Feed aggregator

New York’s political and health leadership unleashed an intense backlash on Friday after a federal advisory panel voted to strip away the long-standing recommendation that every newborn in the United States receive the hepatitis B vaccine immediately after birth. What had been a universal guideline for decades was recast by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as a selective recommendation, applying only to babies whose mothers test positive for the virus or have not been screened.

The shift—an 8–3 vote—was met with alarm from public health officials nationwide, many of whom emphasized that the routine birth dose has been widely credited with preventing thousands of hepatitis B infections over the years. Under the new guidance, newborns of mothers who test negative would start the vaccine series at two months unless parents and clinicians decide otherwise.

New York leaders quickly became some of the loudest voices condemning the move. Gov. Kathy Hochul, outraged by the committee’s decision and the administration overseeing it, accused national policymakers of endangering vulnerable children. “As a mom who spent countless doctor’s office visits making sure my kids were vaccinated to protect them from deadly diseases, it’s devastating to see the Trump administration willing to let babies and children die,” she said. She added, “I guess nothing should surprise us anymore,” continuing her critiques of the administration’s broader health policies.

City officials echoed the alarm. Dr. Michelle Morse, New York City’s acting health commissioner, publicly rejected the credibility of the advisory group itself. “The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which guides our nation’s vaccine policy, is no longer a trusted source,” she said, arguing that the panel’s pivot disregards decades of established research. “The decision to ignore nearly thirty years of successful clinical evidence is harmful. We are witnessing the creation of confusion at the expense of our nation’s health, with significant risk toward our babies.”

In response to the uproar, the New York State Department of Health emphasized that the federal vote would not affect state policy. “These national advisory votes do not alter New York’s evidence-based recommendations, which continue to include a hepatitis B vaccine birth dose for every newborn, without delay, as well as completion of the full vaccine series in infancy,” the department announced. The NYC Health Department likewise affirmed its position, with Morse reiterating that her office “continues to strongly recommend the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns to protect the health of our youngest New Yorkers.”

The controversy also drew attention to the makeup of the advisory committee itself, as all current ACIP members were appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is widely known for his anti-vaccine advocacy. The intersection of policy, politics, and public health has now set off a nationwide debate over how vaccine recommendations should be crafted—and who should be shaping them.

{Matzav.com}

U.S. Moves to Arrange Netanyahu–Sisi Meeting The U.S. is brokering a possible meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, their first since the Gaza war. Israel is expected — and being pushed by the U.S. to finalize a strategic gas deal with Egypt and offer additional economic incentives before Sisi agrees to […]

Tom Homan on Minnesota: “There’s a large illegal community there…If you’re a US citizen, you have nothing to fear. We’re looking for criminal aliens. Also, if you’re a resident alien and you have a felony conviction — by statute, you can be set up for deportation.”

Netanyahu, at the press conference he held earlier today with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said, “We went through the greatest tragedy that any people suffered, on German soil and committed by Germans…”

Sen. Mark Kelly on Pete Hegseth: He doesn’t look out for anybody. When you look at what happened with this boat strike, it’s not leadership to throw your people under the bus. He turned away and ran from this as fast as he could.”

The IDF says that during recent raids in southern Lebanon, troops demolished a Hezbollah tunnel shaft near the town of Houla and an arms depot in Ayta ash-Shab. According to the army, both were old, inactive infrastructures, and the sites were destroyed to prevent any possible future use.

DANA BASH: If ICE says it doesn’t arrest US citizens, why do we keep seeing incidents of them aggressively pursuing citizens? TOM HOMAN: I can’t tell you how many times an illegal alien claims to be a US citizen. It happens all the time.

SEN. JOHN CURTIS: All of us need to wake up every morning and say, ‘what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome’ regardless of an individual says CNN: But he’s not just an individual. He’s the president calling an entire community garbage…

Police are investigating after a “number of people” were believed to have been attacked in London’s Heathrow Airport with pepper spray by a group of men who then fled.

Qatar’s prime minister, when asked by Tucker Carlson whether Qatar would fund Gaza’s reconstruction, said “We will continue to support the Palestinian people, but we will not be the ones signing checks to rebuild what others destroyed.”

Donald Trump Jr. said his father might scale back U.S. involvement in Ukraine, calling him unpredictable and not bound by traditional Washington thinking.

The jobless Pro-Terrorist protesters have seem to have found something else to protest.

President Donald Trump pressed the Baseball Hall of Fame selection committee to reverse years of rejection and finally induct pitcher Roger Clemens, issuing an extended appeal on Truth Social that celebrated Clemens’s legacy while sharply criticizing the forces he believes kept the star out of Cooperstown.

In his message, Trump urged the voters to act decisively as they meet to consider new inductees. “The Baseball Hall of Fame Committee is voting on admitting new Members TOMORROW, and these highly respected owners, executives, writers, and, most importantly, Hall of Famers, should do the right thing by finally putting Roger Clemens, known as ‘The Rocket,’ in the Hall!” he wrote, calling on the panel to correct what he views as years of unfair treatment.

Trump went on to highlight Clemens’s extraordinary career, laying out the statistical record he believes leaves no doubt about the pitcher’s place in baseball history: “Roger is clearly one of the Greatest Pitchers of All Time, with amazing achievements that include winning 354 Games, seven Cy Young Awards (A Record, by a lot!), and playing in six World Series, winning two. ‘The Rocket’ is second only to another All Time GREAT, Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, in most strike-outs,” he wrote.

He then turned his ire toward the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, claiming its failed attempt to prosecute Clemens on perjury allegations over suspected steroid use derailed his Hall of Fame chances. Clemens, who consistently denied wrongdoing, was acquitted of all charges in 2012.

The message continued with Trump insisting that the lack of induction is indefensible. “Roger Clemens is the only pitcher who has won 300 games to not have the honor of being enshrined in the Hall of Fame, which is a total travesty! The only reason he is not is because of rumors and innuendo, which were not proven. He never tested positive and, when the Obama DOJ went after him in a criminal case claiming that he did take steroids, Roger, who has always denied taking any drugs, was FULLY ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES. ‘The Rocket,’ a nickname he earned very early in his career because of his blazing fastball, was just as dominant before those erroneous allegations were leveled against him. I sincerely hope that the Committee uses its great judgment (Roger’s opponents never proved a thing against him, and he may have the best pitching record, all told, in the History of Baseball!), and the Baseball Commissioner has the Strength, Wisdom, and Power to do the right thing, and put Roger Clemens in The Baseball Hall of Fame, IMMEDIATELY! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT”

Trump has long been vocal about Clemens’s omission from Cooperstown and has previously encouraged the legendary pitcher to pursue legal action against Major League Baseball over the continued snub.

{Matzav.com}

Today marks the 81st yahrzeit of HaGaon Rav Shlomo Heiman zt”l, and to mark it, a group is organizing a special minyan at his kever together with HaRav Yosef Savitsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Voddas, at the Mt. Judah Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens; The Minyan will start bli neder between 2:45-3:00pm. Rav Shlomo Heiman’s kever […]

A frightening incident unfolded on Friday when a child riding a skateboard was struck by a vehicle inside a parking garage, after which the vehicle drove over the child. Bichasdei Hashem, the child suffered only minor injuries and was able to walk away from the scene, stunning onlookers given the severity of the incident.

Trump blasts Rep. Henry Cuellar for immediately running for re-election as a Democrat after Trump pardoned him – “Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping reassessment of the nation’s childhood vaccination timetable, instructing the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether other advanced countries have developed stronger, more effective models. The move could lead to a significant reshaping of how and when American children receive vaccines.

Trump issued the directive in a memorandum addressed to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and acting CDC Director Jim O’Neil, tasking both officials with conducting a comprehensive international comparison. The document opens by pointing out that major industrial nations, such as Japan, Denmark, and Germany, recommend far fewer vaccines during childhood than the U.S. does. As of January, American children were advised to receive immunizations for 18 different diseases, including coronavirus, before reaching adulthood.

According to the memo, the current U.S. approach is not simply more extensive—it stands sharply apart from its peers. Germany urges 15 vaccines, Japan recommends 14, and Denmark suggests only 10 — a stark contrast with the American roster. “Other current United States childhood vaccine recommendations also depart from policies in the majority of developed countries. Study is warranted to ensure that Americans are receiving the best, scientifically-supported medical advice in the world,” the memorandum states.

The president’s order directs that the U.S. schedule be adjusted if evidence shows that other nations’ frameworks offer better outcomes. The memo lays out the precise instruction: “I hereby direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations — vaccines recommended for all children — and the scientific evidence that informs those best practices, and, if they determine that those best practices are superior to current domestic recommendations, update the United States core childhood vaccine schedule to align with such scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans.”

The policy review comes as Trump publicly welcomed a separate decision by a federal advisory panel that voted to eliminate the longstanding recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. He praised the shift in a Truth Social statement, asserting that most infants face no exposure risk. “Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,” Trump wrote.

He followed by criticizing the existing schedule as excessively burdensome for families. “The American Childhood Vaccine Schedule long required 72 ‘jabs,’ for perfectly healthy babies, far more than any other Country in the World, and far more than is necessary,” he added.

{Matzav.com}

Shas issued an unusually blistering public offensive this weekend against religious activists leading a growing campaign against the newly proposed draft law and the arrangement of yeshiva students’ status.

In a sharply worded editorial published in the party’s official newspaper, Shas denounced religious opponents of the bill, charging that their rhetoric surpasses anything heard from hostile sectors. The article claimed that “at the forefront of these jarring voices stand men wearing kippot, but the messages emerging from their mouths are far more repulsive and sickening than anything said by adversaries from other groups.”

The piece went further, accusing certain religious activists—women among them—of spearheading unprecedented public attacks “in the name of Torah” against those who devote their lives to Torah study. “The poisonous and horrific statements we are hearing in the general media, led by women with head coverings who speak in the name of Torah against those who toil in Torah, are unprecedented in their brazenness. They show no concern for the severe spiritual pitfalls that may await their husbands and sons who observe Torah and mitzvos in military service.”

The editorial escalated dramatically, declaring that these activists stand “arrogantly and brazenly as the modern-day heirs of Dasan and Aviram. They are not willing to tolerate even a single Torah learner.”

Shas continued its criticism by invoking a sharp line associated with Rabi Akiva prior to his spiritual transformation: “It is the same intense hatred that characterized Akiva before he became Rabi Akiva: ‘Give me a Torah scholar and I will bite him like a donkey.’ They now preside over a bonfire of incitement, pouring oil and gasoline over a spreading blaze of hatred.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a fierce response, condemning the remarks and warning of their consequences. “To all who disgrace the sons of the religious-Zionist community from Shas and to all who support them in silence: you will not receive forgiveness, not in this world and not in the next, until you walk among the hundreds of graves of the holy fallen soldiers of the religious-Zionist community, who united sefer and sword in their lives and in their deaths. You should go to each one and apologize for disrespecting them and their wives, whom you mock as ‘women who do not understand the spiritual dangers to their husbands.’”

Bennett added that invoking Rabi Akiva was deeply misguided. “By the way, the quote about Rabi Akiva—Rabi Akiva, even as a great rabbi, carried the weapons of Bar Kochba in the war against the Romans. I have no doubt he would be ashamed of you for speaking this way.”

Former minister Yoaz Hendel also condemned Shas’s rhetoric, saying, “A government that relies on such a party will never be able to fix anything here. This is a party that denies the fundamentals.”

Former minister Matan Kahana joined the criticism as well: “Aryeh Deri calling the religious-Zionist community the heirs of Dasan and Aviram? Shame is gone. We need a coalition of public servants.”

{Matzav.com}

Around 60 Arab infiltrators from the Palestinian Authority crossed the security fence into Israel in the Lachish area overnight Mozei Shabbos, Channel 14 News reported. According to the report, surveillance soldiers already identified infiltrators breaching the fence near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah (northwest of Chevron) in the evening hours, but IDF forces failed to […]

The Jewish-Iranian community in the US has intensified its efforts to gain the release of Kamran Hekmati, the only Jew imprisoned in Iran following Iran’s war with Israel in June who is still incarcerated, Kan News reported on Sunday. According to the report, the Jewish-Iranian community is working with many parties, including leading Chareidi askanim […]