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President Joe Biden was greeted on stage by Vice President Kamala Harris as he wrapped his valedictory speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night. Joined by First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Harris held out her arms and clapped Biden before the pair embraced, with Harris seen speaking to to the president before he hugged her and kissed her gently on the head.

Though audio of the moment was not available, Harris could be seen speaking more to Biden before the pair turns towards the first lady and Emhoff.

According to CCN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere, Harris tells Biden at one point, “I love you.” That was backed by The Recount, though the platforms claims Harris says to Biden, “I love you so much,” instead of “I love you, Joe, I do,” as Dovere claims.

Joe and Jill will now make their way directly to southern California’s Santa Ynez Valley, the White House said.

Dear Matzav Inbox,

In response to yesterday’s letter on the topic of tuition committees, I’d like to clarify a crucial point that seems to have been overlooked. There is a fundamental difference between a school and a parent, which directly impacts why parents often need to request tuition assistance.

A school has the ability to fundraise. It can host events, solicit donations, and apply for grants. Fundraising is not only accepted but expected as a normal part of a school’s operations. This has always been the case, and any school owner or administrator knows that raising funds is part of the territory. It’s how schools bridge the gap between the actual cost of chinuch and what parents can afford.

On the other hand, what is a parent supposed to do? Should they go door to door, asking for money to pay their tuition bills? Such an act would not only be humiliating, but it would also significantly damage their prospects of ever marrying off their children. The frum community would look upon them as shnorrers, and their and their children’s futures would be jeopardized.

Parents who ask for tuition breaks aren’t shirking their responsibilities; they’re caught in a difficult position where the cost of tuition exceeds their means. They don’t have the option to fundraise their way out of the problem like schools do. This is why they turn to the schools for help—because there’s nowhere else to turn.

To suggest that parents should simply pay up or face the consequences without recognizing this imbalance is not only unfair but unrealistic. Schools are equipped to handle financial challenges through fundraising. Parents are not. That’s why, when a parent comes forward asking for a break, it’s crucial that the school considers their request with the gravity – and respect – it deserves, rather than subjecting them to unnecessary scrutiny.

Sincerely,

A Parent Who Cannot Fundraise for Himself

To submit a letter to appear on Matzav.com, email MatzavInbox@gmail.com.

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a private conversation with the father of Itay Chen, an American-Israeli hostage. The prominent member of the progressive “Squad” highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in negotiating a ceasefire and securing the release of hostages during her widely praised speech on the opening night of the convention.

Alaska Air is one step closer to acquiring Hawaiian Airlines after the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to challenge the $1.9 billion deal that the carriers say will create a company better able to serve travelers. Alaska Air announced in December that it would pay $18 in cash for each share of Hawaiian. The deal includes $900 million in debt held by Hawaiian Airlines. The brands of both airlines would be preserved after the merger, which is unique in an industry where decades of acquisitions have left only four big carriers dominating the U.S. market. Alaska and Hawaiian say they have few overlapping routes and the intent of a tie-up is to allow the new airline to better compete with the nation’s Big Four: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. Alaska Air and Hawaiian Holdings, the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, said in regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday that the review period for the Justice Department, which had already been extended several times, expired just after midnight. The closing is still subject approval from the Department of Transportation. Alaska and Hawaiian have been working with Transportation on lingering issues, according to the SEC filing. Shares of Hawaiian Holdings Inc. jumped more than 11% before the market open Tuesday. Alaska Air Group Inc.’s stock climbed 1.5%. (AP)

The IDF has released new details surrounding the successful recovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages from the southern Gaza Strip, noting that it was the fastest such operation of the ongoing war. Military sources noted that the mission highlighted the IDF’s growing ability to quickly establish control over previously contested areas in Gaza. The operation unfolded on Sunday when the IDF’s 98th Division increased operations in the Khan Younis area. By early Monday, the division had secured “operational control” over a neighborhood suspected of harboring the remains of the hostages. Despite not knowing the exact location of the bodies, the IDF acted on relatively precise intelligence, which identified a key tunnel where the hostages were believed to be held. Within 24 hours, IDF combat engineers located a 10-meter-deep tunnel shaft that led to a larger underground network. Teams from the elite Yahalom unit uncovered indications of the hostages’ whereabouts. During the overnight hours between Monday and Tuesday, the bodies were recovered, marking the fastest retrieval of hostages’ remains to date. Hamas terorrists had hidden the remains inside a tunnel system behind a false wall in an attempt to evade discovery. Despite these efforts, the IDF, in coordination with the Shin Bet security agency, successfully breached the tunnel’s false wall, blast doors, and other barriers. Alongside the bodies, the troops discovered weapons, explosives, and other equipment linked to Hamas operatives. The recovery mission was conducted after IDF troops engaged in intense combat in the area. In the course of the fighting, they neutralized several gunmen and secured surrounding buildings. Some Hamas terrorists who had been guarding the tunnel fled the scene, while others were killed during the clashes with Israeli forces. Weapons were found on several dead operatives within a few hundred meters of the tunnel, suggesting they were guarding the area. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.

LISTEN:

Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard considered the world’s oldest person at 117 years old, has died, her family said on Tuesday. In a post on Branyas’ X account, her family wrote in Catalan: “Maria Branyas has left us. She has gone the way she wanted: in her sleep, at peace, and without pain.” The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, listed Branyas as the oldest known person in the world after the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year. The next oldest person listed by the Gerontology Research Group is now Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who is 116 years old. Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907. After living for some years in New Orleans, where her father founded a magazine, her family returned to Spain when she was young. Branyas said that she had memories of crossing the Atlantic Ocean during World War I. Her X account is called “Super Catalan Grandma” and bears the description: “I am old, very old, but not an idiot.” At age 113, Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 during the global pandemic, but avoided developing severe symptoms that claimed tens of thousands of older Spaniards. At the time of her death she was living in a nursing home in Catalan town of Olot. Her family wrote that Branyas told them days before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end. Death will find me worn down from having lived so much, but I want to meet it with a smile, feeling free and satisfied.” (AP)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated on Monday that he might consider eliminating the $7,500 tax credit currently available for purchasing electric vehicles.

“Tax credits and tax incentives are not generally a very good thing,” Trump mentioned in an interview with Reuters following a campaign stop in York, Pennsylvania, when questioned about the EV credit.

If Trump were to win the election, he could potentially move to undo Treasury Department regulations that have made it easier for car manufacturers to benefit from the $7,500 credit. Alternatively, he might push Congress to eliminate the credit altogether. During his presidency, Trump attempted to abolish the EV tax credit, which was later expanded under President Joe Biden in 2022.

“I’m not making any final decisions on it,” Trump commented regarding the EV tax credit. “I’m a big fan of electric cars, but I’m a fan of gasoline-propelled cars, and also hybrids and whatever else happens to come along.”

He further mentioned his intention to revoke Biden administration rules that are pushing automakers to increase production of EVs and plug-in hybrids in order to comply with tougher emissions regulations.

Trump also indicated that, if elected, he would consider appointing Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a cabinet or advisory position, “if he would do it.”

Musk publicly endorsed Trump in the U.S. presidential race last month.

Additionally, Trump expressed on Monday that he would take action to curb the export of vehicles manufactured by the Detroit Three automakers and others from Mexico to the U.S. market by introducing new tariffs.

In a different context, Trump sharply criticized Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, but refrained from commenting on whether he believes the company should be dismantled after a judge determined earlier this month that the company holds an illegal monopoly.

“They’re almost like the Wild West,” Trump remarked about Google, without specifying the consequences the company should face. “They’re going to have to pay a great price.”

{Matzav.com}

The rows of hospital beds with adjacent oxygen units line the underground parking lot.

Four operating rooms, a maternity ward and a dialysis center are among the facilities that Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus has set up three levels down in its parking garage.

The largest hospital in northern Israel has created the biggest underground hospital in the world, and is gearing up for what could be an all-out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The three-floor, $140 million Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital was constructed following the Second Lebanon War with the terrorist organization in 2006, when the Iranian proxy fired about 70 missiles on this northern port city over a month, shaking the hospital in an era before the Iron Dome aerial-defense system was in place.

“We made a commitment that this scenario cannot happen again,” recalled hospital director Professor Michael Halberthal during a tour of the facility on Sunday.

One of the three levels at the underground hospital in Haifa. Credit: Courtesy of Rambam Health Care Campus.

The 2,000-plus bed subterranean emergency hospital, which has been ready if unused over the last decade, is essentially a 1,500-car garage that has been seamlessly converted into a fortified hospital for warfare, and which can be put in full use within eight hours.

Nearly two decades after the last major war with Hezbollah, the security threats have only grown, with the Shi’ite terrorist group, which has been raining down missiles on Israel almost daily since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that triggered the war in Gaza, better trained and more heavily armed, with a missile stockpile experts estimate at 150,000 projectiles capable of striking virtually the entire country.

Halberthal said that the Israeli military assessment for an all-out war is that Hezbollah would fire a missile at Haifa every four minutes for 60 days, leading to thousands of casualties.

“We wanted peace of mind so we can continue to work, and to reduce exposure time if there is a sudden missile attack on northern Israel,” he said.

The facility, which was based on a model in Singapore, received 30% funding from the state, with the remainder financed by Jewish and Christian philanthropists — including the late Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer who the hospital is named after — and charities.

During the coronavirus pandemic, it was converted into the largest COVID-19 facility in Israel.

With tensions with Hezbollah running high—Israel killed a top Hezbollah leader in Beirut last month after a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Israeli children playing soccer in the Golan Heights—the underground hospital is again primed for use.

One of its three 20,000-square meter (5-acre) floors has been cleared of cars these last 10 months and put on standby, even as above ground the hospital has treated hundreds of casualties from the war, including the Druze children wounded in the Golan Heights attack.

Restrooms, showers and even a daycare area in the underground facility can fit 8,000 people at full capacity, with electricity, water, oxygen, food and gas to make the facility self-sufficient for several days of warfare, the hospital director said.

A fortified hospital underground command center replete with smart-screen TVs and a state-of-the-art hospital data computer system was donated by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews for a medical center where nearly one-third of its staff are non-Jews.

Beds stand ready to be put in position for the underground dialysis center in Haifa. Courtesy of Rambam Health Care Campus.

No Panic

“There is no panic but citizens are concerned,” said Tal Siboni, head of the Haifa Municipality’s emergency call center, which since Oct. 7 has been operating in an underground bunker. “The phones are not ringing off the hook but we are prepared.”

This city of 300,000 residents, 12% of whom are Arabs, is, like many other Israeli communities these last 10 months, on edge.

About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel following the attacks from Lebanon, with some relocating to Haifa.

Veteran Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav has said that in a full-scale war, Hezbollah could fire as many as 4,000 projectiles a day at northern Israel.

“I am being accused of being too pessimistic but it’s better to be too pessimistic,” he said on Monday, confirming his remarks, which raised eyebrows and were reported in the Arab world, even as he voiced the hope that an agreement could be reached to avert all-out war.

“We are the target,” the mayor said. “[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah says it openly.”

In the meantime, the city has reduced the levels of hazardous materials at its petrochemical industries over the last two weeks as a safety measure in keeping with a military instruction, said Yair Zilberman, the city’s director of emergency preparedness and security.

“There are diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict but we are readying for anything and everything,” said IDF foreign press spokesman Maj. David Avraham at a briefing in Haifa overlooking the city’s ports.

Back at the hospital, a steady stream of patients comes and goes through the main entrance on a warm and sun-swept summer day, seemingly oblivious to the preparations underway three levels down.

“We have to be optimistic,” Halberthal said. “Somewhere along the line there has to be an end to this.” JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Challengers seeking to throw Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off Georgia’s November ballot told a judge on Monday that the independent presidential candidate must be disqualified because the New York address he used on Georgia ballot access petitions is a “sham.” It shows how a decision by a New York court last week finding Kennedy doesn’t live at the address in the New York City suburbs is being used to attack Kennedy’s ballot access in other states. The judge ruled Kennedy shouldn’t appear on New York ballots, but Kennedy is appealing. In New York on Monday, a trial opened in suburban Long Island in another lawsuit challenging Kennedy’s place on the state’s presidential ballot in November. In Georgia, challengers argue that because Kennedy used the New York address, his petitions should be voided. “The court found, by clear and convincing evidence that petitioners had shown that his New York residence was a sham used for political purposes,” lawyer Adam Sparks said after a Monday hearing in Atlanta. “He doesn’t live there. He claimed to on each and every sheet of his petition here in Georgia. That’s improper. It invalidates the petition, full stop.” But a lawyer for Kennedy presented Michael Malihi, an administrative law judge, with Kennedy’s voting history as evidence of his New York residency. “Mr. Kennedy has been a lifelong resident of the state of New York,” lawyer Larry Otter said. Otter said the challengers are improperly trying to impose additional qualifications on a presidential candidate beyond those in the U.S. Constitution — that a person be at least 35 years old, born in the United States, and live in the country at least 14 years. Sparks also challenged Kennedy’s status as an independent. He argued that because Kennedy is running as the nominee of several parties in other states — including Kennedy’s own “We the People Party” — that Kennedy doesn’t qualify as an independent under Georgia law. “They circumvent requirements for qualification in Georgia by gaming the system,” Sparks said. Otter said the other parties aren’t present in Georgia. Democrats are also challenging ballot places for independent candidate Cornel West, the Green Party, which has nominated Jill Stein, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Claudia De la Cruz. While none of those candidates are likely to win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes, independent and third-party candidates could tip Georgia’s balance away from Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020. Georgia counties determined that Kennedy, West and De la Cruz each collected at least 7,500 signatures to qualify. Stein hopes to use a new Georgia law awarding a ballot place to candidates of a party that qualifies in at least 20 other states. Malihi heard two challenges to Kennedy on Monday, as well as a challenge to De la Cruz. He’ll hear challenges Thursday to West and the Green Party. Malihi will issue findings to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will make a final ruling. A decision must be made before Georgia mails military and overseas ballots beginning Sept. 17. Lawyers for Democrats argue each of De la Cruz’s and Kennedy’s 16 electors needed to file separate nomination petitions. Lawyers for the candidates disputed this interpretation Monday, saying it’s wrong to believe each campaign needs 120,000 signatures. […]

A German court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Irmgard Furchner, 99, who was convicted in 2022 for complicity in the murder of over 10,000 people during the Holocaust.

Furchner was given a two-year suspended sentence in December 2022 for her role as a secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, which was located about 20 miles east of Danzig, now the Polish city of Gdansk.

Furchner’s lawyers had cast doubt on whether she had truly been aware of what was really going on at the camp during her time as a stenographer in the commander’s office, from 1943-1945.

But the Federal Court of Justice found that Furchner, a civilian worker and the first female to be tried for Nazis crimes in decades, “knew and, through her work deliberately supported the fact that 10,505 prisoners were cruelly killed by gassings, by hostile conditions in the camp,” by transportation to the Auschwitz death camp and by being sent on death marches at the end of the war.

A German Jewish leader welcomed the ruling.

“For Holocaust survivors, it is enormously important for a late form of justice to be attempted,” said Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews.

“The legal system sent an important message today: Even nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, no line can be drawn under Nazi crimes,” he added.

About 65,000 people died at Stutthof—the first Nazi concentration camp set up outside Germany during World War Two and the last to be liberated—including Jewish prisoners, Polish political prisoners and captured Soviet soldiers, some of whom were gassed to death.

Furchner, who married an SS squad leader after the war, made international headlines when she tried to flee as her trial was set to begin in September 2021, leaving the retirement home where she lives and heading to a metro station. She was caught after several hours in the nearby city of Hamburg and held in custody for five days.

During the trial, survivors of the camp, some of whom have since died, testified before the court, while a historian told the court that 27 transports carrying 48,000 people arrived at Stutthof between June and October 1944, after the Nazis decided to expand the camp and speed up their mass murder with the use of Zyklon B gas.

After 40 days of silence, she told the court: “I’m sorry about everything that happened. I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time—that’s all I can say.”

Presiding judge Dominik Gross said during the trial it was “beyond imagination” that Furchner could not have noticed the smoke and stench of mass killing, stating, “The defendant could have quit at any time.” JNS

{Matzav.com}

Two missing hikers were thankfully found in good condition by Chaveirim of Rockland volunteers after being lost all night in Slide Mountain Wilderness. Sources tell YWN that the mother of the of the two hikers, aged 17 and 21, called Chaveirim at around 8:00PM Monday night reporting that their son had called saying they were lost on Slide Mountain, and then lost phone service. Chaveirim deployed dozens of volunteers to the scene and located their car at around midnight.  An intense search was launched on the trails in the area The were found by Chaveirim after being notified by a passing motorist who said she saw two people wandering on a nearby road at around 7:30am. Catskills Hatzolah arrived in the morning hours to assist with the search. Rockland Chaveirim Search and Rescue Team is a group of around 150 volunteers who practice and train every Sunday all year on dangerous mountain terrain in Bear Mountain and Harriman State Park, as well as the Catskills. They have extensive equipment and training. All members at the Command Center were able to have internet service on throughout the night, thanks to satellite communication and StarLink Internet. Their volunteers are all tracked with GPS tracking devices, and monitored by other volunteers tracking them from their command center. Multiple drones were deployed by Chaveirim as well to assist in the search. The NYS DEC as well as Hatzolah were able to be connected to the Internet, thanks to the StarLink provided by Chaveirim.  

U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said that the Iranians “might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year.”

He blamed the Biden administration’s policies for the rapid acceleration of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which he claimed had reversed gains former president Donald Trump made during his term in the White House.

“Donald Trump, with the maximum pressure campaign on Iran, put the most pressure on Iran that they have had in any administration. Both economically, militarily, they were on the ropes,” Turner told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.

“In their processes they had slowed. What we see now with this administration, they might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year, with the news reports have been out stating that there is a possibility,” he said.

Brennan then asked if Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had changed Turner’s conclusion on this.

“There is a possibility, with the advances that have been made under the Biden administration’s policy, that Iran could, reports are out, that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapon state by the end of the year,” said Turner.

“But you would not have had that under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign,” he continued. “The flexibility and freedom that [Iran has] had under the Biden administration has given them the ability to both try to influence our elections, actively try to undertake a plot to assassinate Donald Trump and to continue their nuclear weapons and their nuclear enrichment programs.”

Tehran is advancing its secret nuclear program, bringing the Islamic Republic closer to building atomic bombs, Iran International reported on Aug. 14.

Three independent sources in Iran told the London-based opposition media outlet that the regime is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program “by restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), retaining Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators.”

The Biden administration privately warned Tehran in June about its research and development activities, Axios reported on July 17, citing three Israeli and U.S. officials.

According to the report, both Israeli and American officials have detected suspicious activities by Iranian scientists in recent months.

“Officials fear they could be part of a covert Iranian effort to use the period around the U.S. presidential election to make progress toward nuclear weaponization,” the article states.

American and Israeli officials met in Washington in mid-July, discussing “mutual coordination on a series of measures to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon,” the White House said.

A Western diplomat told Iran International that the Islamic Republic’s suspicious nuclear activities have raised concerns in Washington, Jerusalem and European capitals.

After the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Tehran said that Iran’s deterrence policy, which relies heavily on its regional terrorist proxies, has lost its effectiveness. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking government officials are aware of this, according to the report.

The report suggests that the blows to its proxies might lead Tehran to consider nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence, quoting Iranian lawmaker Mohammad-Reza Sabbaghian from an open session of parliament on the day that new President Masoud Pezeshkian presented his ministerial picks.

“What logic or law dictates that arrogant powers should have nuclear weapons, but Iran should not?” Sabbaghian asked rhetorically.

“We call on the Supreme National Security Council to review the new circumstances and recommend to the supreme leader that, considering dynamic Islamic jurisprudence, the path be cleared for the development of nuclear weapons.” JNS

{Matzav.com}

A record number of aid workers were killed in conflicts around the world last year – more than half after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7 — and this year may become even deadlier, the United Nations said Monday. The 280 aid workers from 33 countries killed in 2023 was more than double the previous year’s figure of 118, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA said in a report on World Humanitarian Day. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted that honoring the humanitarians killed in the deadliest year on record is not enough. “In Sudan & many other places, aid workers are attacked, killed, injured & abducted. We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators face justice,” the U.N. chief said. OCHA said this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome,” with 172 aid workers killed as of Aug. 7, according to a provisional account from the Aid Worker Security Database. More than 280 aid workers have been killed in the war in Gaza, now in its 11th month, mainly in airstrikes. The majority of them are Palestinians who worked for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, according to OCHA. It said that “extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan ” also have contributed to the death toll both this year and last. The U.N.’s acting humanitarian chief, Joyce Msuya, said in a statement that “the normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere.” In a letter to the 193 U.N. member nations, 413 humanitarian organizations around the world said: “The brutal hostilities we are seeing in multiple conflicts around the world have exposed a terrible truth: We are living in an era of impunity.” The aid organizations appealed to all countries, the wider international community and all parties to conflicts to protect civilians and aid workers and hold perpetrators to account. World Humanitarian Day commemorates the Aug. 19, 2003, terrorist bombing of the U.N. offices at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad which killed 22 U.N. staff members including the top U.N. envoy to Iraq, Sergio Viera de Mello, a Brazilian diplomat. At a ceremony at U.N. headquarters Monday before the tattered U.N. flag retrieved from the hotel that day, dozens of current U.N. staff members and relatives of some of the victims stood in silent tribute to their memory – as did many watching around the world. (AP)

U.S. intelligence officials announced on Monday that Iran is behind the cyberattack targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This marks the first time the U.S. government has officially attributed a cyber breach to the Republican nominee, who had previously linked the incident to Tehran.

Federal agencies, including the FBI, indicated that Iran viewed this year’s presidential election as particularly significant. In response, they engaged in a hacking campaign and other related activities with the aim of interfering in U.S. politics, as well as to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”

“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns,” stated a joint release from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

According to the statement, Iranian hackers have “sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties.” The FBI has been actively investigating efforts to infiltrate the campaign of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

{Matzav.com}

Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) released information today showcasing Columbia University’s failure to discipline students who engaged in extreme conduct violations, including breaking into, and occupying, Hamilton Hall and participating in antisemitic encampments that made the University a hostile environment for Jewish students. Despite Columbia previously promising that the students who occupied Hamilton Hall would “face expulsion,” the vast majority remain in good standing. Chairwoman Foxx said: “The failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable. More than three months after the criminal takeover of Hamilton Hall, the vast majority of the student perpetrators remain in good standing. By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in these unlawful actions. Breaking into campus buildings or creating antisemitic hostile environments like the encampment should never be given a single degree of latitude—the university’s willingness to do just that is reprehensible.” Of the 22 students arrested inside Hamilton Hall on April 30th, 18 are in good standing, with only three on interim suspensions, and one on probation. Columbia had previously said the students occupying Hamilton Hall would “face expulsion.” Twenty-seven Columbia students arrested by the NYPD on May 1 at various off campus locations outside of Hamilton Hall had their cases closed due to “insufficient evidence” despite their arrests. On April 29th, 35 students were placed on interim suspensions for failing to leave the encampment. The University then determined it couldn’t substantiate their participation and lifted the suspensions and dismissed the charges for 29 of the students. Thirty-one of the 35 students are currently in good standing. Two others are on interim suspensions from previous incidents, one who was previously on disciplinary probation is now suspended, and one is on disciplinary probation. Of the 40 students arrested by NYPD on April 18th for participating in the encampment, 18 were restored to good standing through “alternative resolution” but are on conditional probation, 21 are in good standing pending a hearing, and one is on disciplinary probation from a prior incident. Of the 32 students who participated in the alumni reunion weekend encampment on the weekend of May 31st, all remain in good standing. Three of the students are on conditional disciplinary probation from a prior hearing, but nevertheless remain in good standing more than two months after the incident.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has expressed doubts about the latest round of hostage-ceasefire negotiations, believing they are merely a “bluff” to give Israel more time to continue its military offensive against the Gaza-based terrorist group. Arab mediators, cited in the report, say Sinwar aims to increase pressure on Israel by escalating the conflict beyond Gaza’s borders, including launching attacks from the West Bank. This comes as Hebrew media outlets have identified the perpetrator of a recent attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, claimed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as a Palestinian from the West Bank. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah launched a 55-rocket barrage at the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights on Tuesday morning and another 20 in the afternoon, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Around 10 of the first set of projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defense system, with the rest falling in open areas. There were no reports of injuries.

Israel Fire and Rescue Services were working to extinguish fires caused by the rocket impacts.

Shortly after the first attack, the Israeli Air Force struck one of the Hezbollah launchers.

Both salvos came after the IDF attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot deep inside Lebanese territory on Monday and eliminated a key member of the Iranian terror proxy’s missile unit in a drone strike.

Hezbollah said that Monday’s barrages were in response to the IDF attack in the area of Beqaa in eastern Lebanon, in which IAF fighter jets struck several weapons storage facilities in the area.

“Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the IDF said.

The Hezbollah terrorist killed was identified as Hussein Al Hussein. He was struck in the area of Deir Qanoun in Southern Lebanon.

“Hussein was a significant terrorist in Hezbollah’s Rocket and Missile Unit in the area of Yarine,” according to the IDF.

Earlier on Monday, the IDF struck a terrorist cell operating from a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Tayibe in Southern Lebanon. IAF fighter jets struck the structure in which the terrorists were operating.

The IDF also said that on Monday night it attacked two Hezbollah launchers in the areas of Mansouri and Taybeh in Southern Lebanon which were ready to fire rockets at Israel.

An IDF chief warrant officer was killed and another officer seriously wounded on Monday morning when a drone launched from Lebanon slammed into Moshav Ya’ara in the Western Galilee, the army confirmed.

At least three others were injured in the attack. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

A federal judge on Monday denied Hunter Biden’s latest bid to dismiss the tax charges against him, setting the stage for his trial to begin next month in California. Citing a ruling in Florida that threw out a separate prosecution of former President Donald Trump, Hunter Biden’s lawyers had urged the judge to dismiss the case accusing him of a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon tossed Trump’s classified documents case last month because she said special counsel Jack Smith, who filed those charges, was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling. Hunter Biden’s lawyers had argued the same logic should apply in his case, which was brought by a different Justice Department special counsel. But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi noted in his ruling that he had already rejected a previous challenge by Hunter Biden to the appointment of special counsel David Weiss. The judge said there is “no valid basis for reconsideration” of that decision. Scarsi, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, had accused Hunter Biden’s lawyers of making “false statements” in their court filing urging the judge to dismiss the case. At issue was a defense comment that no charges were brought in the investigation until after Weiss was named special counsel in August 2023. The judge noted that Weiss had not yet been named special counsel when he charged Hunter Biden with misdemeanor tax offenses as part of a plea deal that fell apart last year. Scarsi ordered Hunter Biden’s lawyers to explain why they should not be sanctioned. Hunter Biden’s lawyers responded that they have “never tried to mislead” the court. In his order Monday, the judge said he would not sanction defense lawyers after they amended their filing. But the judge wrote that the defense’s “conduct warrants an admonition: candor is paramount.” A hearing in the case is set for Wednesday, when the judge is expected to hear arguments over what evidence the prosecution and defense can present to jurors. It’s the second criminal trial in just months against the president’s son, who was convicted in June of three felony charges in a separate federal case stemming from the purchase of a gun in 2018. (AP)