. Eastbound travel time is about 11 hours; the westbound flight is about 12 hours and 20 minutes.

Arkia will fly the route on a wide-body Airbus A330 provided by GullivAir. The aircraft will have 268 economy seats and a 19-seat business cabin with fully flat beds. Business-class passengers will receive extra baggage allowance, amenity kits, lounge access and meals designed by Arkia executive chef Shahaf Shabtay.

The announcement comes as foreign carriers gradually restore service to Israel. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines restarted flights to Tel Aviv last week.

One-way fares are expected to start at $750 in economy and $1,800 in business class, according to reports on the airline’s announcement. Arkia is Israel’s second-largest carrier after El Al.

Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz said the Manila service is part of a broader plan to deepen the airline’s presence in the Far East after routes to destinations including New York, Bangkok, Phuket and Hanoi. Philippine Ambassador to Israel Aileen Mendiola said the link could support tourism, cargo and talks toward a free trade agreement. Nearly 50,000 Filipinos work in Israel, and there is currently no direct air service between the two countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation aiming to establish an intelligence community conspiracy against President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

New subpoenas being issued to former government officials represent an escalation in the year-long investigation as the Justice Department pursues a loosely defined theory that members of the intelligence community who scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including over Russian interference in the 2016 election, conspired against him and violated his rights.

Investigators in recent days contacted some defense lawyers for witnesses advising them of forthcoming grand jury subpoenas. It was not clear how many, as of Tuesday, had received a subpoena or were still waiting to receive one, and the identities of the witnesses receiving subpoenas were also not immediately clear. The people who confirmed the subpoenas spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secretive grand jury investigation.

The investigation has focused in large part on the Trump-Russia probe
The contours of the conspiracy investigation aren’t fully known, but agents and prosecutors over the last several months have focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: the U.S. government response to Russian interference in 2016 and an intelligence community assessment that Moscow meddled on Trump’s behalf at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who spent much of his first term shadowed by an investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election, has for years lashed out at the intelligence community finding and cast it as a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the legitimacy of his win.

Investigators searching for potential crimes in connection with the intelligence community response have conducted numerous voluntary interviews, but the subpoenas prepared for witnesses in recent days represent an apparent effort to lock down sworn testimony before a grand jury.

It remains unclear whether anyone will be charged or for what offense, though lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan have said they have been informed that he is a target as investigators examine whether he falsely testified to Congress — something he has repeatedly denied. The Justice Department last spring subpoenaed witnesses before a Washington grand jury as part of an investigation into Brennan, but swiftly withdrew the subpoenas in favor of voluntary interviews.

The investigation is being run out of Florida, with the Justice Department in April bringing back into government service a top prosecutor from the Reagan administration, Joe diGenova, to serve as a counselor to the attorney general and help lead a team of agents and prosecutors.

diGenova, who had previously asked then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint him to the job and has openly and repeatedly claimed Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy, declined to comment Wednesday when reached by The Associated Press.

In an indication of the wide-ranging nature of the investigation, the AP reported last month that diGenova’s team has sought interviews with law enforcement officials involved in the 2022 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, which recovered a trove of classified documents.

Concerns from defense lawyers about a ‘favored’ judge
Investigators have set up shop in Fort Pierce, Florida, the home court of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist who repeatedly appeared skeptical of the classified documents case against him and ultimately dismissed it after concluding that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed.

Lawyers for Brennan last year asked the chief judge of the federal court in Florida to prevent the investigation from being steered to Cannon, whom they described as a “favored” Trump judge. They have since sued the Trump administration, demanding a court order requiring prosecutors to preserve records from the investigation so that Brennan could challenge any potential prosecution of him as vindictive.

Trump came to office in 2017 under scrutiny from the intelligence and law enforcement community about whether his successful campaign had colluded with Russia, which stole politically damaging Democratic emails and orchestrated their release through WikiLeaks as part of a wide-ranging interference scheme.

The FBI and Justice Department investigated but found insufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, though it did find the campaign eagerly hoped to benefit from Moscow’s help.

Subsequent investigations by an inspector general and Justice Department prosecutors identified errors by agents who conducted the Russia probe but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by senior law enforcement officials nor an anti-Trump conspiracy like what prosecutors are now hoping to prove.

Deeply frustrated by those outcomes, Trump has amplified his demands for retribution, which the Justice Department heeded last year by directing that prosecutors utilize a grand jury. Last year, Bondi directed prosecutors to put evidence before a grand jury following the release of documents aimed at calling into question the legitimacy of the Trump-Russia inquiry.

**מיט וואס קען מען איבערבעטן 
דעם הייליגע באשעפער
היינטיגע צייטן?
**

**
דברות קודש בלהבות אש****מאת הרה״ק מצאנז קלויזענבורג זי״ע** 

מתוך דרשה א’ סליחות תשכ”ז

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רופט: 718.689.1363 ארה”ק: 0723982560

CANFIELD, Ohio (AP) — An armed man accused of charging toward Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton during a campaign stop at a fair was trying to ask the Democrat questions, a prosecutor said during the man’s arraignment Tuesday.

No one has publicly said what 38-year-old Patrick Havas wanted to ask Acton, but authorities have said he never brandished or unholstered the weapons he had on him and they haven’t found any threats in a search of his cellphone. As he charged toward Acton, authorities said, he knocked down two people before troopers stopped him.

Havas pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of inducing panic. His bond was set at $5,000.

He was arrested after authorities said he knocked people down while forcing his way through a crowd Sunday as Acton spoke under a tent at the fair in Canfield in northeastern Ohio. Authorities said he had two handguns, a taser and a set of brass knuckles.

“He appeared in that tent wanting to ask questions,” Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro told the judge during the hearing. “You should know law enforcement gained consent for them to have complete access to his cellphone so they found no threats.”

Maro said after the hearing that the video Havas took shows him “walking into the tent recording and moving forward, calling out her name.” Acton, a physician, is the state’s former public health director.

“All he got out was Dr. Acton, Dr. Acton,” Maro said.

Maro said that the investigation is continuing, and noted the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public for any video capturing what happened.

Acton’s security detail, made up of troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, intercepted Havas as he forced his way through the crowd, the agency has said. A highway patrol spokesman said they did not have any bodycam footage from the incident.

Two people were treated at the scene on Sunday and released, according to an incident report from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Mike Ray, a city councilman in Youngstown who is also a member of the Ohio Democratic Party’s executive committee, said he was in a corner behind Acton as she spoke. Then, he said, he could tell that something was going on among those in the crowd facing Acton, and he saw two people who were standing in front of their mobility scooters “tumble to the ground.”

Havas’ attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, said at the hearing that his client has lived with his mother in Canfield for the past 30 years and is not a flight risk.

“He really has nowhere to go,” said Ingram, who declined to make any comments after the hearing.

The Ohio gubernatorial race is one of the most high-profile races this year as the campaigns enter the final six weeks of campaigning before the election in November. Acton is facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, who has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump into a record fundraising haul. Ramaswamy’s campaign called the incident unacceptable.

The judge on Tuesday ordered that Havas have no contact with Acton or the two people who were knocked down, and that he forfeit any guns. He was also ordered to refrain from speaking with the media.

Addie Bullock, spokesperson for the Acton campaign, said in a statement following the hearing that Acton and her husband were “grateful to see the rule of law upheld,” and extended their “continued appreciation to law enforcement.”

Former U.S. Rep. John Boccieri, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio House, said he was near Acton in the tent when Havas “came in very aggressively” with his cellphone in the air screaming Acton’s name while rushing toward her. He said officers quickly “sprang into action,” grabbed the man and pulled him out of the tent.

Boccieri said he immediately jumped forward to make sure Acton was OK, which she was. And, he said, she’d already started helping a man who was face down in the mud after being knocked down.

Family getting up: Shacharis: 7:45 am Mincha: 2:05 pm Maariv: 8:45 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has struck multiple Iranian tankers in response to more attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship, according to a U.S. official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

It marks the latest tit-for-tat strikes as Washington and Tehran lurch back toward fighting during more than six months of war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy has warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers.

The warning, carried by Iranian state television, said the U.S. military had targeted several Iranian oil tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting U.S. forces and assisting in the attacks.

The Revolutionaly Guard warned tanker crews to abandon their vessels whether they were at anchor or docked, saying they “will be targeted.”

LONDON (VINnews) – Britain’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis issued a powerful condemnation Tuesday of the government’s new sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank, declaring: “This is truly a dark day for British Jews.”

Mirvis is one of the most prominent Jewish religious leaders in Britain and serves as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. His public interventions on major issues affecting British Jews carry particular weight, making his unusually blunt criticism of the government especially significant.

This is truly a dark day for British Jews.

Today our Government has chosen to ignore the deep concerns expressed by so many of us.

The measures announced amount to little more than political flag bearing for mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric and those who harbour a dangerous…

— Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) September 8, 2026

Mirvis accused the British government of ignoring the deep concerns raised by Jewish communal leaders and warned that the sanctions could have consequences far beyond their stated political purpose.

He said the measures amount to political posturing that could reinforce anti-Israel rhetoric and, rather than confronting extremism, could actually strengthen it.

The timing, Mirvis warned, makes the decision particularly troubling. With Rosh Hashanah approaching, he said the Jewish community is already facing an increasingly hostile environment and is more vulnerable to extremism than at any point in recent years.

Mirvis said the sanctions do nothing to advance peace and do not make anyone safer — “quite the contrary.”

He warned that repeated punitive measures and increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel can contribute to a broader climate in which people who use hatred against Jews feel increasingly emboldened.

The chief rabbi’s comments came after he and other senior Jewish communal figures urged the government not to proceed with the measures. Despite those objections, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband defended the sanctions and rejected the argument that they place British Jews at greater risk.

Mirvis’ intervention therefore represents more than a disagreement over British foreign policy. It is a warning from Britain’s chief rabbi that the government’s actions toward Israel could have real consequences for the security and atmosphere surrounding British Jews, particularly as the community prepares for the High Holidays.

Canada (VINnews) – Toronto police are stepping up security around Jewish communities ahead of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, with Police Chief Myron Demkiw warning that anyone who turns demonstrations into criminal activity will face arrest.

Demkiw said Tuesday that officers will be deployed in greater numbers during the upcoming holidays, with both uniformed and undercover personnel working alongside the Jewish community’s security network.

“We will have police officers embedded with the Jewish security network over the coming weeks,” Demkiw said.

The enhanced security comes as Toronto’s Jewish community faces continued concerns over antisemitism, including shootings targeting synagogues. Demkiw said police have made 573 arrests since Oct. 7, 2023.

He also issued a direct warning to those who may attempt to disrupt Jewish gatherings.

“If you engage in criminal behavior, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will lay charges against you,” Demkiw said.

Police will establish strategic command posts at several locations, including Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, an area that has been a frequent gathering point for anti-Israel demonstrators.

Mayor Olivia Chow said the city wants Jewish residents to be able to observe the holidays without fear.

“Everyone gathering for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur deserves to do so without worry,” Chow said.

Chow acknowledged that Jewish communities ideally should not need additional security simply to attend religious services, but said the current environment requires it. She called attacks targeting Jews “despicable” and said additional officers have been assigned to the hate-crimes unit.

The heightened police presence will continue through the weeks surrounding the High Holidays and into the Oct. 7 anniversary period. Rosh Hashanah begins Friday evening, Sept. 11, and Yom Kippur begins Sunday evening, Sept. 20, in 2026.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday condemned the Canadian government’s plan to ban trade in goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, calling Ottawa’s statement “outrageous” after a conversation with the deputy leader of Canada’s Conservative Party.

Sa’ar said he spoke Tuesday evening with Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and a member of Parliament from Thornhill, Ontario, about the Canadian announcement.

“Good to speak this evening with Melissa Lantsman, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, about the Canadian Government’s outrageous statement on the banning Israeli goods,” Sa’ar wrote on X. “She reaffirmed the Conservative Party’s strong support for Israel and its firm opposition to the Canadian Government’s intentions in this regard.”

Canada on Tuesday joined Britain, France and several other countries in a joint statement saying it would introduce national measures to ban trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Ottawa intended to restrict trade in goods tied to settlements it describes as illegal under international law. The statement did not set a start date or list the products that would be covered.

The countries also criticized settlement construction, including plans tied to the E1 area east of Jerusalem, and called on Israel to halt settlement expansion and act against settler violence.

Israel rejects the characterization of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as illegal and has long argued that trade restrictions targeting those communities amount to a political boycott. Settlement goods make up only a small share of Israel-Canada commerce, and analysts have described the planned ban as largely symbolic.

Lantsman, who is Jewish and has been one of the Conservative Party’s most outspoken defenders of Israel, has repeatedly criticized the governing Liberals over rising antisemitism in Canada and over Ottawa’s posture toward Jerusalem. Sa’ar met Lantsman in Jerusalem in December 2025, when the two discussed Palestinian Authority payments to terrorists and their families and the surge in antisemitism in Canada and elsewhere.

The latest Canadian move adds to a series of disputes between Jerusalem and Western governments over the war that began with Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and over policy in Judea and Samaria. Sa’ar has in recent months publicly rebuked governments he accuses of applying pressure on Israel while offering what he calls one-sided measures against the Jewish state.

Ottawa has not said when the promised restrictions would take effect or how they would be enforced under the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an Israeli newspaper report.

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu 10 days before the attack and said Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza at the time, was planning an operation, the Haaretz daily said.

A week and a half before October 7, 2023 UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Abu Dhabi and spoke with him for 45 minutes.

In that conversation, bin Zayed warned that Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a… pic.twitter.com/ZZUp2WVR8V

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) September 8, 2026

Bin Zayed said it would lead to bloodshed and could destabilize the region and undermine the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations, the newspaper reported.

But Netanyahu “reacted with relative calm,” according to Haaretz, which said he assured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario and a possible attack was more likely to come from the occupied West Bank.

Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage in the Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds of Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in continued fighting in wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Haaretz reported Netanyahu’s office called the report an “absolute lie” and said Netanyahu did not speak with the UAE president “during the period in question and received no warning from him.”

Netanyahu has rejected calls for an official government inquiry into the events surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.

His office denied Tuesday that the UAE gave him a warning. “If there was any relevant information, it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries,” the statement said.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry also said that it would not comment on “speculation regarding conversations between government leaders.”

Israel and the UAE have maintained “open and direct lines of communication” since they formally established ties five years ago, the statement said. It added: “When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated.”

Israel is holding national elections next month and Netanyahu’s actions around the time of the Oct. 7 attack are a key issue in the campaign.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former top general who is seen as Netanyahu’s main opponent in election, accused the prime minister of ignoring dozens of warnings ahead of the attack.

“He is unfit,” Eisenkot wrote on social media.

Another Netanyahu rival, Naftali Bennett, said, “Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,650 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Police in Albania clashed with protesters and blocked them from reaching parliament late Tuesday in the latest rally against a luxury development linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Protesters staged the marches after parliament resumed from a summer recess and as the demonstrations marked their 100th day. They challenged a police cordon in the center of Albania’s capital, Tirana, pelting officers in riot gear with eggs and tomatoes.

Protests in Albania press on despite police crackdowns. Several students are now facing criminal prosecution, but citizens have responded by blocking Tirana’s main boulevard.
​They refuse to back down: Cancel the Kushner deal and clear out the corrupt Rama-Berisha establishment🦩 https://t.co/WBvN3iMAWJ pic.twitter.com/jLbb1FAD8k

— Tirana Report (@Tirana_Report) September 8, 2026

Dubbed the “flamingo revolution” for the protesters’ signs showing the pink bird that could be harmed, the anti-government protests have rocked Albania. They aim to stop the massive coastal development that critics say would cause environmental damage and limit public access to the coast.

Occurring nightly in the Albanian capital, the protests initially only focused on the development but have grown into a major challenge to the country’s long-ruling Socialist government.

Prime Minister Edi Rama — a target of the demonstrations — strongly supports the investment project, arguing that it would help modernize a country that spent decades in Communist isolation.

Demonstrators chanted “Arrest Rama!” during the clashes, as police escorted lawmakers to and from the parliament building.

Several protesters were detained, but it was not immediately clear whether any arrests had been made.

WILMINGTON, Del.(VINnews) — Former President Joe Biden revealed Tuesday for the first time that his prostate cancer had spread to his bones when it was diagnosed last spring, disclosing the serious development in a personal message posted on his social media account.

“This year it’s more personal for me,” Biden wrote in a message marking Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. “By the time we found it, it had already spread to my bones.”

Every September we mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. This year it’s more personal for me.

More than 330,000 American men this year will hear the words we did last spring when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. By the time we found it, it had already spread to my bones.…

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 8, 2026

Biden had previously disclosed his prostate cancer diagnosis, but his latest message provided the first public confirmation from him that the disease had metastasized to his bones.

The former president used the post to urge men not to delay conversations with their doctors about prostate cancer screening, noting that more than 330,000 American men are expected to receive a diagnosis this year.

“When prostate cancer is caught early, the five-year survival is close to 100%,” Biden wrote.

He urged men at average risk to begin discussing screening with their doctors around age 50. He said Black men should begin the conversation at 45 or earlier because they are nearly 70% more likely to develop prostate cancer and two to four times more likely to die from the disease.

Biden also urged men with a family history of prostate cancer to begin talking with their doctors around age 45, or even earlier if more than one close relative, including a father or brother, has had the disease.

“Which is an outrage in the richest country in the world,” Biden wrote of the racial disparity in prostate cancer deaths.

Biden said he remains deeply grateful to the doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who have treated him and continue to care for him.

He said radiation treatment he underwent last fall “worked as intended” and that he continues to do the things he cares about, including finishing his memoir.

The former president also thanked people who have reached out to him and his family with prayers and messages of support.

“It’s my hope and prayer that by sharing our experience and being part of this important conversation, we can help save lives,” Biden wrote.

“Talk to your doctors. Ask the hard questions. Do it for yourself and for the people who love you,” he added. “And no matter what, keep the faith. God bless you.”

Family getting up:

Mr Walter RosenblatBrother

Mr Walter Rosenblat
Brother

MIAMI (VINnews) -Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking aim at Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his decision to give a symbolic 9/11 pen to a top aide who previously represented an al-Qaeda-linked detainee.

“Was this ‘tone deaf’ or intentional?” DeSantis wrote Tuesday, in a pointed post questioning the mayor’s decision.

Mamdani gave the ceremonial pen to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem during a 9/11 commemoration. Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative whose sister was married to 9/11 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar.

The gesture has sparked outrage among critics and 9/11 families, who questioned the appropriateness of honoring the anniversary of the attacks in such a setting.

DeSantis’ blunt question adds to the backlash surrounding Mamdani’s handling of the 9/11 commemoration.

Was this “tone deaf” or intentional? https://t.co/4XlujOEqNA

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) September 8, 2026

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A 51-year-old Manhattan man accused of carrying out two separate stabbings on the Upper West Side in July has been indicted on hate crime charges, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Raul Morales is accused of attacking two men within minutes of each other on July 23 near two Upper West Side synagogues. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charges.

According to prosecutors and police, Morales first approached a 57-year-old Asian man who was walking near West 84th Street and Central Park West at about 1:31 p.m. The man was allegedly stabbed in the back with a knife without provocation.

About 12 minutes later, Morales allegedly attacked Moshe Grunhaus, 50, a Jewish man wearing a kippah, near West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Grunhaus was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver, according to authorities.

Police said Morales had no known connection to either victim.

Investigators allege Morales shouted “Allahu Akbar” during both attacks. Prosecutors also say he shouted words referring to “justice for Islam” as he fled the area.

Both victims were hospitalized. Prosecutors said the first victim required specialized surgery to remove the knife, which remained lodged in his back. Grunhaus suffered a serious puncture wound to his chest. Both men are expected to recover.

Police officers responding to multiple 911 calls tracked Morales to his apartment building. He initially refused to come outside but eventually surrendered, according to prosecutors.

Investigators later obtained a search warrant for Morales’ phone and found text messages containing what prosecutors described as antisemitic sentiments.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the evidence indicates that antisemitism was a motivating factor in the attacks.

“Raul Morales was allegedly motivated by antisemitism when he attacked two New Yorkers in broad daylight near two Upper West Side synagogues,” Bragg said.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department responded quickly, identified Morales and took him into custody the same afternoon.

Morales faces four counts of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, two counts of first-degree assault as a hate crime, two counts of attempted first-degree assault as a hate crime and two counts of second-degree assault as a hate crime.

NEW YORK (VINnews) – Families of Sept. 11 victims, first responders and elected officials gathered outside City Hall Tuesday to deliver a blunt message to Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Stay away from Friday’s 25th anniversary memorial ceremony.

The group presented a petition with nearly 102,000 signatures calling on Mamdani not to attend the ceremony at the World Trade Center.

Among those speaking out was Jeannette Pick, whose father, Joseph O. Pick, was killed in the South Tower. Pick was only 9 years old when she lost her father.

Speaking about the mayor’s planned attendance, Pick delivered what she described as a simple message to Mamdani.

“Dude, don’t come,” she said.

For Pick and other victims’ relatives, the anniversary is not a political event but a deeply personal day of mourning for the families who lost loved ones.

Charles Wolf, whose wife was killed in the attacks, said the families are asking Mamdani to respect their wishes and allow them to mourn without distractions.

"Mamdani, do us all a favor and just stay home!"

Catholic League President Bill Donohue unloads on Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his past remarks about 9/11, calling him a "disgrace to veterans" and telling him to stay away from the upcoming 25th anniversary memorial ceremony.… pic.twitter.com/xbyQJfPGht

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 8, 2026

Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace was killed on Sept. 11, organized the petition. He said the families want the 25th anniversary to remain centered on the victims and survivors.

“We really want us to be left alone,” Galante said.

Monica Iken, whose husband Michael was killed in the attacks, also urged Mamdani to respect the families’ wishes.

The families’ objections include concerns about Mamdani’s political positions, associations and appointments in his administration. Cheri Sparacio, whose husband Tom was killed in the South Tower, said their objections were based on his public actions rather than his background or faith.

Council members Vickie Paladino and Joann Ariola joined the families in calling on Mamdani to stay away.

Mamdani has indicated that he intends to attend Friday’s ceremony. The annual observance includes the reading of the names of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and brings together victims’ relatives, survivors, first responders and public officials.

For families such as Pick’s, however, the ceremony remains intensely personal — a moment that brings back the loss of loved ones who never came home.

The 25th anniversary memorial ceremony will take place Friday at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

LONDON (AP) — More than 600 flights were canceled on Tuesday due to a technical issue in Britain’s air traffic control system that caused disruptions at major airports across the U.K., the flight monitoring website Flightradar24 reported.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services said a problem had been identified in its flight processing system and engineers were urgently working on the issue, which affected flights across the U.K.

In an update, it said it had “implemented a fix and our flight system is starting to recover.”

At least 625 flights to and from U.K. airports, including London Heathrow, were canceled, affecting services operated by multiple airlines, including British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa, according to Flightradar24.

Some passengers took to social media to complain about being stuck on the tarmac for hours, before their flights were eventually canceled. Many expressed frustration about a lack of communication from airlines.

The affected airports included Stansted and City in London, as well as those in Manchester, Birmingham, Gatwick and Scotland. They warned passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline.

Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” and that the system failure caused “delays to flights across Europe.”

Heathrow’s website showed that many short-haul flights departing for European destinations had been canceled or delayed.

It was not immediately clear what caused the technical problem.

WASHINGTON (VINnews) – An airport practice that largely disappeared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is making a limited comeback.

The Transportation Security Administration has launched a pilot program allowing certain people without airline tickets to pass through security and enter the gate areas at 13 U.S. airports.

The program, called Gateside by TSA PreCheck, allows approved visitors to accompany friends or family members to the gate, greet arriving passengers, meet someone during a layover or visit shops and restaurants inside the secure area.

Before 9/11, access to airport gate areas was considerably less restricted. TSA’s own historical materials describe the pre-9/11 system as allowing all screened individuals into the sterile area, compared with more limited access today.

Under the new program, visitors must be enrolled in TSA PreCheck or another eligible trusted-traveler program and apply online between one and three days before their planned airport visit.

Applicants must receive approval before arriving at the airport. Once there, they are required to go through the same TSA security screening process as other people entering the secure area.

There is no fee to participate, although individual airports can limit the number of visitor passes issued and restrict the program during particularly busy periods.

TSA said the pilot initially includes these 13 airports:

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA) — Mesa, Arizona
John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) — Columbus, Ohio
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — Dallas, Texas
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) — Detroit, Michigan
Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) — Wichita, Kansas
Indianapolis International Airport (IND) — Indianapolis, Indiana
Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) — Las Vegas, Nevada
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — Los Angeles, California
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT) — Little Rock, Arkansas
Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Eppley Airfield (OMA) — Omaha, Nebraska
San Diego International Airport (SAN) — San Diego, California
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) — Salt Lake City, Utah

TSA says the program is part of an effort to provide greater access to airport terminals while maintaining existing security requirements. The agency partnered with the 13 airports for the initial launch.

Visitors remain subject to airport and TSA rules while inside the secure area. Violations can result in the visitor’s access being revoked and, depending on the circumstances, additional penalties.

For travelers who remember the pre-9/11 era, the program represents a small return to an airport experience in which saying goodbye to a loved one did not necessarily have to happen at the security checkpoint.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is within four points of Gov. Kathy Hochul in a new poll, putting the challenger within striking distance in this year’s New York governor’s race.

The McLaughlin & Associates survey, conducted for the Blakeman campaign, found Hochul leading Blakeman 49.6% to 45.7% among likely voters, with 4.7% undecided. The poll surveyed 800 likely voters from Aug. 27-31.

The results, reported by the New York Post, show Blakeman with a significantly smaller deficit than a Siena College poll released last month, which had Hochul ahead 49% to 39%.

The McLaughlin poll also found that 55% of likely voters viewed Hochul unfavorably, while 56% said it was time to give someone else a chance to lead the state, according to the Post.

Blakeman holds leads over Hochul in the suburbs and upstate, according to the poll, but trails substantially in New York City, where Hochul leads 60% to 33%.

With nearly two months remaining before the Nov. 3 election, the poll indicates that Blakeman has a path to make the race competitive, although the survey was commissioned by his campaign and another recent independent poll showed Hochul with a larger lead.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  With only hours left before Israel’s party lists had to be handed in to the Central Elections Committee, the Ashkenazi chareidi party known as United Torah Judaism (UTJ) faced the most serious internal crisis in its history. Two of its factions announced that they were breaking away from Agudas Yisroel and forming a brand-new party, one that would still run on the same UTJ ticket, but as an independent partner rather than as a junior member of Agudah.

What Happened

MK Meir Porush, who heads the Shlomei Emunim faction, and Elyakim Stark, who represents the Belzer chassidim, announced that they would run on the UTJ list under a brand new party called “Chomas Toras Yisroel,” which means “The Wall of the Torah of Israel.”

To understand why this is such major drama, we first need to understand how UTJ worked previously. For nearly forty years, UTJ has been a partnership of two parties. The first is Agudas Yisroel, which represents the chassidic world, including Gur, Belz, Vizhnitz, and the Shlomei Emunim grouping led by Porush. The second is Degel HaTorah, which represents the Litvish, or yeshiva, world. Inside Agudah, Gur, the largest chassidic court in Israel, has long been the dominant force. It is sometimes called the “Central Faction.”

The new plan would turn UTJ from a two-party partnership into a three-party arrangement: Degel HaTorah, Agudas Yisroel (which would now be mostly Gur and its allies), and Chomas Toras Yisroel (Shlomei Emunim and Belz).

Why Porush and Belz Want Out

The breakaway factions have complained for years that they are treated unfairly inside Agudah. Their central claim is that Gur controls the money. Every party in the Knesset receives monthly funding based on the number of seats it holds. According to Shlomei Emunim and Belz, Gur has delayed passing along their share of those funds, which total hundreds of thousands of shekels, to their branches and institutions around the country.

By registering as a separate party, Chomas Toras Yisroel would receive its Knesset funding directly, with no middleman.

But the fight is about more than money. It is also about power and respect. If Porush heads his own party, then any future coalition talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, or with anyone else, would have to include a separate seat at the table for him. Right now, Agudah negotiates as one unit, and Gur’s representatives usually do the talking.

A Plan Nearly a Year in the Making

This was not a rash decision made at the last minute. Reports indicate the move had been prepared for close to a year. A “shelf party,” meaning a legally registered party that already exists on paper but is not active, was quietly purchased, and its identity was kept secret until the final days. It was then renamed Chomas Toras Yisroel.

Perhaps most striking of all, Degel HaTorah knew about the plan in advance and helped keep it quiet. That means the Litvish partner in UTJ sided, at least quietly, with Porush and Belz against Gur.

Gur Says No

When the plan was presented, Gur’s representatives refused to approve it. The meeting fell apart and people walked out of the hall. This left the entire UTJ list in limbo with the clock ticking toward the filing deadline.

Background: Tensions Were Already High

This crisis did not come out of nowhere. Even before this blow-up, the negotiations between Agudah and Degel were tense. Reports two weeks earlier indicated that Degel HaTorah was expected to demand five of the first eight spots on the joint slate, as well as that MK Uri Maklev be given priority for the first position over MK Meir Porush. In other words, the question of who leads and who follows was already a sore point. 

Analysis: What Could Happen Next

There are several possible outcomes, and each one has its own consequences.

Scenario One: A last-minute compromise. Chareidi politics has a long history of dramatic fights that end in a handshake minutes before a deadline. Gur might agree to let Chomas Toras Yisroel exist as a third partner in exchange for guarantees about slots on the list and on the funding formula. UTJ would then run as one list with three parties inside it. This is the most likely outcome, because everyone involved knows the cost of failure.

Scenario Two: UTJ runs, but without a formal three-way agreement. The list could be submitted under the old two-party structure, with Porush and Belz staying inside Agudah for now but with the dispute unresolved. The fight would then continue after the election, and Chomas Toras Yisroel would remain a loaded gun on the table.

Scenario Three: A real split. If no agreement is reached, one side could file separately. This would be a disaster for the chareidi community. Israel’s electoral threshold is 3.25 percent of the vote, roughly four seats. Agudah on its own has hovered around that line for years. A separate Porush-Belz list would almost certainly fall below the threshold, and Agudah without Belz and Shlomei Emunim might as well. Hundreds of thousands of chareidi votes could be wasted, and the community could lose several Knesset seats at exactly the moment when the draft law, yeshiva funding, and the future of the entire chareidi relationship with the state are on the table.

The Deeper Repercussions

Even if a compromise is reached, this episode changes things in ways that will last.

First, the era of Gur running Agudah as its own private domain is over, or at least under serious challenge. Once Belz and Shlomei Emunim have shown they are willing to walk, they cannot be taken for granted again.

Second, Degel HaTorah’s quiet support for the breakaway is a warning to Gur. It suggests that the Litvish world would rather deal with several smaller chassidic partners than with one powerful Gur-led bloc. This shifts the balance of power inside UTJ toward Degel.

Third, coalition negotiations will become more complicated for whoever forms the next government. Instead of two chareidi Ashkenazi negotiating teams, there could be three, each with its own demands. Netanyahu, or any other prime minister, would have to satisfy more players. That could mean more leverage for the chareidim as a whole, or it could mean more infighting that a prime minister can exploit by playing one side against another.

Fourth, there is the damage to the community’s image and morale. The chareidi public is being asked to unite and turn out in record numbers to defend the Torah world. A public brawl over budgets and seats, played out in the secular press, makes that message much harder to deliver.

Winners and Losers

Winners:

Meir Porush is the biggest winner if the plan goes through. He would move from being one voice inside Agudah to being the head of his own party with direct funding and a direct line to the prime minister. It would be the crowning achievement of a career that began in the shadow of his father, the legendary MK Menachem Porush.

Belz also wins. As the second-largest chassidus in the Agudah camp, Belz has long felt it deserved more than it got. A separate party gives Belz its own budget stream and its own voice, without having to ask Gur for anything.

Degel HaTorah wins quietly. A weaker Gur means a stronger Degel inside UTJ. Degel also earns goodwill from Porush and Belz, which it can spend later.

Losers:

Gur is the clear loser. It goes from controlling the whole of Agudah’s Knesset funding and negotiating position to controlling only its own share. Its refusal to approve the plan, and the walkout that followed, made it look like the party that was willing to risk the entire list rather than share power.

Agudas Yisroel as an institution is also a loser. A party that was founded in 1912 as the umbrella for all of chassidic Jewry is now being described as, essentially, the Gur party. That is a real blow to its historic identity.

The chareidi voter is the potential biggest loser of all. If the fight ends in a split and seats are lost, it is the yeshiva student, the kollel family, and the chareidi school system that will pay the price when budgets are cut and laws are passed without a strong chareidi voice in the room.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is somewhere in the middle. More partners means more headaches, but it also means more opportunities to divide and manage. Time will tell whether he sees this as a problem or an opening.

Conclusion

The name “Chomas Toras Yisroel,” the Wall of the Torah of Israel, was clearly chosen to send a message of strength and protection. The irony is that the wall being built right now is a wall between chareidi Jews. Whether it becomes a permanent structure or is quietly taken down before the deadline will say a great deal about where chareidi politics is heading in the years ahead.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister Jernej Vrtovec told Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan that Samaria should be under Israeli sovereignty, after the two met in Ljubljana on the same day Britain announced new sanctions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

At the close of the meeting, Vrtovec pinned a Samaria badge presented by Dagan and said Slovenia stood in “great solidarity” with the region.

“Regarding your efforts in Samaria, we express great solidarity with your country, and we would like to say that we support Samaria being under sovereignty,” Vrtovec said, according to remarks released by the Samaria Council.

Vrtovec, who also serves as Slovenia’s transportation and energy minister, said Slovenia and Israel are friendly nations that should deepen ties under the country’s new conservative government.

“We share common values, we must defend those values, and I am certain that together we will achieve this,” he said. He also said a delegation from Slovenia’s NSi party and ministry representatives hoped to visit Israel, including Samaria, as soon as December.

Dagan thanked Vrtovec and Prime Minister Janez Janša for what he called Slovenia’s “courageous and just” veto of a European Union effort to impose sanctions on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

“Judea and Samaria are the defensive shield of the State of Israel and are of strategic importance to the security of the entire Western world,” Dagan said. “Israel is the front line, the forward position defending Europe.”

He added that Jews should not be punished “simply because they live in the heart of the Land of Israel.”

The meeting came about two weeks after Janša blocked an EU statement targeting Israeli activity in the region. Dagan has previously met Janša in Ljubljana as Slovenia reversed earlier restrictions on Israel and adopted a more supportive line toward Jerusalem.

Britain on Tuesday announced an import ban on goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, along with additional penalties aimed at settlement activity. France and Canada said they would take similar steps. Israeli officials condemned the British measures as political interference.

Dagan said the contrast was clear: while some European governments were moving to isolate Jewish communities, Slovenia was signaling support for Israeli control of Samaria.

“Israel is Europe’s line of defense,” he said.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Canada would move faster to reduce its economic reliance on the United States as retaliatory tariffs took effect on about $20 billion worth of U.S. goods and the country braced for President Donald Trump’s response.

“In too many areas, they wanted dependency, not a true economic partnership,” Carney said in a prerecorded video outlining his government’s plan to withstand the trade war. The prime minister said four decades of deeper economic integration had left Canada too reliant on the U.S.

The trade war began after Trump returned to office and imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian goods despite having negotiated and repeatedly praised the North American trade agreement during his first term. Many of those tariffs violate the pact.

The rupture is especially striking because the countries have long shared one of the world’s closest relationships, with deeply integrated economies, close defense and security cooperation, vast cultural ties and, before relations deteriorated, about 400,000 people crossing the border each day.

Canada looks beyond the US
The latest U.S. trade actions will cause short-term pain, Carney acknowledged, but he said it pushes Canada to move faster on investment, infrastructure and trade diversification. He acknowledged the shift would be costly but said standing still would cost more.

Carney contrasted Canada’s deteriorating relationship with Washington with its growing ties to countries he described as more reliable. “For the past year and a half, we have been steering our economy toward trusted partners,” he said.

“It was easy business, but it meant we relied too much on one economic partner,” he said. “That time is over.”

Canada retaliates as Trump response looms
Carney defended the retaliation, saying Canada was matching the latest U.S. measures dollar for dollar while supporting affected workers and industries and accelerating efforts to expand trade with other countries.

“We can’t let American goods into Canada tariff-free while they charge our companies to export to them,” he said.

Canada was not seeking to escalate the confrontation, he said, but the tariffs were necessary to protect Canadian workers.

The prime minister also defended Canada’s decision to walk away from the talks, saying Washington sought limits on French-language and cultural protections, influence over future trade deals, and terms that would weaken the auto, steel and forestry sectors.

How the trade war ends could carry consequences far beyond Canada, testing whether a smaller U.S. ally can resist Trump’s economic pressure without being forced to yield.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has suggested Washington could retaliate by blocking some Canadian products from the U.S. market.

The tariffs hit hundreds of American products, including steel, aluminum, cheese, appliances, clothing, cosmetics and farm equipment, at rates of 15%, 25% or 50%. They cover about $20 billion in American goods, roughly 6% of the $333.6 billion the United States exported to Canada last year.

Since Canada-U.S. trade talks collapsed Aug. 21, Trump and his administration have imposed additional tariffs and issued a series of threats and attacks portraying Canada as weak and dependent.

Trump’s trade war and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have fueled anger and rallied support for Carney. Canadians have sharply cut travel to the United States and boycotted U.S. goods.

Carney praised those efforts, saying “every time we choose to buy Canadian and travel in Canada, we are sending a message that nobody is in the stands, 40 million of us are on the ice.”

Neither side is rushing back to the table
Gabriel Brunet, a spokesman for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said officials from both countries remain in contact even though formal negotiations have not resumed.

“Canadian and American officials have maintained ongoing discussions on a range of issues, although formal trade negotiations are not taking place at this stage,” Brunet said.

Former U.S. trade official Wendy Cutler said neither side appeared eager to make the first move.

“With a growing public approval rating now topping 70%, Prime Minister Carney is not in any hurry to reach out to Washington. But importantly, he has not closed the door to talks,” she said. “Clearly, at this point each side does not want to look too anxious to reengage in fear of looking weak.”

(AP) – U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to ban the sale of aircraft from Canada’s Bombardier unless it manufactures planes in the United States.

In response, the maker of private jets noted that many components for its planes, including the wings, are produced in the U.S. and its supply chain relies heavily on U.S. companies.

Since Canada-U.S. trade talks collapsed on Aug. 21, Trump and his administration have unleashed a barrage of tariffs, threats and personal attacks portraying Canada as weak and dependent. Canada retaliated Tuesday with tariffs on about $20 billion worth of U.S. goods.

“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump said in a Monday social media post. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank.’”

Bombardier said in a statement that the American aerospace industry is a “clear winner on trade and exports.” It said it creates tens of thousands of jobs both directly and through its supply chain.

Bombardier’s supply chain includes about 2,800 U.S. companies in 47 states, it said. Among other things, wings for its business jets are made in Texas and flight control components are produced near Los Angeles.

“Bombardier values its great partnership with American companies and its U.S. employees. Our plan is to continue to invest in our people, our customers, and the communities in which we operate across the country,” it said.

One state where Bombardier has a significant presence is Kansas, which Trump won by about 16 percentage points in 2024.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said in a social media post Monday that Bombardier supports a local workforce of more than 1,000 Kansans.

“I reached out to the Trump administration to make certain the President is aware of the significant contributions of Bombardier to Kansas and the importance of its presence in Wichita to many Kansas workers at Bombardier and in the Bombardier supply chain,” Moran wrote in his post.

Moran promised to continued working to ensure that the planemaker’s manufacturing operations remain in Kansas.

Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his government will buy six early warning radar planes from Sweden’s Saab and Bombardier, rather than from U.S. aircraft makers. The Saab planes use Bombardier’s Global 6500 aircraft platform, supporting Canadian manufacturing. They have 20% U.S. content. The alternatives would have been U.S.-made E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft made by Boeing or the Aeris X, made by L3Harris.

The Canadian government is reviewing plans to buy U.S. F-35 fighter jets. Saab has proposed making its Gripen fighter jet in Canada.

Bombardier is one of Canada’s oldest and most well-known manufacturers. The company was founded by Joseph-Armand Bombardier, an inventor and entrepreneur in Canada’s rural Quebec who started out making snowmobiles and other snow-going equipment in the 1930s.

Over its long history, it entered and left the train-making business and expanded for a time into making regional and commercial aircraft. But it sold off those parts of its business as it restructured to focus on making private business jets.

The company also has spun off parts of its business making snowmobiles and other recreational equipment.

MIAMI (AP) — All four family members aboard a small plane that went missing off the Bahamas were found dead Tuesday after relatives launched their own search effort, a family member said.

Silvia Larrieu said relatives on boats recovered the bodies.

The plane went missing on Monday after departing Great Harbour Cay, a city in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas, for Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, according to Bahamas police.

Larrieu said her uncle, Mario Lamar, 80, had more than 40 years of experience as a pilot and routinely flew to the Bahamas, where he had a second home in Great Harbour Cay. The plane was also carrying his wife, Lili, 79, and their grandchildren, Sofi Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22. They were returning home to Miami from a trip over the long weekend, Larrieu said.

The @USCG is assisting the @TheRBDF following a report of a downed aircraft with four souls onboard approx 15 mi off Andros Island, Bahamas.

A @USCG HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane is supporting the search. The case is ongoing.

For more information, contact Bahamian authorities.

— U.S. Coast Guard Southeast (@USCGSoutheast) September 7, 2026

NEW YORK — Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, a retired New York City police detective and helicopter pilot is sharing a collection of rare aerial photographs he took as the World Trade Center towers burned and collapsed.

Greg Semendinger, who retired from the NYPD Aviation Unit in 2002, was dispatched to the World Trade Center shortly after the first plane struck the north tower. He and his co-pilot flew over the area as authorities searched for people who might have reached the rooftops.

Semendinger had brought a camera with him and began photographing the scene. Over roughly 90 minutes, he captured images of the burning towers, their collapses and the enormous clouds of smoke and debris that engulfed Lower Manhattan.

Many of the approximately 150 photographs in his personal archive have never been publicly displayed. Some had previously appeared in books, news reports and at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, with his permission. He has now shared more of the collection with the USA TODAY Network for coverage marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

Semendinger recalled that morning in an interview, describing the moment he first saw the smoke rising from the towers while preparing police helicopters at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

“I look at the towers and I see the amount of smoke coming from it,” he recalled. “And I said, ‘that does not look like a small plane.’”

The aircraft was American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying 92 people that had been hijacked and flown into the north tower. Semendinger and his partner, Jim Ciccone, reached the World Trade Center about eight minutes after the impact.

After the second plane struck the south tower at 9:03 a.m., Semendinger realized the attacks were deliberate.

“Well, now we know it’s terrorist attack,” he recalled saying. “And now we know that there are other planes that are a possibility of being in the area.”

Later that morning, Semendinger photographed the south tower collapsing from a distance. As he flew near the burning north tower, he noticed signs that it, too, was becoming unstable and warned over the police radio that people in the area should be evacuated.

The north tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m., leaving Semendinger with what became his final aerial images of the building before it disappeared into a massive cloud of smoke and debris.

Similar aerial photographs taken by Semendinger were publicly released in 2010, providing rare views of the towers collapsing from police helicopters.

The newly shared photographs offer another firsthand visual record of the attacks and the devastation left behind in Lower Manhattan.

JERUSALEM — Israel announced Tuesday that it will close the British Consulate General in Jerusalem and take a series of diplomatic and security-related measures against Britain, sharply escalating a dispute with London over Israeli communities in the West Bank.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the measures were coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and were being taken in response to a new package of British restrictions targeting Israeli settlements and businesses connected to them.

The Israeli response also includes removing British representatives from the U.S.-backed international center coordinating efforts related to Gaza, ending Britain’s role in training Palestinian Authority security forces and barring 12 British lawmakers and other nationals from entering Israel, according to Sa’ar.

The announcement came only hours after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament that Britain would prohibit trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and impose additional restrictions on businesses and individuals involved in settlement expansion.

Britain, France and Canada announced the trade measures as part of a broader effort involving a group of Western governments that said Israeli settlement expansion was threatening the possibility of a future two-state agreement.

The confrontation represents another significant deterioration in relations between two countries that have maintained close diplomatic, economic and security ties for decades.

Sa’ar accused Britain’s Labour government of pursuing what he described as a systematic anti-Israel policy and said Israel could impose additional measures against other countries that take similar action.

“The message to every government that harms us is clear,” Sa’ar said, warning that countries taking measures against Israel could face Israeli retaliation.

Consulate closure

The British Consulate General in Jerusalem has a distinctive role in Britain’s diplomatic network.

Unlike the British Embassy, which handles Britain’s diplomatic relationship with Israel, the Jerusalem consulate represents Britain in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and works on political, commercial, security and economic matters involving the Palestinians. It also provides consular assistance to British citizens in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Britain has maintained a separate position on Jerusalem for decades. Its government says it recognizes Israel’s de facto authority over West Jerusalem but does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem as a whole, saying the city’s final status should be determined through negotiations. Britain regards East Jerusalem as occupied territory.

Sa’ar rejected that position and emphasized Israel’s longstanding assertion that Jerusalem is its sovereign capital.

He said foreign governments operating in Jerusalem must do so with Israel’s consent.

The closure would therefore have significance beyond the immediate dispute over settlement trade. It would directly affect one of Britain’s principal diplomatic channels for dealing with Palestinian affairs from Jerusalem.

The Israeli announcement did not immediately make clear how the closure would affect individual consular services or the timing for winding down the mission.

Britain targets settlement trade

Miliband’s announcement in the House of Commons was broader than a simple ban on settlement-produced goods.

He said Britain would prohibit trade in goods from Israeli settlements and take measures against companies and individuals involved in activities that contribute to settlement expansion.

The British government said the measures were aimed at settlements rather than Israel as a whole.

Miliband also stressed that Britain would continue trading with Israel within its internationally recognized borders and rejected the broader boycott campaign known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS.

In his parliamentary statement, Miliband said Britain supports Israel’s security and continued economic prosperity while arguing that settlement expansion threatens the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The new British legislation is expected to take between six and nine months to come into force, although some of the other sanctions announced by London are being implemented more quickly. Britain also announced additional sanctions against individuals it accused of supporting or encouraging violence against Palestinians.

Britain said it would also refuse licenses for arms and other exports that materially contribute to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Miliband said Britain had already suspended more than 30 arms licenses relating to weapons used by the Israeli military in Gaza and would maintain those restrictions.

A wider international move

Britain’s decision was not taken alone.

Canada and France announced similar plans Tuesday, while a group of 12 governments said they intended either to introduce national restrictions on settlement trade or support European measures.

The governments included Britain, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

In a joint statement, the countries said settlement expansion and settler violence were undermining the possibility of a two-state solution. They specifically cited Israeli plans for development in the E1 area east of Jerusalem.

The governments said they were opposed to actions they regarded as equivalent to annexation of Palestinian territory or forced displacement of Palestinians.

At the same time, the joint statement reiterated recognition of Israel’s security needs and condemned the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

The statement also reaffirmed support for Israel and a future Palestinian state existing alongside it.

Israel rejects Britain’s E1 claims

The E1 development plan has become one of the central points of the dispute.

British officials argue that construction in the area could divide the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and make a contiguous Palestinian state more difficult to establish.

Sa’ar disputed that characterization.

He said Britain was presenting existing planning and tender activity as though it represented a new Israeli decision. According to Sa’ar, the decisions concerning E1 were made more than a year ago and the tender process had already been underway for months.

He also pointed to Israeli plans for transportation routes intended to maintain access between Palestinian population centers.

Among the projects he cited were Road 80, connecting areas around Bethlehem and Ramallah, and what Israel calls the “Fabric of Life” road connecting the areas around a-Za’im and al-Eizariya.

Sa’ar said the projects contradict British claims that Israeli construction would necessarily sever Palestinian territorial continuity.

The dispute reflects a fundamental disagreement between Israel and many Western governments over the legal and political status of Israeli communities in the West Bank.

Britain and most Western governments regard the settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes that characterization and describes the West Bank as territory whose final status should be resolved through negotiations.

Israel moves against British officials

Beyond the consulate, Sa’ar announced restrictions on a group of British elected officials and other nationals.

The individuals Israel says will be barred from entering the country are:

• Jeremy Corbyn, member of Parliament
• Zarah Sultana, member of Parliament
• Fahad Ansari, director of Riverway to the Sea
• Naz Shah, member of Parliament
• Diane Abbott, member of Parliament
• Hannah Spencer, member of Parliament
• Carla Denyer, member of Parliament
• Sian Berry, member of Parliament
• Ellie Chowns, member of Parliament
• John McDonnell, member of Parliament
• Richard Burgon, member of Parliament
• Adrian Ramsay, member of Parliament

Sa’ar said the restrictions apply to individuals Israel considers involved in antisemitic or anti-Israel activity or who deny Israel’s existence.

The move adds a personal dimension to the growing diplomatic dispute and could further complicate contacts between British lawmakers and Israeli officials.

Britain removed from Gaza coordination effort

Israel also said Britain would no longer participate in the U.S.-led international coordination effort connected to Gaza.

The International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat was established as part of the international framework for implementing and monitoring postwar arrangements involving the Gaza Strip.

Representatives from multiple countries have worked at the center, which coordinates issues involving the ceasefire framework, humanitarian assistance and stabilization efforts.

Israel had already taken similar action against representatives from other European countries.

In August, Sa’ar ordered Dutch representatives removed from the center after the Netherlands adopted measures restricting imports from Israeli settlements. Israel had also previously taken action against Spanish representatives.

The British removal therefore follows an emerging Israeli policy of restricting participation by governments that impose sanctions or trade measures against Israeli settlements.

Israel’s decision to exclude Britain could have consequences for the international effort to coordinate postwar Gaza policy, although the center includes representatives from numerous other countries.

British training mission also terminated

Israel will also terminate the British Support Team in Ramallah, which has assisted in the development of Palestinian Authority security institutions.

The British government has previously described its assistance as professional support intended to help develop Palestinian security institutions that are capable, accountable and respectful of human rights.

Britain has declined to publicly disclose the size of the team for security and diplomatic reasons.

Ending that cooperation marks another significant step because British assistance to Palestinian security institutions has been part of London’s broader effort to strengthen Palestinian governance.

Israel has increasingly objected to what it considers unilateral European pressure while Western governments have argued that strengthening Palestinian institutions is necessary for any eventual political settlement.

Sa’ar accuses Britain of double standards

Sa’ar also accused Britain of applying a one-sided standard to Israel while failing to take comparable action against the Palestinian Authority.

He cited Palestinian Authority payments to Palestinians convicted of terrorism and to families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned in attacks as an example of what he said was an issue receiving insufficient attention from Britain and other European governments.

Israel has long argued that Palestinian financial assistance programs encourage terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has disputed Israel’s characterization of its welfare and prisoner-related programs.

Sa’ar said pressure on Israel alone would not produce a political settlement.

He argued that sanctions and diplomatic pressure would instead make negotiations more difficult by convincing Israel that international governments were attempting to impose a solution rather than facilitating direct negotiations.

Britain says measures are not aimed at Israel as a whole

Miliband sought to draw a distinction between Israel and the settlements.

In his parliamentary statement, he said Britain would continue supporting trade with Israel proper and explicitly rejected the broader BDS movement.

“The sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel,” Miliband said, according to the British government’s published transcript.

The distinction is important because Britain and Israel maintain substantial commercial ties.

British government trade figures show total trade in goods and services between Britain and Israel reached about 6 billion pounds in 2025. British exports to Israel were approximately 3.5 billion pounds, while imports from Israel were about 2.5 billion pounds.

British officials have also said they continue to view Israel as an important commercial and technological partner.

That means the new restrictions are intended primarily as a political measure focused on settlements rather than a comprehensive economic embargo on Israel.

Britain recognized a Palestinian state in 2025

The latest measures build on a broader change in British policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Britain formally recognized a Palestinian state in September 2025, saying the move was intended to protect the possibility of a two-state solution and create a path toward a lasting peace.

The British government said at the time that Hamas should have no role in the future of a Palestinian state and called for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held by the group.

The recognition placed Britain alongside a growing number of governments that have moved toward formal recognition of Palestinian statehood while continuing to recognize Israel.

Israel strongly opposed the decision, arguing that unilateral recognition rewarded the Palestinians without first requiring Hamas to disarm or establishing a negotiated agreement with Israel.

Israel says Britain is interfering in its election

Sa’ar’s criticism also focused on the timing of Britain’s actions.

Israel is approaching a national election scheduled for later in October, and Sa’ar accused the British government of interfering in Israel’s political process.

He argued that Britain’s decision to impose sanctions while Israel is heading toward an election amounted to an attempt to influence Israeli domestic politics.

British officials have rejected that characterization and have presented their measures as a response to settlement expansion, settler violence and concerns about the future of a two-state agreement.

The timing nevertheless adds another layer to an already contentious relationship.

Netanyahu government faces growing pressure

The confrontation comes as Netanyahu’s government faces increasing diplomatic pressure over its policies toward the West Bank and Gaza.

Western governments have increasingly separated their support for Israel’s security from their assessment of Israeli government policies in the territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

The British government says it remains committed to Israel’s security and has condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, while simultaneously arguing that settlement expansion and violence by Israeli settlers are undermining the prospects for a negotiated settlement.

Israel, meanwhile, says foreign governments are applying disproportionate pressure to Israel while failing to adequately confront Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.

That disagreement has become particularly pronounced since the Gaza war began.

Sa’ar warns other countries

The Israeli foreign minister said Britain had initiated the latest confrontation but warned that Israel would respond to other governments that adopt similar measures.

That warning could be significant because Britain is not the only European government considering restrictions on settlement-related trade.

The joint statement issued Tuesday indicates that several European governments are either preparing national restrictions or considering additional measures.

Israel has already demonstrated through its actions against Dutch and Spanish representatives that it is prepared to use access to multinational Gaza coordination structures as a diplomatic lever.

The British case goes further by targeting a longstanding consular presence in Jerusalem and a security cooperation program with the Palestinian Authority.

A diplomatic relationship under increasing strain

Britain and Israel have historically maintained close security, intelligence, commercial and diplomatic relations, despite major disagreements over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The economic relationship remains substantial, with billions of pounds in annual trade and extensive British commercial activity involving Israeli technology, health care, pharmaceuticals, scientific research and other sectors.

But political relations have deteriorated significantly as the British government has adopted a more critical position toward Israeli settlement policy.

The British government says its actions are designed to preserve the possibility of two states living alongside one another.

Israel argues that the measures reward Palestinian intransigence, undermine Israeli sovereignty and make a negotiated agreement more difficult.

Tuesday’s announcement brings those competing positions into direct diplomatic confrontation.

The immediate consequences will include the closure of Britain’s consular mission in Jerusalem, the loss of British participation in the Gaza coordination framework, an end to Britain’s training role with Palestinian security forces and restrictions on entry for the named British nationals.

The broader question is whether the dispute will remain focused on settlement policy or expand into a wider breakdown in bilateral cooperation.

Sa’ar’s warning suggests Israel is prepared to escalate further if additional countries follow Britain’s lead.

For Britain, meanwhile, the measures represent another step in a policy that seeks to pressure Israel over settlement expansion while maintaining that its dispute is with Israeli government policies rather than with Israel’s existence or the Israeli people.

For now, the diplomatic relationship between two longstanding partners is facing one of its sharpest confrontations in years.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary ordered 10 members of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Budapest to leave the country over activities deemed unacceptable, the government said Tuesday, signaling a shift away from the previous administration’s warm relations with Moscow.

The Russian ambassador was informed that “according to the assessment of the Hungarian authorities, 10 members of the Russian mission had engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention,” Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said.

That is a reference to an international treaty that governs the conduct of diplomats. Russia said that it planned to respond.

The expulsions come months after Hungary’s Prime Minister Peter Magyar was sworn in on a promise to tackle corruption and dismantle the power structures left behind by his predecessor Viktor Orbán, who governed the European Union country for 16 years.

Orbán, who is not related to the foreign minister, was an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who repeatedly delayed or blocked EU sanctions on Russia and pursued energy deals with Russia.

The foreign minister didn’t specify the alleged activities or say how long the Russian personnel had to leave Hungary, but stressed that her country seeks to maintain diplomatic contacts with Moscow.

“This decision protects Hungary’s security and sovereignty,” Orbán wrote in a statement. “It does not imply breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia. Hungary intends to continue the necessary dialogue, based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in comments to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, vowed to provide “an appropriate response” to the expulsions. It didn’t elaborate.

European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said Tuesday that “we take note of Hungary’s legitimate decision” to expel the Russian diplomats. He said it was an expected reaction due to “Russia’s persistent campaign in using hybrid attacks against the EU and its member states.”

European leaders have repeatedly accused Moscow of conducting vast “hybrid warfare” campaigns against their countries, a litany of allegations that have included sabotage, election interference and an attempted attack at a German airport.

On Tuesday, Romanian authorities said they had detained a 40-year-old Russian citizen suspected of spying for Moscow between February and July this year, allegedly with a view to carrying out acts of sabotage after collecting “information of a military nature.”

Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said the suspect took and sent photos of Romanian and NATO equipment and the movement of military personnel in several counties that “endangered national security.”

The Romanian intelligence service, SRI, said the Russian citizen had been instructed by an intermediary to take photos and videos “with targets of strategic military interest, including Ukrainian ANTONOV cargo aircraft,” while they were on Romanian territory. The SRI added the case indicated a “similar pattern to that used on the territory of European states by networks of saboteurs” coordinated by Russia.

Moldovan police also said Tuesday that a 49-year-old man, originally from Azerbaijan, had been detained on allegations of collecting information for Russian intelligence services.

Police said he was targeting military targets in the country and some U.S. facilities in Moldova, and that the information he collected was to be sent to a person believed to be from Russian special services. Police said the suspect was allegedly “trained to carry out diversionary activities” in Ukraine and Moldova. He has been placed in pre-trial detention for 30 days.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations that it is trying to destabilize countries throughout Europe.

NEW YORK (VINnews) – New York City is releasing more than 170,000 pages of records documenting the city’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including documents concerning air quality and health risks around the World Trade Center.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release Tuesday, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The records are being made available through the city’s first public portal dedicated to 9/11 records.

The initial release includes the so-called Harding Memo, records from 68 boxes that city officials say were not located until 2025 despite previous Freedom of Information Law requests, and documents concerning World Trade Center 7.

The records include air-quality reports, contamination information and internal city correspondence. A review by The New York Times found that health officials continued detecting asbestos in areas as far as a half-mile from Ground Zero 10 months after the attacks, despite public assurances at the time about air safety.

The city said the documents were previously unavailable to the public and that additional records will be reviewed and released over the next year, with personal information redacted when necessary.

The release also settles two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch seeking access to city records. Under the agreement, the city expects to make hundreds of thousands of additional pages available as the review continues.

The Mamdani administration said it will assign personnel at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and New York City Public Schools to help New Yorkers obtain records needed to establish their presence in the city’s 9/11 Exposure Zone and seek benefits through the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

The city’s FY2027 budget includes $34 million to create and maintain the public records portal.

The release is expected to provide new information about what city officials knew about environmental conditions after the attacks and how the city responded as health concerns grew.

BERLIN (AP) — Police arrested a suspect Tuesday in connection with a series of attacks on power distribution systems across Germany which had led to a massive, dayslong search.

A 48-year-old man was arrested near a power plant in Weisweiler, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The man, whose name and nationality were not given in line with German privacy rules but has been widely identified by local media as Daniel V., was in possession of explosives and offered no resistance at the time of his arrest, Cologne police said in a statement.

When the first acts of sabotage took place early last week at a substation near the Jänschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg in northeastern Germany, and then hours later, a short circuit knocked power lines out of service at the Bergheim power substation near Cologne, top security officials in both states raised alarm and said they couldn’t exclude that the attacks were committed by foreign powers.

The incidents took place as the country was on high alert after the government blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives.

However, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Friday that the acts were believed to have been committed by a single activist in connection with climate extremism.

In addition to the first sabotage attacks near Jänschwalde and Bergheim, the man is alleged to have attempted, at several locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, to use homemade rockets to shoot a thin wire across high-voltage power lines, thereby causing a short circuit.

Most recently on Monday police discovered several launch devices on a high-voltage power line near the Weisweiler plant — very close to the spot where police were able to arrest the man. Investigators also found a letter there claiming responsibility — in addition to several other letters they had found at other locations before, German news agency dpa reported.

In the letters, the man justified the attacks on the power grid as part of the fight against fossil fuels. Lignite is still being mined and used to generate electricity in all three of the states where the man allegedly committed or tried to commit attacks on power plants.

Police said Tuesday that near the place where they arrested the man, they also found a tent set up in the underbrush nearby, which contained additional explosive charges.

The items are currently being examined by a bomb disposal expert from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office.

An arrest warrant had been issued earlier for the 48-year-old by the Cottbus Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Officers were at the scene in Weisweiler Tuesday to secure evidence and check whether any additional, as yet undiscovered, detonation devices have been set up in the surrounding area, police said.

MIAMI (AP) — The five people killed when an Amazon cargo jet ran off the runway at Miami International Airport were all inside a van used to get to planes to clean them, authorities said.

The jet crashed as it tried to land Sunday afternoon, overrunning its runway. It slammed into the van on airport property, through a fence and then on to a local street where it destroyed an SUV.

Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital. Two people remain in critical condition and a third is in stable condition, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday.

Cordero-Stutz said the deceased ranged in age from 47 to 75.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The American Jewish community is now spending more than $1 billion a year to secure synagogues, Jewish schools, community centers, summer camps and other communal institutions, according to new data released by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).

The organization estimates that annual Jewish communal security spending has reached approximately $1.015 billion, a 33% increase from its previous estimate of $765 million in 2024. The new figure covers more than 4,500 Jewish institutions across North America and works out to an average of roughly $225,000 per institution each year.

The estimate does not include privately owned Jewish businesses such as kosher restaurants, kosher grocery stores, Judaica shops and Jewish bookstores.

The largest portion of the spending goes toward security personnel, including guards and security directors. Another approximately $150 million a year is spent on security technology and physical upgrades, including cameras, access-control systems, reinforced buildings and the installation and maintenance of other protective measures.

JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut said the dramatic increase in spending is a measure of how much more dangerous Jewish communal life has become.

“Every dollar our community spends on guards and cameras is a dollar not spent on Jewish education, on caring for our elderly, on taking care of those in need,” Fingerhut said.

The scale of the spending is striking: JFNA estimates that $1.015 billion could instead fund Jewish day-school education for approximately 44,000 children, cover summer camp for Jewish children nationwide, or pay for Birthright Israel trips for an entire decade.

The figure also fulfills, almost eight years later, a warning made by Malcolm Hoenlein, then executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in the aftermath of the 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Hoenlein said at the time that adequately securing Jewish institutions across the United States could ultimately cost hundreds of millions of dollars and potentially as much as $1 billion.

The increase in security spending comes amid persistent levels of antisemitic crime and threats. According to the latest FBI data, anti-Jewish hate crimes accounted for 64% of all religiously motivated hate crimes recorded in the United States in 2025, even though Jews make up only about 2% of the U.S. population. The FBI data cited by JFNA recorded 1,528 anti-Jewish hate-crime incidents in 2025, making Jews the most targeted religious group in the country. JFNA described 2025 as the third-worst year on record for American Jews in terms of reported antisemitic hate crimes.

New York City provides another illustration of the trend. NYPD statistics show that confirmed hate crimes across the city increased 15.8% during the first eight months of 2026, to 425 incidents. Confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 8%, to 229 incidents, accounting for 53.9% of all confirmed hate crimes despite Jewish New Yorkers comprising about 10% of the city’s population.

The increase in antisemitic incidents has occurred even as overall crime in New York has declined in several major categories. The NYPD reported historically low levels of shootings and murders during the summer, underscoring the disproportionate nature of the rise in hate crimes.

Jewish organizations are now using the new spending figures to press Congress for significantly greater federal assistance. The central target is the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA. The program provides grants to nonprofit organizations considered vulnerable to terrorist or extremist attacks, helping pay for measures such as cameras, reinforced entrances, access-control systems and other physical and cybersecurity improvements.

Congress approved $300 million for the NSGP for fiscal year 2026, up from $274.5 million the previous year. Jewish organizations argue, however, that the amount remains far below the needs of vulnerable institutions.

In May, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma introduced the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act, which would authorize $1 billion annually for the NSGP and expand federal efforts to combat antisemitism. A companion bill was subsequently introduced in the House by Reps. Dan Goldman and Mike Lawler.

JFNA says fully funding the program at $1 billion would help close the growing gap between what Jewish institutions are being forced to spend themselves and the federal assistance available to them.

For American Jewish institutions, the numbers represent more than an accounting exercise: they reflect the increasingly substantial cost of maintaining ordinary communal and religious life in an environment where security has become an unavoidable part of the budget.

TRENTON, N.J. (VINnews) — The chairwoman of the New Jersey Republican Party on Sunday demanded the immediate resignation of Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, citing an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct toward women and possible ethics violations that she said the administration has kept quiet for months.

Christine Hanlon, the state GOP chair, said Caldwell — who also serves as secretary of state and oversees New Jersey elections — cannot continue in office while the inquiry remains unresolved.

“New Jersey had an Acting Governor under investigation for inappropriate conduct toward women and potential ethics violations, and the administration that promised to be the most transparent in history kept it quiet for months,” Hanlon said in a statement.

“That office cannot function under these circumstances. For the good of the state, and out of respect for the women whose complaints prompted this investigation, Dale Caldwell must resign as Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State immediately.”

The demand follows Friday reports that Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration hired the law firm Lowenstein Sandler, led by former state Attorney General Christopher Porrino, to investigate the allegations. Democratic sources outside the administration confirmed the firm’s role to NJ.com.

The New Jersey Globe first reported the probe. Subsequent reporting said it began months ago with an anonymous tip and that Caldwell met with Porrino about two months ago. The inquiry also includes possible ethics issues tied to offers of state jobs, according to the Globe.

Caldwell, 66, has continued a regular public schedule and served as acting governor for three days last week while Sherrill was out of state.

A Sherrill spokesman said Friday that the governor “would take any reports of inappropriate behavior or misconduct extremely seriously” but declined to confirm or deny “potential personnel matters.” Sherrill has not commented publicly. The administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hanlon’s statement.

Hanlon criticized that response, saying elected statewide officials should not be treated as ordinary personnel and must be held to a higher standard of accountability.

Caldwell cannot be removed by the governor. Under the state constitution, a lieutenant governor leaves office only by resignation, death or impeachment by the Legislature. The secretary of state post likewise does not serve at the governor’s pleasure.

Sherrill selected Caldwell as her running mate last year. The pair won election in November and were sworn in in January.

Details of the specific allegations and the investigation’s scope remain limited. Republicans, the minority party in Trenton, have pressed the administration for more information since the reports surfaced.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that U.S. envoys on a visit to Kyiv presented some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending his country’s war with Russia, adding that he hopes to meet with President Donald Trump within two weeks.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Moscow is determined to accomplish its goals in Ukraine and indicated that Russia believes it is close to winning the war, more than four years after it invaded its neighbor. Ukrainian and Western observers say that’s not true.

Washington envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy at the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no significant breakthrough that might soon end the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war Tuesday after a brief weekend truce in their capitals for the American visitors.

The aerial attacks killed at least three civilians and wounded 16 others in Kyiv, officials said, while Russian officials reported three people killed and 13 wounded in Moscow-run areas.

Zelenskyy aims to meet with Trump this month
Zelenskyy said he is counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20. That’s around the time that the U.N. General Assembly is being held in New York.

The Ukrainian leader indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles.

He thanked Washington officials for their efforts to unblock negotiations with Russia, which have been stuck since early this year with little progress.

“As for the peace package that Kushner spoke about and the new ideas, I’ll tell you frankly, there were indeed a couple of very good, worthwhile ideas,” Zelenskyy said in audio messages answering reporters’ questions.

The proposals will remain under wraps for now, he said, but he expressed hope that trilateral talks between delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. can take place in the fall.

He noted that Ukraine is “ready to find a compromise” on the issue of grain exports and energy. Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other’s grain ships in the Black Sea, raising concerns that two of the world’s major suppliers won’t be able to get their produce to market.

Ukraine has also battered Russian oil facilities while Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter.

Russia is confident of military victory, Moscow official says
A Moscow official struck a cooler note on recent developments in negotiations.

“We’re convinced the victory is very close. We’re very confident in our military potential,” Peskov told reporters, while insisting Russia wants to find a peaceful solution and welcomes Trump’s diplomatic efforts

Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war. But European officials and Western analysts say its bigger army is unable to make significant progress on the 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line, where it is pushing to capture the eastern Donetsk region, part of Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

“Russian forces will not seize Donetsk … until 2032 at their current rate of advance — if they can seize it at all,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said on Sunday. “The Russian rate of advance has slowed significantly across the theater since 2025, when Russia’s rate of advance had already begun to slow.”

With troops bogged down on the battlefield, both countries have intensified their aerial campaign of drones and missiles.

Top Ukraine diplomat says ‘horrific’ attack hurts peace efforts
Russia’s main targets in its overnight attack were Kyiv and the southern Odesa region. At least 16 people were wounded in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said. There was no immediate tally of casualties in Odesa.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv for nearly five hours, according to Vyhivskyi. More than 50 sites were damaged in Kyiv during the Russian overnight attack Tuesday, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, shops, gas stations and a flour production plant, he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “a horrific attack” and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of undermining U.S. peace efforts.

“His ballistic missiles speak louder than his words on diplomacy,” Sybiha said on X, referring to Putin. “Strike after strike on residential buildings brings him no closer to winning this war — it is nothing but senseless terror.”

Russia says it hit military-related targets
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight launched a massive strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities.

It provided a detailed list of its targets. They included places storing Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles, as well as transport, logistics and distribution centers for military cargo in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, the ministry said.

Infrastructure in the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region used for “unloading military cargo” was also struck.