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Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has issued an unequivocal commitment that his party will neither join nor enable the formation of any future government unless legislation regulating the draft status of yeshiva bochurim is passed first.

Deri said the position was adopted on the instructions of Shas’s Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah and former Rishon LeTzion Rav Yitzchak Yosef, making passage of the legislation a prerequisite to any coalition negotiations following the election.

“As we have said, in the sense of ‘know what to answer’ — there is also a clear answer,” Deri said. “The Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah instructed us, and we announced it explicitly. Maran the Rishon LeTzion Rav Yitzchak Yosef also announced at the opening conference of Shas’s election campaign: Shas will not enter a government and will not allow a government to be formed without first passing the law regulating the status of those who learn Torah.”

Deri’s declaration means that, according to the party’s stated position, Shas will demand that the draft issue be resolved legislatively before discussing cabinet positions, budgets or other elements of a coalition agreement.

Shas officials said there would be no flexibility on the sequence of events.

“Deri left no room for maneuver,” party officials said. “We have made it clear to all potential partners — anyone who wants Shas in the government will have to understand that the issue at the heart of the chareidi community is not something to be bargained over. First they will pass the law and regulate the status of the yeshiva students, and only afterward will we talk about positions and budgets.”

The pledge comes as the confrontation over the draft has intensified, with the absence of legislation regulating the status of bnei yeshivos leaving thousands exposed to enforcement action for failing to report for military service.

The tensions erupted again earlier this week in Modi’in, where an attempt to arrest a yeshiva bochur led to a large protest and ultimately ended with his release. Police subsequently conducted a review of the incident that placed responsibility for what occurred on the Military Police.

At the same time, the attorney general has been pressing for the urgent resumption of arrests of draft evaders, while the IDF has announced that proactive enforcement operations will resume during October.

Two additional bnei yeshivos were arrested in Eilat in recent days — a student at Yeshivas Chevron and a married Yerushalmi kollel yungerman who wed approximately three months ago.

{Matzav.com}

Elkana Federman, who served as the security chief of the Nova music festival and was wounded while fighting terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre, has filed a 2.5 million shekel lawsuit against former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, accusing him of negligence in the hours before the Hamas invasion and alleging that intelligence in Bar’s possession could have led authorities to evacuate the festival hours before the attack.

The damages lawsuit, filed in Yerushalayim Magistrate’s Court, alleges that Bar failed to fully relay intelligence to officials who could have taken action before the Hamas assault began.

According to the lawsuit, the Shin Bet received several unusual indications during the night before the massacre. Among them was the activation of dozens or possibly hundreds of Israeli SIM cards that had allegedly been prepared for use by Hamas terrorists, unusual movements involving senior Hamas figures, and changes in the terror organization’s communications patterns.

The suit further alleges that a human intelligence source reported Hamas operatives gathering at mosques and other meeting points, and that this information ultimately reached Bar.

Federman claims that this particular piece of intelligence was not presented during a situation assessment held at Southern Command at approximately 3 a.m. The lawsuit describes the information as a potential “game changer” that could have caused officials to interpret the other warning signs very differently.

Federman also points to Bar’s decision to dispatch the Shin Bet’s elite Tequila unit to southern Israel during the night, arguing that the move itself demonstrates that the Shin Bet chief was preparing for the possibility of terrorists infiltrating Israeli territory.

According to the lawsuit, Bar “did not provide a complete report to Southern Command,” and Federman argues that had the full intelligence picture been conveyed, the IDF would have prepared differently and the Nova festival would have received different treatment from security officials.

The lawsuit further alleges that Bar should have directly warned the police responsible for securing the festival about the possibility of an infiltration or kidnapping attempt, but that “through his negligence, he did not lift a finger to protect the festival participants, including the plaintiff.”

The filing also recounts Federman’s actions as the Hamas attack unfolded on the morning of Oct. 7.

When the rocket barrage began, Federman and the security personnel under his command began helping thousands of festivalgoers evacuate the site. According to the lawsuit, the security team operated according to the principle that “we do not leave the event until the last participant has left.”

When Hamas terrorists reached the area near the festival exit and began shooting fleeing participants, Federman and several other security personnel drove ATVs toward the gunfire and began bringing wounded victims back toward the festival grounds.

At one point, a damaged tank arrived carrying two soldiers, including Ofir Testa, who was critically wounded and later died. According to the lawsuit, after Testa climbed out of the tank, Federman asked him for his weapon and then joined police officer Andrey Pushibay, who was later killed, in fighting the terrorists.

Federman continued firing at the attackers until his magazine was empty. After Pushibay was shot and killed, Federman took the officer’s handgun, which had six bullets remaining, and continued advancing toward the terrorists.

It was during that confrontation that Federman was shot.

Despite being wounded and still under fire, Federman managed to run several hundred meters toward the Gerar Stream area, where he concealed himself inside a bush for hours.

The lawsuit describes him lying there with “one hand pointing the handgun in his possession upward in case the murderers reached him, and the other hand on the wound trying to stop the bleeding.”

Federman was eventually discovered by other people who had escaped the festival together with soldiers. He was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center and later transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where he underwent two surgeries.

At the heart of Federman’s lawsuit is his contention that none of this would have happened to him had the intelligence warnings been properly communicated before the attack.

He argues that with an appropriate warning, “the party would have been stopped and the compound would have been evacuated hours before the rocket fire and the infiltration began,” thereby preventing him from being wounded.

{Matzav.com}

President Trump says the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is finally nearing completion, predicting that the iconic Washington landmark will be refilled with water this week following months of repairs, repeated drainage and controversy over what caused its new lining to fail.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump said work on the pool itself was essentially finished and that crews had also replaced aging pipes as part of the project.

“I think they’re going to fill it up this week,” Trump said.

“The Reflecting Pool is totally complete, and we changed the old pipes we wanted to get open for July 4,” he said, later adding that “I think it’s almost complete, from what I understand.”

Trump also said restoration work was nearly finished on the grounds between the Reflecting Pool and the National World War II Memorial, where new grass had previously been installed as part of his broader effort to renovate and beautify Washington’s monumental core.

That lawn was damaged in June when enormous numbers reading “86 47” appeared in the grass. The numbers were widely interpreted as an anti-Trump message — “47” referring to Trump as the 47th president — while the White House argued that “86 47” amounted to a threat of political violence against him.

Trump referred to that episode Tuesday while discussing the restoration work.

The new grass, he said, had been “destroyed with the letters, the famous letters.”

“And that’s been just about completed,” Trump added.

The president also continued to attribute at least some of the problems at the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, despite court filings and evidence that have raised serious questions about whether the most significant damage was instead caused by faulty installation during the rushed renovation.

“Well, we had vandalism there and we have it about as vandal-proof as you can get. But only sick people do that, and we have their pictures.”

The Reflecting Pool has become an unexpectedly contentious issue in Washington since Trump ordered a major renovation of the landmark earlier this year ahead of celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary.

The more than 2,000-foot-long pool, which stretches between the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, underwent an extensive makeover that included coating its bottom in a dark shade Trump called “American flag blue.” The work was performed under no-bid contracting arrangements that later became a focus of scrutiny.

The project was intended to dramatically improve the appearance of a landmark that had long suffered from algae, leaks and maintenance problems. The pool had previously undergone a major reconstruction costing approximately $34 million between 2010 and 2012.

But trouble emerged almost immediately after the newly renovated pool was filled. Algae proliferated in the water, turning portions of the pool green, while pieces of the newly installed coating began separating from the bottom and floating to the surface.

Trump and Interior Department officials initially blamed vandals for deliberately damaging the pool. The president said people had cut or pulled up sections of the new surface, and several individuals were investigated or arrested.

Trump continued making that allegation as recently as late August, when he predicted that the landmark would soon reopen.

The pool would “be opening in a few weeks. Will be a beauty. NO VANDALS PLEASE.”

At other points, however, Trump acknowledged that construction problems contributed to the damage. Earlier in August, he referred to “some contractor error” and described the resulting damage as “relatively inconsequential.”

The government’s own criminal case against former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn ultimately produced evidence sharply undermining the original vandalism explanation.

Hearn, who represented the United States in canoe slalom at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was arrested after being accused of pulling at a detached section of the Reflecting Pool liner. He was subsequently indicted on a felony charge of destruction of government property, exposing him to the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.

But documents obtained after the indictment showed that problems with the pool’s surface existed before Hearn’s encounter with it. Investigators ultimately found widespread defects, including damage in areas of the pool where prosecutors concluded a vandal would have been unlikely to reach or attempt to peel away the lining.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office eventually moved to dismiss the case after receiving additional information from the Interior Department showing that the damage resulted from problems with the installation and the rush to finish the project before the July 4 celebrations.

In the government’s own filing, prosecutors said the damage was caused by the contractor’s “botched” installation “and not vandalism as initially represented” by the Interior Department.

Pirro’s filing also stated that the Interior Department had provided “less than fulsome information at the outset of the case.”

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” Pirro wrote.

The filing further said that had “DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.”

The reversal was particularly notable because Pirro had previously described the prosecution as supported by “tremendous evidence.”

Last week, D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman went further, permanently dismissing the case with prejudice. The ruling prevents prosecutors from bringing the same charge against Hearn again.

“The Court respects the authority of the Office of the United States Attorney to decide which cases to prosecute and which to dismiss,” Edelman wrote. “However, in the exceptional circumstances posed by this case, the government has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made, or even to threaten to do so, at Mr. Hearn’s expense.”

The controversy is continuing even as repairs to the pool near completion. Hearn’s attorneys on Tuesday called on the inspectors general of both the Justice and Interior departments to investigate the renovation and the criminal case brought against him.

His lawyers contend that government officials rushed a defective renovation, failed to disclose evidence showing that the pool was already deteriorating, wrongly portrayed Hearn as a vandal and pursued a criminal prosecution despite evidence pointing toward construction problems.

They are asking for separate investigations into both the Interior Department’s management of the renovation and the Justice Department’s handling of Hearn’s prosecution.

The Interior Department has continued to maintain that Hearn interfered with the pool’s lining, while his attorneys dispute the government’s characterization of what he did.

The controversy surrounding Hearn is separate from the “86 47” markings cut into the nearby National Mall lawn. Those markings were real and were documented in photographs in June, although authorities did not initially identify who created them or precisely how they were made.

Trump has repeatedly linked both episodes to what he describes as vandalism targeting his effort to restore Washington’s monuments and public spaces. The evidence that emerged in Hearn’s case, however, indicates that the widespread failure of the Reflecting Pool’s new surface cannot be attributed to vandalism.

{Matzav.com}

Russia is offering to send specialists, laboratory equipment and medical resources to help the United States battle infectious diseases, an unusual proposal that comes as Moscow faces intense scrutiny over the mysterious death of a young scientist at a Siberian anti-plague laboratory and persistent, though still unconfirmed, reports that she contracted pneumonic plague.

Russia’s consumer health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, announced the offer Tuesday, pointing to measles outbreaks in several American states as well as recent U.S. cases of other infectious diseases.

“The Russian Federation is ready to assist the United States in combating outbreaks of infectious diseases,” Rospotrebnadzor said.

The agency cited outbreaks of measles, typhoid fever and legionellosis in the United States. It also made a pointed reference to an unrelated American plague death, saying, “The first fatal case of plague in 2026 was reported in New Mexico.”

That New Mexico case has no established connection to the unfolding situation in Siberia. Plague occurs naturally in parts of the western United States, including New Mexico, where the bacterium can circulate among rodents and fleas. More importantly, Russian authorities have yet to establish publicly that plague caused the death now at the center of the Irkutsk controversy.

The Russian offer comes as international attention remains focused on the death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Shipilova died Oct. 2 after developing severe pneumonia of unexplained origin.

The institute where Shipilova worked specializes in plague and other highly dangerous infectious diseases. Her employment there, coupled with the unusual precautions taken after she became ill, rapidly fueled fears that her death could have resulted from occupational exposure to a dangerous pathogen.

Russian officials maintain that there is no confirmed plague outbreak and say investigators have found no evidence tying Shipilova’s illness to the organisms she handled professionally. The World Health Organization has likewise said that, based on the information currently available, there are no confirmed plague cases in Irkutsk and that the risk to the broader population appears very low.

Rumors surrounding Shipilova’s death, however, have been widespread. One unverified account alleges that she accidentally dropped and shattered a test tube containing plague bacteria while working at the institute. Another suggests she may have been exposed during field work or travel in Buryatia, an area where plague can occur naturally among wild animals.

Neither scenario has been substantiated by Russian authorities, and there is currently no verified evidence supporting more dramatic speculation that Shipilova was exposed to an artificially enhanced or weaponized strain of plague.

What is confirmed is that Russian authorities mounted an extensive epidemiological response after Shipilova became ill. Nearly 200 people who had contact with her were initially placed under medical observation, and the hospital where she was treated imposed infection-control measures while officials conducted testing and contact tracing.

Rospotrebnadzor says testing of those contacts has produced no additional plague cases. Several people developed illnesses, but the agency said those infections were attributable to common respiratory viruses rather than plague.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed two Covid-19 and two rhinovirus infection cases,” the agency said.

Russian authorities have continued to describe Shipilova’s fatal illness as a “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” while rejecting reports that a dangerous pathogen escaped from the institute. Rospotrebnadzor insists that “no emergency or security breach occurred” at the laboratory.

The lack of a definitive public explanation for the 28-year-old scientist’s death has nevertheless fueled skepticism inside and outside Russia. Conflicting statements from regional officials and the disappearance or revision of some early reports about a possible plague infection have contributed to suspicions that Moscow has not disclosed the complete picture.

The precautions being taken elsewhere in Irkutsk have added to those questions. The Irkutsk City Perinatal Center began screening pregnant patients for possible plague exposure and instituted strict visitor restrictions following Shipilova’s death.

Patients arriving at the maternity facility were reportedly given a “Checklist for Suspected Plague” asking about symptoms, contact with ill people and recent travel. Staff also conducted temperature checks and required masks.

The center temporarily barred virtually everyone other than pregnant patients from entering, meaning husbands and other partners were unable to attend births. Staff reportedly attributed the measures to concerns surrounding an unidentified infection.

Russian officials have emphasized that such precautions do not establish that plague is circulating in the city. Health authorities say the measures were preventative and that the epidemiological situation remains stable.

The World Health Organization said Russian authorities had traced and tested Shipilova’s contacts and reported no confirmed additional plague infections. The WHO has requested further information concerning her death while assessing the international public-health risk as very low.

Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which naturally circulates among certain rodents and their fleas. Bubonic plague generally infects the lymphatic system, while pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can spread between people through respiratory droplets during close contact. Modern antibiotics are highly effective when treatment begins promptly.

Rospotrebnadzor, meanwhile, used its offer to Washington to emphasize Russia’s own expertise in dealing with dangerous infectious diseases.

“Russia has extensive practical and scientific experience in ensuring epidemiological well-being both at home and abroad,” the Rospotrebnadzor statement on Tuesday insisted.

“To help prevent and control outbreaks of infections, Russia is ready to provide the US side with specialists, laboratory equipment, and highly effective diagnostic and preventive tools,” the statement said, “which can help resume joint work between Russia and the United States in protecting public health from infectious threats.”

The offer followed comments from President Trump a day earlier saying that the United States was prepared to assist Russia if necessary as American officials monitor the Irkutsk situation.

“We are looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it,” Trump said.

Trump said the United States would be prepared to provide assistance to any country confronting a dangerous infectious-disease problem.

“Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” the president said.

“It’s a disease we used to be able to control,” Trump said. “Even with great advancement, the germs have really become relatively stronger than they were, and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work anymore … anyone that has that kind of problem, we will help.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also urged vigilance without suggesting that Americans should panic over the reports emerging from Siberia.

“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it,” Rubio said.

American officials have called on Moscow to provide timely and accurate information about the case, while several countries neighboring Russia have increased health precautions in response to the reports.

President Trump said Tuesday that he expects to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation, as U.S. intelligence and health officials continue trying to determine exactly what occurred in Irkutsk.

{Matzav.com}