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The United States has carried out an initial sale of Venezuelan crude valued at approximately $500 million, according to multiple reports on Thursday that cited unidentified government officials.

According to Semafor, the proceeds from the sale are currently being held in bank accounts under U.S. government control, with the primary account based in Qatar, an industry source familiar with the arrangement said. That source explained that Qatar was selected as a “neutral venue” that allows funds to be transferred with U.S. authorization while avoiding the risk of seizure.

The move was described as consistent with an Executive Order signed last week by President Donald Trump that protects Venezuelan oil revenues held in U.S. Treasury-controlled accounts from attachment or court action, with the goal of “ensuring these funds are preserved to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.”

The same source told Semafor that the Venezuelan socialist government, currently headed by “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, has “fully cooperated” with Washington, noting that the United States retains “leverage” through its sanctions regime and control over oil transactions.

“The United States Treasury is fully committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts on behalf of the people of Venezuela,” a U.S. Department of the Treasury spokesperson told Semafor.

Another unnamed official also confirmed to Semafor that the principal account holding the oil sale revenue is located in Qatar, describing it as a “neutral” setting where “money can flow freely with U.S. approval and without risk of seizure.”

“President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to Semafor, adding that the administration is continuing “positive, ongoing discussions” with oil companies regarding Venezuela.

CBS News reported that Rogers provided a similar statement to its newsroom. Fox News likewise published Rogers’ remarks, which stated:

President Trump’s team is facilitating positive, ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments to restore Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

President Trump is protecting our Western Hemisphere from being taken advantage of by narcoterrorists, drug traffickers, and foreign adversaries.

Reuters, citing an unnamed U.S. official, reported that further oil sales are anticipated “in the coming days and weeks.”

Separately, the Venezuelan socialist government recently announced plans to sell as much as $2 billion in crude oil to the United States, a deal that Reuters noted last week would “divert supplies from China while helping Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.”

{Matzav.com}

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have proposed creating a new agency with $2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and the other critical minerals, while the Trump administration has already taken aggressive actions to break China’s grip on the market for these materials that are crucial to high-tech products, including cellphones, electric vehicles, jet fighters […]

by Rabbi Eliezer Sandler   The concept of the Yissachar-Zevulun Torah Learning Pact goes back well over 3,500 years, to the time of Yaakov Avinu and his sons. It is named for the Torah pact between two of his sons – Yissachar the scholar and Zevulun the merchant. Not only was it an equal pact […]

A sweeping wireless outage that left Verizon customers across the United States unable to place calls, send texts or access mobile data is now being traced to a technical breakdown inside the company’s own network — not a cyberattack. The disruption began around midday Wednesday and lasted more than 10 hours, sending hundreds of thousands […]

The Jerusalem District Court on Thursday rejected the police’s appeal and ordered the release from house arrest of Fakhri Khatib, the Arab bus driver who killed Yosef Eisenthal, z’l, after plowing into a group of Chareidi teens during a protest against the Chareidi draft law last week. Ynet reported that a police representative argued during […]

Dear Matzav Inbox,

Why is bad breath the one problem nobody is allowed to mention?

We live in a community where people will correct your pronunciation of a word, your nusach, your shoelaces, or how long your jacket is, but when someone’s breath is so bad it makes standing next to them physically difficult, suddenly everyone becomes polite, silent, and paralyzed.

This isn’t about embarrassing people. It’s about basic derech eretz.

We sit next to each other in shul. We talk face to face at Kiddush. We lean in during conversations. We daven shoulder to shoulder. And sometimes, honestly, it’s unbearable. People are stepping back, turning their heads, holding their breath, and nobody says a word. Everyone just suffers quietly and pretends nothing is happening.

Why?

Brushing teeth is not a chumra. Mouthwash is not a luxury. And checking yourself before going out into public is not asking too much. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness.

What makes it worse is that the person usually has no idea. Everyone else knows. Everyone else talks about it, just not to him. That’s not chesed. That’s ridiculous. If someone had spinach in their teeth all day and nobody told them, we’d say that’s cruel. So why is this different?

We’ll hint. We’ll cough. We’ll open windows. We’ll suddenly remember something urgent and walk away. But actually saying, “Maybe check your breath,” is treated like a capital offense.

And let’s be honest: Sometimes it’s not a one-time thing. It’s constant. Day after day. The same smell, the same avoidance, the same quiet suffering.

This affects shalom bayis, friendships, chavrusas, workplaces, and shul life. People don’t want to sit near you. They don’t want to talk to you. They don’t want to learn with you. And instead of addressing the issue, we let relationships die slowly and silently.

What happened to the idea that caring about someone includes telling them uncomfortable truths?

Nobody is saying to announce it publicly or embarrass someone. But a spouse, a close friend, a sibling, someone, should be able to say it gently and privately. “I’m telling you because I care.” That used to be normal.

Somehow we’ve decided it’s better to let a person go around unknowingly offending everyone than to risk an awkward conversation. That makes no sense.

We expect people to dress appropriately, behave appropriately, and show basic consideration in public spaces. Hygiene is part of that. Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away. It just makes everyone miserable.

So here’s a radical idea: Let’s stop pretending this isn’t a thing. Let’s normalize basic self-awareness. And let’s remember that real kindness isn’t silence. It’s honesty, said with care.

Because bad breath doesn’t just disappear on its own.
And neither does the discomfort when nobody is willing to speak up.

I Can’t Stand It

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Lindsey Graham on Iran: There are a lot of headlines out there that are, in my view, not accurate. President Trump’s resolve is not the question. The question is when we do an operation like this, should it be bigger or smaller? I’m in the camp of bigger…

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has finalized an understanding with the Agudas Yisroel faction that will see MK Yisrael Eichler appointed as Deputy Communications Minister, a move that will require him to step down from his seat in the Knesset.

Eichler’s resignation will trigger the Norwegian Law mechanism, allowing Yitzchok Pindrus of Degel Hatorah to reenter the Knesset as a serving MK.

Agudas Yisroel and Degel Hatorah run jointly under the banner of United Torah Judaism, using a so-called “zipper” list in which candidates from the two factions alternate. Under this arrangement, when an Agudas Yisroel lawmaker resigns, the next eligible candidate from Degel Hatorah moves into the Knesset, and the same applies in reverse.

Pindrus’ return is expected to strengthen the governing coalition by adding another vote in favor of advancing the Draft Law.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of Likud welcomed the development and praised Eichler’s appointment, saying, “I congratulate my dear colleague, MK Yisrael Eichler, on his appointment as Deputy Communications Minister. I thank Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu and MK Eichler for their cooperation and trust and welcome this move.
Together, we will work decisively to complete the central tasks of the government, in the Draft Law, communications reform, the budget, and other areas, for the benefit of the people of Israel.”

Sharp criticism came from Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, who blasted the decision, saying, “Government ministries are not gifts or bribes, there is actually a country to manage here. Eichler’s appointment as Deputy Communications Minister is not only disgraceful but also absurd. Eichler is a person who opposes the very existence of the State and, broadly speaking, also pretty much opposes the very existence of communications. As mentioned, an absurd and disgraceful appointment.”

{Matzav.com}

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday rejected media reports suggesting that President Donald Trump is easing off the possibility of US action against Iran, calling such coverage flatly wrong.

Responding on X, Graham said reports portraying the administration as stepping back were misleading. “All the headlines like these are examples of reporting that are beyond inaccurate,” he wrote.

Graham insisted that any potential move against Tehran has not been weakened by hesitation from the White House. “The circumstances around the necessary, decisive action to be taken against the evil Iranian regime have nothing to do with President Trump’s will or determination. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite the opposite. Stay tuned,” he added.

The comments followed a turbulent stretch on Wednesday, when tensions appeared to peak and the prospect of American action against Iran seemed imminent. However, as evening approached in Tehran, the situation appeared to cool after President Trump said he had been told that Iranian authorities had halted the killing of protesters.

“We have been notified pretty strongly that the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions or an execution,” Trump told reporters during remarks in the Oval Office.

Trump stressed that the information came from reliable sources, while cautioning that events would need to be verified. “I’ve been told that in good authority. We’ll find out about it, I’m sure. If it happens, we’ll be very upset,” he said.

By Thursday morning, Iran had reopened its airspace after shutting it down for several hours amid the unrest. The regime also announced that it would not carry out the execution of Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old arrested during the recent protests who had become a prominent symbol for demonstrators.

President Donald Trump highlighted the development in a social media post, writing, “According to Fox News, ‘An Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise, others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council said it had arranged an emergency session for Thursday afternoon at the request of the United States to address the unfolding situation in Iran.

{Matzav.com}

Verizon has announced that it will give its customers $20 in credit for yesterday’s major outage.

BREAKING: The Trump administration imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals linked to the violent crackdown on peaceful protests.

Schumer: The affordability crisis will be our focus throughout 2026 because that’s what the American people are demanding.

The U.S is intensifying pressure on Mexico to allow American military forces, including Special Operations troops or CIA officers, to participate in joint raids targeting and dismantling fentanyl production labs.

BREAKING: The Trump administration imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals linked to the violent crackdown on peaceful protests.

Sen. Ted Cruz: “I want to take a moment to speak to the people of Iran. America stands with you. President Trump stands with you.

Sec. Noem: “Every single action that our ICE officers take is according to the law and following protocols that we have used for years—that this administration has used, that the previous administration has used…and over and over again, in litigation in the courts, we’ve proven that they’ve done the right thing.”

Sec. Noem on Tim Walz: “He’s had the greatest fraud in American history happening right under his nose. He didn’t just allow it to happen, we believe, from all indications, that he was complicit in it — that he knew all about this Somalian fraud that was happening.”

The Yerushalayim District Court on Thursday turned down a police request to keep Fakhri Khatib under house arrest following a fatal ramming during a protest earlier this month that claimed the life of 14-year-old Yosef Eisenthal.

In her decision, Judge Hagit Mac Kalmanovitz said the legal threshold for continuing the house arrest had not been met, while stressing that the ruling does not bar investigators from taking additional steps as the probe continues.

The ruling followed a decision issued a day earlier by the Magistrate’s Court, which lifted all restrictive measures imposed on Khatib, including the house arrest he had been placed under for roughly a week. Police immediately challenged that decision, but their appeal was rejected.

Khatib remains under investigation on suspicion of causing death either intentionally or through reckless conduct, as well as causing severe injury to a minor. Authorities initially brought an aggravated murder charge, though it was later reduced.

At the court hearing, police acknowledged that Khatib himself contacted the emergency center after the incident, reporting that he was under attack and asking to be rescued. His attorney told the court that his client “was attacked, spat on, and felt in danger,” and maintained that “he acted to save his life without intending to harm anyone.” The defense further claimed the case amounted to a “political investigation.”

The incident took place during a January 6 protest opposing the proposed Draft Law. Video footage shows a bus driven by Khatib moving toward demonstrators and striking Eisenthal, who was pinned beneath the vehicle and killed. Three additional protesters sustained minor injuries.

{Matzav.com}

New York City’s largest nursing strike in decades stretched into a fourth day Thursday, with little sign of a breakthrough as hospital systems and union leaders dug in for what both sides now appear to expect could be a long fight. Roughly 15,000 nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association walked off the […]

U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials have met face to face to discuss President Donald Trump’s ambitions to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. At the same time, Denmark and several European allies are sending troops to Greenland in a pointed signal of intent to boost the vast Arctic island’s security. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said after […]