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Doctors and researchers are cautioning that many people using injectable weight-loss medications could need to remain on them indefinitely, after evidence showed the pounds often come back swiftly once treatment ends.

In a large new review led by Oxford researchers, weight regain was found to be common and rapid after people stopped using the drugs, even among those who had lost substantial amounts. The analysis drew on 37 studies covering more than 9,300 participants and compared outcomes across all licensed weight-loss medications and behavioural programmes.

On average, people who discontinued the injections put weight back on at a rate of about a pound a month. Based on the data, many were expected to regain most or all of the lost weight within roughly 17 to 20 months, regardless of how much they had initially shed.

Professor Susan Jebb, who co-authored the review and advises ministers and the NHS on obesity, said the findings suggest a need to rethink how these drugs are viewed and prescribed. She said: “Obesity is a chronic relapsing condition, and I think one would expect that these treatments need to be continued for life, just in the same way as blood pressure medication.”

“We should see this as a chronic treatment for a chronic condition,” she added.

The injections — including widely used brands such as Mounjaro and Wegovy — belong to a class of medicines known as GLP-1 drugs. They mimic hormones released after eating, helping to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. Their arrival has been widely seen as a turning point in obesity care, offering levels of weight loss rarely achieved through diet and exercise alone.

However, the Oxford team warned in The British Medical Journal that the benefits can be short-lived once the drugs are withdrawn. Not only did weight return quickly, but key cardiometabolic improvements also faded. Gains in blood sugar control, blood pressure and cholesterol typically disappeared within 18 months of stopping treatment.

Weight regain occurred around four times faster than among people who lost weight through diet and exercise alone. While those on lifestyle programmes generally lost less — about 5kg over a year — they tended to regain weight far more slowly, at around a fifth of a pound a month. In that group, heart-health benefits often persisted for up to five years after the programme ended.

Dr Adam Collins, an associate professor of nutrition who was not involved in the research, said the mechanism behind the drugs helps explain the rebound effect. “As soon as the drug is stopped, appetite is no longer kept in check,” he said.

“If people haven’t built sustainable habits alongside treatment, going cold turkey can be extremely difficult – and some may regain even more weight than they lost.”

The review found that people using injections typically lost close to two-and-a-half stone (14.7kg) within nine to 12 months. But once treatment ended, most were projected to return to their starting weight within two years.

The findings are likely to intensify debate over NHS policy. Under current rules, Wegovy is offered for a limited period of up to two years. Most users, however, obtain the drugs privately, often paying as much as £300 a month — raising concerns about affordability if long-term or lifelong use is required.

Professor Jebb said real-world use also presents challenges. “What we’ve shown is that weight regain after treatment is common and rapid – suggesting the jabs should not be seen as a short-term solution,” she said.

“In the real world we know that adherence is surprisingly poor, with around half of people discontinuing these medications within a year.”

An estimated 2.5 million people in the UK are currently using newer GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. At the same time, around two in three adults are classed as overweight or obese. NHS data show adults now weigh roughly a stone more than they did three decades ago, a trend estimated to cost the economy £100 billion annually.

Eligibility for NHS-funded treatment is already restricted. Only patients with a BMI over 35 and a weight-related health condition, or those with a BMI between 30 and 34.9 referred to specialist services, qualify. More than half of local health commissioners in England are expected to further tighten access due to cost pressures.

Obesity is linked to at least 13 types of cancer and is the second biggest cause of the disease in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK. It has also driven a 39 per cent increase in type 2 diabetes among under-40s, with about 168,000 young people now living with the condition.

While concerns have been raised about side effects — including nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, and rare cases of pancreatitis — many specialists say the overall benefits outweigh the risks for most patients.

Professor John Wilding, an honorary consultant physician in cardiovascular and metabolic medicine at the University of Liverpool, said the results were to be expected. “We don’t expect treatments for diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol to continue working once medication is withdrawn – and there’s no scientific reason obesity should be different,” he said.

“These drugs should be considered long-term treatments, not a quick fix.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump plans to build his controversial ballroom as tall as the White House’s main mansion itself, the project’s chief architect told a federal review committee Thursday – a significant change of plans that breaks with long-standing architectural norms requiring additions to be shorter than the main building.

Architect Shalom Baranes told the National Capital Planning Commission that the president’s plans call for the building to be about 60 feet high on its north side and 70 feet high on its south side. That differs from representations made as recently as August, when a National Park Service official said the building would be 55 feet tall, according to an environmental assessment.

“The heights will match exactly,” Baranes told the panel.

Baranes also disclosed that the project’s footprint would be about 45,000 square feet, roughly half the size that the administration has described since announcing the project in July. Of that, the ballroom itself would total about 22,000 square feet and would be designed to accommodate roughly 1,000 guests. White House officials have repeatedly said the building would span 90,000 square feet of White House grounds, which Baranes said includes a second floor – a clarification introduced as federal oversight bodies begin an accelerated review of a project for which core specifications continue to evolve.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who has a seat on the panel, pressed Baranes on whether the ballroom’s height could be lowered, saying he was “concerned” by the possibility that the planned addition could overwhelm the White House mansion. Baranes said it was “possible, not impossible” to lower the ballroom’s height.

The presentation comes as the White House begins an unusually compressed push to win approvals from two committees charged by Congress with reviewing federal construction. White House officials have said they intend to complete the process in just over two months, a timeline far shorter than comparable projects, former commissioners have said, placing added pressure on oversight bodies that the administration moved to stock with Trump allies.

Baranes told the panel that the White House had abandoned plans to make the ballroom larger. But he said that officials are now considering a one-story addition to the West Wing’s colonnade in an effort to create symmetry with the planned two-story colonnade that would lead from the White House to the ballroom. He also laid out other planned features of the project, such as an office suite for the First Lady, and reconstructed White House movie theater.

It was only last week that the White House laid out a timeline for approvals, laying out a step-by-step path through the two review bodies. After their appearance at the planning commission, Baranes and administration officials intend to give a nearly identical informational presentation to the Commission of Fine Arts at its Jan. 15 meeting. They plan to come back on Feb. 19 to get the fine arts commission’s approval for the project, followed by a planning commission vote on March 5.

Trump administration officials have said they could start aboveground construction as soon as April.

The president will have to appoint at least four members to the fine arts commission for the body to reach a quorum at its meeting next week. Trump in October fired the panel’s six holdover members appointed by President Joe Biden, and White House officials are currently seeking potential appointees aligned with Trump’s architectural desires.

The Trump administration met with staff members from the planning and fine arts commissions only after a Dec. 17 court order from U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, holding separate meetings on Dec. 19 and formally submitting applications to review the ballroom project three days later.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation argued in court filings last week that the Trump administration had failed to take “meaningful steps” toward public review or commission approval.

“They have, repeatedly, broken the rules first and asked for permission later,” wrote lawyers for the National Trust, which sued the Trump administration in an effort to halt construction until required reviews occur.

The White House said meeting with committee staffers and submitting conceptual renderings – rather than detailed blueprints – satisfied the judge’s instruction to start engaging with both commissions by the end of the year.

The National Capital Planning Commission is led by Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary and Trump’s former personal lawyer, whom the president appointed in July. The commission’s membership now tilts heavily toward Trump, including two other White House officials and nine Cabinet members.

The review process for the ballroom building differs markedly from past practice. Large projects have previously undergone lengthy, multistage reviews that begin well before any demolition or site work. Agencies typically engage planning commission staff months or even years in advance, with commissioners and staff evaluating design, siting and environmental impacts at each stage.

The Trump White House has compressed or bypassed some of those steps. Officials plan to complete in months a process that took nearly two years for a White House security fence that was significantly smaller than the ballroom. That project involved five public meetings, during which the commission assessed compliance with federal environmental laws and “the historic and symbolic importance of the White House and the surrounding grounds,” according to planning commission documents.

By contrast, Trump has overseen a three-month transformation of a large chunk of the White House grounds with no planning commission oversight. In mid-September, crews started clearing foliage and cutting down trees. In late October, the president shocked the public by ordering the demolition of the East Wing. And by early December, cranes and pile drivers were operating daily, as crews worked to create the underground infrastructure necessary to support the building, the White House said.

Scharf has asserted that the planning commission review process covers only “vertical” construction – not demolition or site preparation. Critics have disputed that assertion, arguing that demolition, site work and construction are inseparable and that the commission’s mandate includes preserving existing historic structures.

Planning commission records show that commissioners have previously approved site development plans for projects, including the perimeter fence and a tennis pavilion built during Trump’s first term. In both cases, site work began after agencies received approvals.

The commission nevertheless adopted Scharf’s argument in the document it published in December outlining its review process, saying the law doesn’t give it authority over “the demolition of buildings or general site preparation.”

Lawmakers and watchdog groups have repeatedly called for more transparency on the estimated $400 million project being funded by private donors – many without disclosing their contributions. Many of the donors the White House has identified – including Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Palantir – have business before the administration, such as seeking future federal contracts or eyeing potential acquisitions. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters last month demanding more information from several attendees of a White House dinner in October to honor ballroom donors.

“The American people are entitled to all the relevant facts about who is funding the most substantial construction project at the White House in recent history,” Blumenthal wrote.

(c) 2026, The Washington Post · Jonathan Edwards, Dan Diamond 

President Donald Trump’s decision to move against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro exposed internal strains inside his administration, including sharp disagreements over how the operation was prepared and who was involved.

According to people familiar with the process, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was kept out of months of planning discussions because senior officials questioned whether her long-standing opposition to military intervention would align with the White House’s approach to Venezuela. Those people said the concerns stemmed from her public record criticizing regime-change efforts abroad.

The separation became so widely known inside the White House that aides joked privately that the acronym for her post — DNI — meant “Do Not Invite,” according to three people who described the internal conversations. They spoke on condition of anonymity. A White House official denied that any such joke circulated.

Gabbard’s past remarks have repeatedly emphasized restraint in Venezuela. In 2019, while serving as a Democratic member of Congress, she said the United States should “stay out” of the country. As recently as last month, she publicly criticized “warmongers” whom she accused of pushing Washington toward conflict.

The episode has become another flashpoint in the uneasy relationship between Gabbard and parts of the Trump team. While Trump campaigned on avoiding new wars, the move to oust Maduro has widened divisions not only among MAGA supporters but also among senior officials inside the administration.

Vice President JD Vance rejected suggestions that either he or Gabbard were excluded from planning the operation, calling those claims “false.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung echoed that defense, saying Trump “has full confidence in DNI Gabbard and she’s doing a fantastic job.”

“We’re all part of the same team,” Vance told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “One of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we kept it very tight to the senior Cabinet level officials and related officials in our government and we kept this operation secret for a very long time.”

A senior intelligence official also disputed the idea that Gabbard was frozen out entirely, saying she contributed intelligence assessments that aided the mission, even if she was not involved in operational planning. An Office of the Director of National Intelligence spokeswoman pointed to a social media post Gabbard shared Tuesday praising US forces for the operation’s “flawless execution” in capturing Maduro.

“President Trump promised the American people he would secure our borders, confront narcoterrorism, dangerous drug cartels, and drug traffickers,” she wrote. The message ended several days of silence while other senior national security officials publicly celebrated the mission through interviews, press briefings, and social media posts.

Earlier, on Jan. 1, Gabbard posted four photos of herself at the beach. “My heart is filled with gratitude, aloha and peace,” she wrote.

Former intelligence officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations described her absence from planning meetings as unusual, noting that the director of national intelligence is typically the president’s chief intelligence adviser and oversees all 18 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA. Planning for the Venezuela operation intensified in late summer, according to those familiar with the matter.

Photographs released by the White House after the raid showed Trump monitoring the operation alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in an improvised war room. Gabbard was not pictured.

“It’s highly unusual for the DNI not to be involved in any of these operations, especially something like Venezuela,” said Cedric Leighton, a retired US Air Force intelligence colonel. “The visuals from that picture are a perfect description of what’s going on to Tulsi Gabbard at this point.”

The situation has renewed debate inside Trump’s orbit about the value of the DNI role itself. Some allies have argued that the position, created after the September 11 attacks to coordinate intelligence agencies, should be eliminated. Trump and his advisers have also occasionally expressed discomfort with Gabbard since she assumed the post.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Gabbard played only a minimal role in the planning and execution of the raid.

Tensions reportedly flared last summer after Trump grew irritated by a video Gabbard posted in June warning that the world was closer to nuclear war than ever. The video did not name any countries but was released a little more than a week before Trump ordered a strike on Iran, according to people familiar with the matter.

Marc Gustafson, director of analysis at Eurasia Group and a former head of the White House Situation Room, said it is not unheard of for either the CIA director or the DNI to be left out of certain planning processes. He noted that presidents including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Trump himself during his first term sometimes relied on one intelligence chief over the other. “Then the other would be kind of left out temporarily,” Gustafson said.

Despite the controversy, Gabbard continues to brief Trump regularly and frequently attends Oval Office meetings, according to the senior intelligence official. That official said it was unfair to single out her past policy views, noting that other senior Trump officials — including Vance — have previously disagreed with or even criticized Trump before joining his administration.

Since taking office, Gabbard has leaned into a more political interpretation of her role, prioritizing the declassification of material important to Trump’s base, including records related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and Russian interference in US elections. She has also focused on rooting out what she and Trump describe as a Deep State within the intelligence community.

Gabbard, 44, served in the Iraq War and remains an officer in the Army Reserve. Throughout her career, she has opposed prolonged US involvement in regime-change conflicts.

In a 2019 post about Venezuela, she argued that “we don’t want other countries to choose our leaders — so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

“When we look throughout history, every time the United States goes into another country and topples a dictator or topples a government, the outcome has been disastrous for the people in these countries,” she said on Fox News in May of that year.

After launching a presidential bid in 2020, Gabbard reiterated those views in a speech last October, saying that “for decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation-building.”

“The old Washington way of thinking is something we hope is in the rear-view mirror,” she said.

{Matzav.com}

At a Brooklyn event on Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled out a proposal that could soon allow city parents to enroll their 2-year-olds in free child care, a move both leaders framed as a major step toward easing the city’s crushing cost of living.

“This is the day that everything changes,” Hochul said, as she simultaneously previewed a broader push to expand access to child care across New York State in the years ahead.

For Mamdani, the announcement marked an early win just days into his tenure, offering momentum to an agenda that has drawn skepticism since the campaign. He rose to office promising to center the needs of working-class New Yorkers, and Thursday’s plan gave his administration a tangible policy victory.

“Today we take one step to realizing a city where every New Yorker, every family, every child can afford to keep calling it their home,” Mamdani said.

“To those who doubt the power of the people to make their own destiny, to the cynics who insist that politics is too broken to deliver meaningful change, to those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,” he added.

Under the proposal, Hochul said the state will fund the first two years of free child care for 2-year-olds in the city, positioning the effort as an extension of New York City’s existing universal pre-K and 3-K programs. The initial rollout would target “high-need areas” identified by the city before expanding more broadly, with citywide availability projected by the fourth year.

Speaking with reporters after the event, Mamdani said the program is expected to serve roughly 2,000 children this fall, with enrollment growing each year until it becomes universal. He added that the city plans to partner with home-based child care providers to implement the initiative.

Hochul, who faces reelection this year, has aligned herself with the city’s new progressive mayor on child care policy, though long-term costs and structure remain open questions. Beyond the city-focused plan, she also unveiled a sweeping proposal to expand universal pre-K statewide, aiming to make it available throughout New York by the start of the 2028–2029 school year.

The governor said she will formally introduce both initiatives in her upcoming state of the state address and expects to commit $1.7 billion toward the programs announced on Thursday.

Advocates praised the announcement as a turning point. Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, described the plan as a “historic moment.”

“By bringing together the Governor and Mayor around a shared commitment to child care, tens of thousands of families could finally get the relief they desperately need,” Bailin said.

{Matzav.com}

Defying party leaders, a bipartisan bloc in the House moved swiftly Thursday to revive lapsed Affordable Care Act subsidies, approving the bill 230–196 after a procedural maneuver forced it onto the floor. Seventeen Republicans broke ranks to join Democrats, stripping Speaker Mike Johnson of control over the agenda and sending the measure to the Senate.

The push came after a small group of GOP lawmakers signed a discharge petition, a rarely used tactic that bypasses leadership objections and compels debate. Once the threshold was met, the vote became unavoidable, exposing deep divisions within the Republican conference over health care policy and strategy.

Democrats framed the outcome as a win for families squeezed by rising premiums. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries invoked President Trump’s past comments while arguing the issue cannot be dismissed. “The affordability crisis is not a ‘hoax,’ it is very real — despite what Donald Trump has had to say,” Jeffries said. He added that the party had warned before last year’s shutdown that it would not relent. “Democrats made clear before the government was shut down that we were in this affordability fight until we win this affordability fight,” he said. “Today we have an opportunity to take a meaningful step forward.”

The legislation would restore enhanced tax credits for three years, benefits that were enacted during the COVID-19 emergency and expired late last year when negotiations collapsed amid the shutdown. Supporters argue the credits have helped millions maintain coverage as costs climb.

Budget analysts, however, cautioned about the price tag. Ahead of the vote, the Congressional Budget Office projected the extension would add roughly $80.6 billion to the deficit over a decade. At the same time, the CBO estimated the measure would expand coverage significantly—by about 100,000 people this year, rising to 3 million in 2027, 4 million in 2028, and 1.1 million in 2029.

Johnson spent months trying to avoid this outcome. His office warned that pandemic-era health funding has been plagued by fraud, citing a Minnesota investigation, and urged Republicans to oppose the bill. On the House floor, GOP critics echoed those concerns and argued Congress should focus on lowering costs across the system rather than extending targeted subsidies. “Only 7% of the population relies on Obamacare marketplace plans. This chamber should be about helping 100% of Americans,” said Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Despite the House vote, the Senate is not obligated to take up the bill. Instead, a bipartisan group of senators has been crafting an alternative that could attract broader support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said any viable proposal would need guardrails to ensure aid reaches those most in need, including income limits, a requirement that enrollees pay at least a nominal share, and an expansion of health savings accounts.

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is part of those talks, said there is consensus on cracking down on abuse while addressing affordability. “We recognize that we have millions of people in this country who are going to lose — are losing, have lost — their health insurance because they can’t afford the premiums,” Shaheen said. “And so we’re trying to see if we can’t get to some agreement that’s going to help, and the sooner we can do that, the better.”

President Trump has urged Republicans to steer assistance directly into health savings accounts, allowing individuals to manage coverage without federal involvement. Democrats largely dismiss that approach as inadequate given the cost of care.

The rebellion underscored a breakdown in House GOP discipline. By siding with Democrats to force the vote, rank-and-file Republicans effectively wrested control of the floor from leadership—an outcome Johnson had tried to forestall by floating a temporary extension paired with reforms for vulnerable members. That effort fizzled after conservatives objected, leaving only a narrower reform package that passed but stalled.

As premiums spiked at the start of the year, lawmakers from competitive districts took matters into their own hands. Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, along with Mike Lawler of New York, signed the petition, pushing it past the 218-vote mark required to trigger action. All four represent swing seats central to determining next year’s House majority.

What began as a long-shot Democratic gambit has now become validation of their shutdown-era strategy to preserve the subsidies. Party leaders say rising insurance costs will anchor their push to reclaim control of Congress in the fall.

Republicans, meanwhile, face renewed pressure to articulate a coherent health care alternative. President Trump, speaking this week to House GOP lawmakers, urged them to seize the issue—one that has dogged the party since the unsuccessful effort during his first term to repeal Obamacare.

{Matzav.com}

Iranian authorities faced mounting pressure as demonstrations expanded across the country, even as the protests themselves showed no clear central leadership. Analysts say the absence of an organized alternative has historically weakened similar movements.

“The lack of a viable alternative has undermined past protests in Iran,” wrote Nate Swanson of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who studies Iran.

“There may be a thousand Iranian dissident activists who, given a chance, could emerge as respected statesmen, as labor leader Lech Walesa did in Poland at the end of the Cold War. But so far, the Iranian security apparatus has arrested, persecuted and exiled all of the country’s potential transformational leaders.”

Despite that, unrest continued to grow. Demonstrations that erupted Wednesday in cities and small towns carried into Thursday, with additional markets and bazaars closing in solidarity with protesters. According to the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, at least 45 demonstrators have been killed so far, among them eight minors.

12th day of anti-establishment protests in Iran

The crowd of protesters in Tehran got bigger. Same location as the one quoted here@GeoConfirmed https://t.co/zwOV0BvI4Q pic.twitter.com/oa5c6HNao6

— Ghoncheh Habibiazad | غنچه (@GhonchehAzad) January 8, 2026

The organization said Wednesday marked the deadliest day since the protests began.

“The evidence shows that the scope of the crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding that hundreds more have been wounded and over 2,000 arrested.

Thursday night brought a dramatic escalation in Tehran, where thousands of residents chanted from their homes and poured into the streets after a call for mass demonstrations by exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, witnesses said. Almost immediately after the protests began, internet access and telephone service inside Iran went down.

CloudFlare and the monitoring group NetBlocks both reported the outage, attributing it to government interference. Calls placed from Dubai to Iranian landlines and mobile phones were still connecting. In previous waves of unrest, similar blackouts were often followed by harsh crackdowns.

Pahlavi’s appeal marked a key moment for the protest movement, testing whether Iranians would rally around the son of the late shah, who fled the country shortly before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrators in recent days have openly voiced support for the monarchy — once punishable by death — underscoring the depth of anger driven by Iran’s economic crisis.

Pahlavi urged people to take to the streets at 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and Friday. When the hour arrived, chants echoed through neighborhoods across Tehran, witnesses said, including “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others invoked the monarchy, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Large crowds were visible in multiple areas of the capital.

“Great nation of Iran, the eyes of the world are upon you. Take to the streets and, as a united front, shout your demands,” Pahlavi said in a statement. “I warn the Islamic Republic, its leader and the [Revolutionary Guard] that the world and [President Donald Trump] are closely watching you. Suppression of the people will not go unanswered.”

Pahlavi has said he will outline further steps depending on the response to his call. His ties to Israel have drawn criticism in the past, particularly following the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. While some protesters have praised the shah, it remains unclear whether those chants reflect support for Pahlavi himself or nostalgia for the period before the Islamic Revolution.

Iranian officials appeared to be preparing for unrest. The hard-line Kayhan newspaper posted a video online asserting that security forces would use drones to identify participants in the demonstrations.

Even so, authorities have not acknowledged the full scale of the protests, which flared across numerous locations on Thursday, including before the scheduled 8 p.m. rallies. At the same time, Iranian media reported casualties among security personnel.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said a police colonel died from stab wounds in a town near Tehran. The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that gunmen killed two security force members and wounded 30 others in a shooting in Lordegan, in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Separately, a deputy governor in Khorasan Razavi province told state television that an attack on a police station in Chenaran killed five people Wednesday night, roughly 700 kilometers northeast of Tehran.

Questions remain over why authorities have not yet unleashed a broader crackdown. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”

That warning prompted a sharp response from Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

“Recalling the long history of criminal interventions by successive US administrations in Iran’s internal affairs, the Foreign Ministry considers claims of concern for the great Iranian nation to be hypocritical, aimed at deceiving public opinion and covering up the numerous crimes committed against Iranians,” it said.

Despite the rebuke, the US State Department has continued highlighting protest-related footage on the social platform X, including videos showing demonstrators renaming roads after Trump or discarding government-subsidized rice.

“When prices are set so high that neither consumers can afford to buy nor farmers can afford to sell, everyone loses,” the State Department said in one post. “It makes no difference if this rice is thrown away.”

{Matzav.com}

After boasting publicly about blocking the construction of a large mikvah and a major shul in Yerushalayim’s Givat Masua neighborhood, Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio is now pushing back against claims that the move was ideologically driven or anti-religious.

The controversy erupted after Havilio published a social media post celebrating what he described as a successful struggle to preserve the neighborhood’s “liberal character,” following efforts to stop the establishment of an expansive mikvah and shul complex. The language of the post quickly sparked a heated debate in Yerushalayim, with critics accusing him of framing the issue as a cultural or religious confrontation rather than a planning dispute.

In an interview on Kikar FM, Havilio sought to strip the decision of its ideological overtones and reframe it as a matter of urban planning. He stressed that he did not act alone, saying the opposition was led together with city council member Laura Wharton and local residents, who formally filed objections to the revised plan.

According to Havilio, the neighborhood is largely secular, with a presence of what he termed “moderate religious residents.” He said the original proposal involved a standard shul, which did not face opposition. The dispute began only after the plan was altered.

He explained that the municipality moved to replace a relatively small community structure with a four-story complex that would include a mikvah, a shul, and a multi-purpose hall, situated on a narrow, one-way dead-end street. “It simply doesn’t fit there,” Havilio argued, citing transportation concerns, planning limitations, and potential harm to residents’ quality of life.

Havilio said that when the majority of a neighborhood opposes a project of that scale, especially when alternative locations exist nearby, there is no justification for forcing it through. He rejected the idea that opposing the project amounted to religious coercion, noting that Yerushalayim is home to hundreds of mikva’os and shuls that he does not object to.

At the same time, he stood by his use of the term “liberal character,” saying neighborhoods have the right to protect their identity when faced with unusually large developments. “If most residents don’t want this mikvah and this shul, that needs to be respected,” he said. “This isn’t a fight against religion, it’s about fitting into the environment.”

Havilio also pointed out that additional mikva’os already operate in the surrounding area, including one in nearby Kiryat Menachem, which he said could serve residents of Givat Masua who are interested. He added that many women prefer not to use a mikvah in their immediate neighborhood in any case, questioning the need for what he called an oversized facility in a location ill-suited for it.

During the interview, criticism was raised over the way the struggle had been portrayed publicly, particularly the impression that it was an ideological victory over the religious or chareidi public rather than a narrowly defined planning objection. Havilio rejected that characterization, though he struggled to explain why his original post emphasized the neighborhood’s liberal identity.

“I didn’t say there shouldn’t be large shuls or mikva’os in Yerushalayim,” he said. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Still, the tension between his technical explanations and the value-laden language of his social media post remained unresolved, leaving the sense that the issue extended beyond zoning and infrastructure and into the realm of identity politics.

{Matzav.com}

Two people were reportedly wounded Thursday afternoon during an encounter involving federal agents in Portland, coming less than 24 hours after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in Minnesota during a volatile enforcement operation, according to published reports.

Authorities have not released details about the circumstances surrounding the Portland incident or the medical condition of the two individuals who were shot.

Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said the two people who were hit were still alive, according to local reporting.

City councilors told KATU that the gunfire broke out near the intersection of East Burnside Street and 141st Avenue.

Sources cited by ABC News said the agents involved in the Portland shooting were members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Portland episode followed the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon by an ICE agent in Minnesota. Video from the scene appears to show Good striking the officer with her car moments before the agent fired through the vehicle’s window.

President Trump and Homeland Security officials said the agent who fired acted in self-defense after being hit by Good, whom they described as a “domestic terrorist.”

{Matzav.com}

In a pointed interview with Eli Guthelf on Kikar FM, Dr. Yoav Heller, chairman of the Fourth Quarter movement, argued that the death of the child Yosef Eisenthal z”l was not only a personal tragedy but a warning sign of a collapsed civic contract between the State of Israel and its chareidi citizens.

Heller said he was not seeking to comfort listeners or align with any political camp. “I’m saying things that people may not like,” he said at the outset, “but the truth has to be said.”

According to Heller, the incident should not be viewed as an isolated event. He described it as part of a broader, ongoing pattern of systemic failure. When children are present at a protest, a driver repeatedly calls the police, and officers never arrive, Heller said, that is not a malfunction but a breakdown of sovereignty.

“In a state governed by law, there is no such thing as areas where the state simply isn’t present,” he said. “Even if it’s a radical group, even if they are lawbreakers, the police must respond. No citizen can be abandoned because of who they are.”

Heller rejected attempts to frame the case as an internal problem of the chareidi community alone. He drew a parallel to the Meron disaster, arguing that the state repeatedly shifts responsibility to intermediaries and power brokers, then distances itself when systems collapse.

“The State of Israel doesn’t speak to the chareidi citizen,” he said. “It speaks to chareidi mechanisms, to askanim, to mediating leadership — and then wonders why there is no control.”

While making clear that he has no tolerance for extremist factions, whom he described as criminals, Heller insisted that law enforcement cannot simply disappear. He compared the situation to violence in Arab society. “When there are murders in Arab communities, can the police say, ‘That’s your culture, deal with it yourselves’? Obviously not. The same applies here.”

Heller extended his critique beyond policing, saying the same dynamic exists in debates over military service and education. He argued that chareidi society is often portrayed as freely choosing its path, when in reality individual choice is severely constrained.

He cited data indicating that 61 percent of chareidi parents want their children to study English and mathematics, yet have little ability to make that happen because decisions are made at an institutional level rather than by parents themselves. “In a chareidi municipality, the authority decides whether such a school will exist or not,” he said. “The parent is left powerless.”

Turning to the past year’s events, and especially October 7, Heller said Israel can no longer rely on partial arrangements and ad hoc compromises with a population that is no longer marginal. He called for a new civic contract — not based on coercion, but also not on blanket exemptions.

“There are national missions — security, the economy, and the spirit,” he said. “Not everyone has to do the same thing, but everyone has to contribute something.”

Heller said he opposes arresting those who do not enlist, but argued there is no justification for full access to welfare systems for individuals who do not contribute to any national mission.

On the question of Torah study, Heller described Torah learning as a national asset that the state should formally recognize. At the same time, he warned against turning Torah into an exclusive, lifelong profession for an elite minority.

“For most of Eastern European Jewry, people worked and learned Torah,” he said. “The idea that everyone must sit in kollel all day is a modern innovation.”

Toward the end of the interview, Heller recounted conversations with senior rabbanim following October 7. One rabbi, he said, told him he viewed certain problems as unsolvable because of siyata diShmaya. Heller pushed back on that approach.

“I don’t think that’s Judaism,” he said. “The Chazon Ish went into a room with Ben-Gurion because he understood that there is a state, and there is responsibility.”

Despite his sharp criticism, Heller concluded with a clear warning against hatred. “It is forbidden to hate chareidim,” he said. “It is forbidden to deny them services and present that as an achievement.”

He summarized his vision simply, though he acknowledged its complexity: “Torah, work, army — each in their own way, while preserving identity.”

{Matzav.com}

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Yosef Yehoshua Levi zt”l.

Rabbi Levi, who studied at the Ponevezh Yeshiva and later became a central pillar of the Torah community in Toronto, was widely known as a gifted and respected writer. For decades, he was a prominent contributor to the Hamodia newspaper, where his weekly columns earned broad acclaim.

He was born in Yerushalayimin 5698 (1938) to his father, Rav Shmuel Zev Levi, a respected member of the Gerer chassidus and a notable presence in the Beis Yisrael neighborhood. As a child, Rabbi Levi absorbed the spirit and Torah of Yerushalayim while studying at the Chayei Olam Talmud Torah.

He later continued his studies at Yeshiva Tiferes Tzion in Bnei Brak and then at Ponevezh Yeshiva, where he formed a close bond with the mashgiach, Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, author of the Michtav M’Eliyahu. Known for his diligence and depth, Rabbi Levi stood out as a serious and thoughtful talmid chochom.

After reaching marriageable age, he wed his wife, Mrs. Malka Levi, daughter of Rav Mordechai Asher Friedman of Bnei Brak. She became his devoted partner in all his endeavors in chinuch and Torah dissemination, standing by his side with dedication and strength.

Following their marriage, the couple moved to Canada, beginning a significant chapter as communal emissaries in the field of education. Rabbi Levi served for many years as a beloved mechanech at a girls’ high school in Toronto, while his wife devoted herself to teaching first-grade students. Together, they were among the foundational figures of Toronto’s Torah community, opening their home as a center of warmth, chessed, guidance, and wisdom.

They merited raising generations of students who continued on the path of Torah and mitzvos, inspired by the personal care and radiant countenance they encountered. Alongside his educational work, Rabbi Levi became known as a prolific and talented writer.

For many years, he was a regular columnist for Hamodia, with his essays in the weekly supplement becoming widely read and appreciated. His writing was marked by clarity, rich language, and a deep Torah perspective on contemporary issues, with his passionate worldview clearly reflected in his words. Even in his later years, until only a few years ago, he continued to enrich readers with his insights through his weekly column.

In recent years, Rabbi Levi returned to Eretz Yisrael and lived in Yerushalayimin the home of his son, Rabbi Yeshayahu Levi. Approximately two years ago, during Sukkos, his wife, Mrs. Malka Levi, passed away. From that time, his strength gradually waned, and he accepted his yissurim with quiet dignity. On Wednesday night, he was niftar.

He is survived by his son Rabbi Yeshayahu Levi of Yerushalayim, author of the sefer Mikra Ani Doresh; his daughters, Mrs. Weisbaum of Toronto and Mrs. Klein of Flatbush; and his son, Rabbi Shmuel Levi of Lakewood, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Yehi zichro boruch. {Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump reacted forcefully on Thursday to a report claiming that Somali couriers transported unusually large sums of cash out of Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, using social media to demand immediate action.

“Arrest them all. They are criminals!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social while sharing a Just the News report describing what it called a “Somali cash exodus” from Minneapolis, which the president said far exceeded similar activity at other major U.S. airports.

The repost drew attention to newly published reporting that quoted Homeland Security Department officials who said the volume of money leaving Minnesota was “substantially abnormal” and should have raised red flags during the Biden administration.

According to Just the News, Transportation Security Administration personnel detected and flagged close to $700 million in cash carried out of Minneapolis in luggage by Somali couriers during 2024 and 2025, an amount that averaged nearly $1 million per day.

The outlet reported that travelers departing Minneapolis alone accounted for $342.37 million in 2024 and $349.4 million in 2025, with officials saying some individual trips allegedly involved as much as $1 million in cash.

Investigators also raised concerns about the alleged routing of the money through Amsterdam before continuing on to Dubai, a pattern that has attracted heightened scrutiny from intelligence agencies and federal investigators.

One official familiar with the activity likened it to “like a cash ATM draining American dollars and moving them overseas,” noting that the transfers were openly carried out using legal cash declarations under customs regulations.

Just the News reported that the sums detected leaving Minneapolis were between 10 and 100 times greater than foreign cash totals seen at much larger airports and, in some cases, nearly unprecedented by comparison.

Officials told the outlet that the Minneapolis figures were “99% larger” than foreign cash detected or declared in 2025 at airports such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, or JFK, and still significantly higher than totals recorded at Seattle, another major international gateway.

Although the cash was reportedly declared legally, the outlet said the scale of the outbound money is now part of a broader Homeland Security Investigations probe connected to a multibillion-dollar fraud investigation centered in Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community, where dozens of people have already been charged or convicted in earlier schemes.

Trump has repeatedly argued that the alleged Somali-linked fraud in Minnesota could be far more extensive than what investigators initially uncover.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said that if authorities have identified $19 billion in fraud, “that means it could be 50,” calling the figures “astronomical” and declaring that the “gravy train is over.” He also said individuals found complicit should be deported.

The ramifications could widen beyond criminal cases.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the administration is considering revoking the citizenship of Somali Americans convicted of fraud tied to Minnesota’s major welfare scandals, highlighting the administration’s broader effort to crack down on large-scale abuse of taxpayer-funded programs.

Among conservatives, the revelations surrounding the Minneapolis airport cash flows are prompting fresh questions about why the pattern was not flagged earlier, how much taxpayer fraud may be connected to it, and how long federal authorities may have failed to act while American dollars allegedly moved overseas in plain sight.

{Matzav.com}

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that European governments should pay close attention to President Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland, as the White House escalates its rhetoric toward the Danish-controlled Arctic territory.

Speaking at a White House briefing, Vance faulted Denmark and other European allies for what he described as insufficient efforts to safeguard Greenland, a strategically important region he said is increasingly drawing interest from Russia and China.

“I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously,” Vance told reporters when asked about the administration’s posture toward Greenland.

His remarks came amid heightened diplomatic activity across Europe after the White House said earlier this week that Trump wants to buy Greenland and declined to rule out the use of military force. European capitals have been scrambling to coordinate a response to the statements.

Vance pointed specifically to Trump’s argument that the United States requires Greenland for national security reasons, including “missile defense,” citing growing military activity by Moscow and Beijing in the region as Arctic ice recedes.

“So what we’re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said.

“What that is, I’ll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic,” he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with officials from Denmark and Greenland next week, as tensions continue to rise.

Trump has spoken for years about acquiring Greenland, but his language has intensified following last week’s U.S. military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power.

The comments have angered Denmark, a founding member of NATO and a long-standing American ally, while setting off alarm across Europe. Any invasion of Greenland would put the United States in direct conflict with a fellow NATO country and could fracture the alliance’s mutual defense framework.

European leaders have launched a wave of diplomatic efforts aimed at defusing the situation, seeking to prevent a crisis while also avoiding a direct clash with Trump, who is approaching the end of his first year back in office.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed Greenland during a call with Trump on Wednesday, “set out his position on Greenland,” and followed up with another call on Thursday in which he said more could be done to protect the “high Arctic” from Russian influence, according to Downing Street.

Vance was also meeting in Washington with British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy for talks primarily focused on the war in Ukraine, though Greenland was expected to be part of the broader discussion.

European nations have publicly backed Denmark, with several leaders joining Copenhagen in a joint statement affirming that decisions about Greenland’s future rest solely with Denmark and Greenland.

French President Emmanuel Macron went further, warning Thursday that the United States was “turning away” from its allies in what marked some of his sharpest criticism yet of Trump’s approach.

Macron argued that “global governance” was essential at a moment when, he said, “every day people wonder whether Greenland is going to be invaded.”

Vance has previously taken a hard line on Europe’s defense posture, writing in a leaked group chat with senior U.S. officials last year that he hated “bailing out” the continent.

That sentiment was echoed in the Trump administration’s national security strategy released in December, which sharply criticized Europe, warning of “civilisational erasure” driven by migration and urging the United States to support “cultivating resistance” among right-wing political movements.

{Matzav.com}

More artificial intelligence is being implanted into Gmail as Google tries to turn the world’s most popular email service into a personal assistant that can improve writing, summarize far-flung information buried in inboxes and deliver daily to-do lists. The new AI features announced Thursday could herald a pivotal moment for Gmail, a service that transformed […]

Federal prosecutors have opened a review of financial activity connected to New York Attorney General Letitia James and a longtime associate, according to a report by The New York Times.

At the center of the inquiry is Iyesata Marsh, whom investigators reportedly want to question about past transactions involving James or her political operation. Those include payments from James’ 2018 attorney general campaign to Marsh for the rental of a Brooklyn studio Marsh owns.

Investigators are also examining other payments tied to Marsh, including compensation connected to a musical performance at a political event held in Albany, New York.

The renewed scrutiny is being driven by Department of Justice Special Attorney Edward Martin Jr., who previously pursued parallel mortgage fraud investigations involving James and Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

Those earlier efforts stalled last month, when the Department of Justice failed to obtain an indictment after determining that the U.S. attorney who brought the case, Lindsey Halligan, had been improperly appointed.

James’ lawyer told the Times that the latest investigation reflects irritation over “the string of failures in carrying out President [Donald] Trump’s political vendetta.”

He characterized the focus on Marsh as an effort “to shake down people based on their association with Ms. James.”

“Like their earlier attempts, this attack on Ms. James is doomed to fail,” he said. “The desperation of those working for Trump is palpable and makes indelible the stain already put on this Justice Department.”

James and President Trump have sparred for years in courtrooms and in public, with James overseeing prominent investigations into Trump’s business dealings and financial disclosures.

That long-running conflict has kept James in Trump’s crosshairs, while Trump’s legal battles in New York have highlighted the depth of the confrontation between the president and the state’s chief legal officer.

{Matzav.com}

A frum schoolgirl from Teaneck, NJ, in Bergen County, was seriously injured after a rock was thrown at her school bus while it was traveling on a New Jersey highway.

The incident occurred as two buses from a school were returning from a class trip. While driving on the highway, a rock roughly the size of a baseball was hurled at one of the buses, striking a third-grade girl, approximately nine years old, in the head and causing severe injuries.

The child sustained a skull injury and was transported by ambulance to a local medical center. Volunteers from Hatzalah of Bergen County also responded to the scene. She is currently in need of surgery. Her name for Tehillim is Gila Bracha bas Michal Ilana.

A joint investigation is being conducted by the Teaneck Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. Authorities have not yet announced any arrests or identified suspects and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump is now on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow as his administration continues to negotiate a deal to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, during which the president […]

  This story goes back 15 years. My parents took my siblings and me on a trip to South Africa for vacation. It started out fun and enjoyable, but quickly turned into a nightmare. We were traveling through a dense forest in the hopes of finding our next destiantion. All of a sudden and out […]