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A representative for Kamala Harris wasted no time in requesting a follow-up debate, making the call within the hour after the initial one wrapped up.

“That was fun. Let’s do it again in October,” Harris campaign communications director Brian Fallon posted on X.

In a separate campaign release, the Harris team reiterated their desire for another debate in October.

“Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” questioned Harris-Walz campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.

“Donald Trump was completely incoherent. He appeared angry and shaken,” commented O’Malley Dillon, referencing the former president’s responses on issues like abortion, the January 6th events, and the looming Project 2025.

{Matzav.com}

The Biden administration announced new sanctions on Iran’s national airline on Tuesday in response to its role in shipping ballistic missiles to Russia.

Speaking at a press conference in London, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the administration had warned Iran repeatedly against giving missiles to Moscow to use against Ukraine.

“We’ve warned Tehran publicly. We’ve warned Tehran privately that taking this step would constitute a dramatic escalation,” he said. “Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians.”

Blinken said that while Russia has its own ballistic-missile arsenal, the Iranian weapons will be used for shorter-range targets, freeing Russia to use its domestic stockpile to attack deeper into Ukraine. He added that in exchange for delivering the missiles, Russia is providing Iran with nuclear and space information technology.

In response to the missile delivery, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it is imposing sanctions against Iran Air for its role in shipping cargo to Russia for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terror organization.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom announced that they are also pursuing sanctions against Tehran and canceling their bilateral air services agreements with the Islamic Republic. Iran Air previously operated flights to London, Paris, Cologne, Munich and Hamburg and was the only Iranian carrier permitted to operate in European airspace.

Iran has long used its ostensibly civilian airlines for military purposes. In 2019, France banned Iran’s Mahan Air from entering the country for its role in shipping troops and arms to Syria and other Middle Eastern hotspots.

John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that it was not clear why Iran decided to deliver the ballistic missiles.

“I wish I could get inside the head of the supreme leader here and figure out why he’s doing what he’s doing. I can’t do that,” Kirby said. “Now we have seen, in fact, this deal get consummated, and so we’re making that public and doing something about it. But as for the exact timing, it’s difficult for us to know how they executed on this particular timeline.”

“What’s most relevant is that now Russia will have available to it additional ballistic missiles to rain down on the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian infrastructure,” he added.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that U.S. claims that Iran provided ballistic missiles to Russia are intended to distract from American support for Israel.

“Spreading false and misleading news about the transfer of Iranian weapons to some countries is just an ugly propaganda and lie with the aim of concealing the dimensions of the massive illegal arms support of the United States and some Western countries for the genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote.

(JNS)

During a segment on CNN, investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski spoke with host Erin Burnett about Kamala Harris’ radical policy positions from 2019; “Kamala Harris was trying to get to the left of Bernie Sanders,” Kaczynski told Burnett.

While the clip has gone viral for many reasons, perhaps the most shocking soundbite is the following:

Burnett: Taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained migrants. She actually said she supported that?

Kaczynski: She both wrote and answered in the affirmative when she was asked this. And she said she also supported it for federal prisoners.

…

Burnett: I mean, these are things that, you know, it would be hard to think that you would come up with, taxpayer-funded gender transitions for detained migrants, and yet, as you say, written and verbally.

Kaczynski and Burnett also discuss Kamala’s immigration policy, drug policy, and more.

Watch the clip above.

X owner Elon Musk shared the clip on his social media platform with a simple message: “Believe her.”

{Matzav.com}

Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance shared his thoughts on Kamala Harris’ recently uploaded policy positions in a lengthy X thread this week; he’s not a fan.

Vance addressed the fresh policy positions point by point.

 

“It has been 50 days since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party,” Vance’s first post said.” In the dead of night yesterday, she finally released her campaign policy page. Here’s what I think of it.”

 

⁨⁨1) Kamala Harris claims she wants to cut taxes for middle-class families, but here’s what’s in her plan:

IRS Audits for working families: Getting audited is a horrendous experience, even if you’ve done nothing wrong. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to hire 87,000 IRS agents to audit more people. As recently as last summer, 63% of new audits fell taxpayers earning less than $200,000.

The IRS, like Kamala Harris, claims that it’s not going to increase audits on people making under $400K, but the Treasury Inspector General stated the agency’s strategic plan, “did not include specifics on how the IRS was going to ensure it met this commitment.” That’s because they have no intention of ensuring they’re not going to audit middle class families—that’s where they’re going to find the money to pay for their massive spending proposals.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, under questioning in the House, could not deny that 90 percent of new audits under the IRA would be on households earning less than $400,000. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the majority of additional taxes the IRS recommended from audits from 2010-2021 came from taxpayers with income less than $200,000.

It’s even harder to pretend that taxing working men and women isn’t their focus when you think about the reporting requirement Biden-Harris signed into law to require businesses to fill out a 1099K form on transactions over $600 made using third-party payment platforms. The reporting threshold before their bill was $20,000.

There’s no minimum number of transactions in their bill, so a single transaction over $600 that triggers the reporting requirement creates more paperwork. Even Senate Democrats have backed different bills to blunt the impact of this enormously burdensome mandate.

The Government Accountability Office found this aspect of the Harris tax record would result in at least 30 million new 1099K forms getting sent out in 2024. The Joint Committee on Taxation found that over 90 percent of the tax burden will fall on middle class families and gig workers.

The Biden-Harris tax plan, as explicitly outlined in their formal budget request to Congress would increase taxes by $5 trillion. That’s going to stack on top of her inflationary climate spending bills and drag the economy down further. It’s been estimated that “the tax changes in the Biden-Harris budget would reduce long-run GDP by 1.6 percent…wages by 1.1 percent, and employment by about 666,000 full-time equivalent jobs.”

That’s nearly a million people out of work and lower wages for everyone in order to shift money towards the Harris Green New Deal—as she said to CNN in her first interview after nearly a month as the Democratic nominee, her values haven’t changed on that policy, which she supported enthusiastically when she was in the Senate.

All in all, the Biden-Harris record has been a massive wealth transfer from working people to the Green New Deal’s constituencies—the Harris tax plan is going to be more of the same, no matter what kind of claims she makes during the campaign.⁩

 

Kamala wants to give every first time homebuyer a $25,000 check toward downpayment assistance. What she fails to leave out is that this would likely raise the average home price by the same amount, making her plan moot. We also haven’t heard how the debt-burdened federal government would pay for such a plan …

There’s also no guarantee that this down payment assistance will be limited to citizens. The campaign has yet to lay out what requirements there will be, beyond being a first time homebuyer and having a two year history of rental payments …

Vice President Harris also mentions how she’ll spur the construction of ‘3 million more rental units.’ While she outlines an admirable plan, it’s tough to take it seriously. This Vice President has overseen an administration that has enacted new red tape for multi-family and single-family construction. We’ve seen her Housing and Urban Development Department enact green energy requirements for new rental units, mandatory strictly-cosmetic updates to public housing units, and more regulations that will make it harder to grow the rental supply.

That’s not the end of it. The Vice President seems to think that the ongoing housing crisis is strictly due to a supply problem, but it’s not. Her policies have also driven demand for housing through the roof, particularly when looking at the price and availability of rental units …

When a city’s immigrant population increases, the area’s home prices and rental costs rise by a comparable amount. But the effects vary by neighborhood: home values are negatively correlated with the immigrant concentration. The result: only current homeowners in non-immigrant, wealthy neighborhoods stand to benefit from mass immigration. Working-class residents see their rental costs soar, and their home values decline.

 

Full X thread over at Not The Bee:

 

{Matzav.com}

The wing of a huge Delta Air Lines jet hit a regional jet at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Tuesday morning, appearing to shear the tail off the smaller aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and images from the scene. No injuries were reported.

The Airbus A350 was taxiing to a runway bound for Tokyo when it clipped a Bombardier CRJ900 operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air shortly after 10 a.m., according to the FAA. The larger plane was carrying 221 passengers, while the smaller jet had 56 passengers on board.

The difference in size between the two aircraft is immense. An A350 stretches about 220 feet long and stands 55 feet tall. The CRJ900 is only about half as long and tall.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was launching an investigation. Delta said it would cooperate.

Airport officials said passengers from one plane were being taken back to the terminal by bus and that the other plane returned under its own power. The incident was expected to have only minimal impact on other flights, officials said.

The Delta pilots did not initially appear to know what had happened, according to archives of radio traffic with air traffic controllers. One of the pilots asked to stop before adding: “We just hit something on the taxiway. Could you tell us what it was?”

A controller confirmed they had hit the regional jet, according to archives maintained by LiveATC.net. Sirens could soon be heard over the radio.

An emergency responder who arrived at the smaller plane summed up the situation: “We’re standing by on your rear end. It appears your tail section has been knocked over.”

Delta said passengers had been put on alternative planes and apologized.

The regional jet was headed to Lafayette, La. It was carrying a number of journalists traveling to help with coverage of Tropical Storm Francine.

Jason Adams, a meteorologist for WFTS-TV in Tampa, described hearing “very jarring, metal scraping sounds then loud bangs.”

(c) Washington Post

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu immediately criticized the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court after he urged justices on Tuesday to issue a swift ruling on arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and two top Hamas terrorist leaders.

Karim Khan’s comparison between Israel, “which is fighting murderous Hamas terrorism in accordance with the laws of war, and war criminal [Yahya] Sinwar, who executed Israeli hostages in cold blood, is pure antisemitism and a moral disgrace of the highest order,” he stated.

“Unfortunately, we have seen from the beginning that the proceedings in The Hague are politically biased and have no professional legal basis whatsoever,” the premier added in a statement published by his office.

In a filing to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber on Monday, Khan expressed frustration with the court’s delay in issuing the arrest warrants, urging action ahead of Netanyahu’s scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, Israel’s Ynet outlet reported.

“The prosecution respectfully requests that the Chamber issue its decision on the applications for the warrants of arrest against Yahya Sinwar, [Mohammed] Deif, Bibi Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant with utmost urgency,” Khan wrote in a six-page letter to the ICC justices.

The arrest of the four, the prosecutor insisted, “is necessary to, inter alia, ensure that they do not obstruct or endanger the investigation or court proceedings, prevent the continuing commission of the crimes alleged and/or the commission of other Rome Statute crimes. “

In May, Khan demanded the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes. He lumped the two Israelis together with then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Hamas “military” leader Mohammed Deif and Hamas “political” head Ismail Haniyeh. (Deif was reportedly killed in Gaza and Haniyeh in Iran, both in July, by Israeli forces as part of Swords of Iron.)

The ICC has no jurisdiction as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court claimed jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state exists under international law.

The 123 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute are obligated to act on any arrest warrant it issues, raising the possibility that the two Israeli leaders could be placed under arrest while visiting these places.

(JNS)

The Australian government plans to set a minimum age limit for teens to use social media, citing mental health concerns, a move that has broad political support but that has some experts warning of harmful unintended consequences.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that his government would introduce the legislation in Parliament this year – ahead of an expected May election – but that the precise age limit was yet to be decided.

Both the center-left Labor government and the conservative coalition in opposition have embraced the issue, and some states have already moved to implement social media age limits.

“This is about letting children have a childhood,” Albanese told a Sydney radio station on Tuesday, adding that he favored an age limit as high as 16. “There’s nothing social about some social media taking our young Australians away from real friends and real experiences.”

He said his rationale was “pretty simple.” “We want to get young Australians off their devices and onto the footy field or the netball court or the swimming pool or the tennis court and engaging with each other. And we know that social media is causing social harm.”

Some experts say the issue isn’t so simple, however, as an age limit could prevent struggling younger teens from finding the help they need or force them to use social media secretly, exacerbating the dangers.

“What Australia is looking for is a bit of a simple fix or a simple answer to what is really a very complex question,” said Lisa Given, a professor of information sciences at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. “The question is, is this more about politics and headlines versus an actual solution that is going to protect children?”

Australia is one of many nations wrestling with the negative effects of children being online, especially on social media, at an early age.

Some U.S. states have passed similar social media age limits – a few going so far as to ban anyone under 18 from using the platforms without parental permission – though the initiatives’ fate remains uncertain. Congress is also considering such legislation.

In a sign of escalating concern over social media’s impact, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy recently called for placing tobacco-style warning labels on social media to alert users that the platforms can harm children’s mental health.

The European Union passed legislation almost a decade ago banning children under 16 from accessing online services, including social media, without parental consent, although the law was amended to allow countries to opt out of the age ban, Given said. Spain recently raised its minimum age for setting up a social media account from 14 to 16.

Many nations with age limits already in place have found enforcing them difficult, as children use VPNs and other methods to circumvent the restrictions, Given said.

The idea nonetheless has gained momentum in Australia as the next election approaches.

South Australia’s premier recently outlined a bill that would bar children under 14 from using social media altogether and require 14- or 15-year-olds to obtain parental permission. New South Wales and Victoria, the country’s most populous states, also have backed the general idea, which came up last week during Albanese’s meeting with state leaders.

“It’s time to give parents the power to push back – not against kids, but against the tech giants,” Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, said in a video posted on Monday to social media.

But some experts say the push for legislation is rushed.

Daniel Angus, director of Queensland University of Technology’s Digital Media Research Center, said the government should wait for the joint inquiry into social media in Australia to reach its conclusions.

“No doubt this populist policy will sell well with the older demographics, but it’s a misguided distraction from the necessary structural reforms that would provide long term benefit to youth in this country,” Angus wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Australia’s eSafety commissioner, who monitors cyberbullying, cyber abuse and illegal online content, has sounded a similar note of caution.

“If age-based restrictions are imposed, eSafety has concerns that some young people will access social media in secrecy,” the commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said earlier this year. “This may mean that they access social media without adequate protections in place and are more likely to use less regulated non-mainstream services that increase their likelihood of exposure to serious risks.”

Social media can also play an important role in connecting struggling teens with online support or health information.

“There are lots of reasons why children need to access information on their own,” said Given, the RMIT professor. “Particularly kids in regional or remote areas. They may not even have ready access to a library nearby. They may be home-schooled.”

Unlike in the United States, where free speech concerns have already sidelined some states’ attempts at social media age limits, such challenges are less likely in Australia, where there is greater support for government intervention and fewer free-speech protections.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, however, children should have the ability to get information from the internet, so long as it isn’t harmful, Given noted.

Earlier this year, South Australia commissioned a former High Court chief justice to review the idea of implementing a social media age limit. The report, released Sunday, warned of bullying and other problems for children using social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord, YouTube and X.

Many of those platforms already prohibit children under 13 from using them, however. And Australia’s proposed legislation could distract from efforts to hold those social media companies responsible for policing themselves, experts said, a concern also raised on Tuesday by the director of the Australian Association of Psychologists.

(JNS)

The IDF stated on Tuesday evening that a senior IDF officer was seriously injured in the morning in a tunnel collapse in Gaza during operational activity. IDF forces were mapping and preparing tunnels for demolition in  the central Gaza Strip when the collapse occurred. The officer was rescued from the tunnel and evacuated to the hospital, where he is currently in stable condition. The officer was identified as a Col. (res.) Golan Vach, who headed the Home Front Command’s rescue delegation in Surfside, Florida in 2021. The unit recovered 81 of the 98 victims at the site, with Vach personally locating 20 of the victims. Ironically, in the pre-October 7 world, Vach also led Israel’s Home Front Command search and rescue teams following the devastating earthquake in southern Turkey in February 2023 and later received a medal from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was then working to restore friendly relations with Israel. The Israeli rescue mission was one of the first to arrive in Turkey after the earthquake and succeeded in extricating 19 people alive from the rubble, the most of any rescue team. Erdogan showed his “gratitude” by turning against Israel is the most ugly and vicious fashion following the October 7 assault. Vachs, a father of seven, has been on continuous reserve duty since October 7. Following the assault, he led a rescue unit on the kibbutzim in the south searching for survivors and rescuing anyone he could and has been on continuous reserve duty since then. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A senior US official on Monday warned against an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, saying that it would result in “catastrophic and unforeseen consequences,” journalist Barak Ravid reported. Ravid, who writes for Axios in English and Walla in Hebrew is widely considered as the Biden administration’s mouthpiece. Speaking at the  Middle East America Dialogue (MEAD) annual summit in Washington D.C., the official said. “No war happens in lab conditions, it’s not a game. There would be serious consequences for both sides.” The official scoffed at the idea of “​​let’s go to war and destroy all Hezbollah’s missiles and everything will be fine. It’s not that simple. There is no magic solution. The other side cannot be destroyed. At the end of the war, Israel may pay a heavy price and not achieve its goals.” The official continued by saying that a diplomatic solution must be reached rather than a military one. However, he did not provide details on how to convince a terror group to agree to a diplomatic solution, especially considering that Hezbollah has long violated the pre-existing “diplomatic” UN 1701 resolution to retreat north of the Litani River. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Channel 12 journalist Almog Boker slammed the Israeli government for failing to respond to the Hezbollah drone attack on Monday which scored a direct hit on a high-rise apartment building in Nahariya. B’Chasdei Hashem, there were no injuries but two apartments were heavily damaged. “If all the buildings in Beirut continue to stand as if nothing happened, then nothing will change,” Boker stated. “Like in Gaza, so in Lebanon. If they launch a rocket and hit a building, we need to choose a neighborhood in Beirut, give the residents 24 hours to evacuate, and knock down the building.” “Something has to change, and if not, the nightmare of the residents of the Gaza border area will turn into the nightmare of the residents of the north. And for years to come.” The video below shows frightened Israeli children running to a bomb shelter as sirens blare: (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The U.S. Justice Department announced a 15-count indictment on Monday against two men who it said lead a “transnational terrorist group,” and who allegedly solicited hate crimes and the murder of federal officials and sought to support terrorists.

Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, Calif., and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, were arrested on Friday, per the Justice Department. Each leader of the Terrorgram Collective faces up to 220 years in prison, the department added.

“Today’s indictment charges the defendants with leading a transnational terrorist group dedicated to attacking America’s critical infrastructure, targeting a hit list of our country’s public officials and carrying out deadly hate crimes—all in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” stated Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general.

The duo, which is accused of soliciting the crimes on the Telegram platform, allegedly sought to enlist “others to engage in hate crimes and terrorist attacks against black, immigrant, LGBT and Jewish people,” according to Kristen Clarke, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights.

“Hate crimes fueled by bigotry and white supremacy, and amplified by the weaponization of digital messaging platforms, are on the rise and have no place in our society,” Clarke stated. “Make no mistake, as hate groups turn to online platforms, the federal government is adapting and responding to protect vulnerable communities.”

Humber and Allison allegedly operated with a “hit list” with “U.S. federal, state and local officials, as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organizations, many of whom were targeted because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity,” per the Justice Department.

A person who shot three people—killing two—outside of a gay bar in Slovakia, one who planned to attack New Jersey energy facilities, and a third who stabbed five people near a Turkish mosque were allegedly inspired by the two defendants, the Justice Department said.

Per the 37-page indictment, one target on the “hit list” was identified for being “an anti-white, anti-gun, Jewish senator.”

The third of the 15 counts alleges that the two defendants “solicited, commanded, induced and otherwise endeavored to persuade other people to commit bias-motivated attacks targeting Jewish people.”

(JNS)

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet for the first time face-to-face Tuesday night for perhaps their only debate, a high-pressure opportunity to showcase their starkly different visions for the country after a tumultuous campaign summer. The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates. Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House. WATCH THE DEBATE LIVE BELOW

Federal authorities have launched their second antitrust lawsuit against Google, a case that may benefit prominent news outlets that share a percentage of their ad revenue with the tech giant for handling their online ad placements.

The Justice Department is accusing Google of misusing its influence in the digital ad market, which they claim forces advertisers to pay inflated rates while publishers receive lower profits, impacting the production of news and other valuable content for readers, according to The Washington Post’s report on Tuesday.

The DOJ’s lawsuit argues that Google has maintained dominance in the sector “by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising.”

The department further asserts that Google takes at least 30% “of each advertising dollar flowing from advertisers to website publishers through Google’s ad tech tools … and sometimes far more,” according to Ars Technica.

Media giants like Gannett and News Corp. have been significantly affected by Google’s stronghold over the online ad landscape, according to The Post.

The DOJ is pushing for Google to sell off its Ad Manager suite, the platform responsible for displaying ads across numerous web pages, especially on top and side banners.

Prosecutors argue that Google achieved its dominance in the advertising space by acquiring its competitors, eventually securing a majority share of the market.

Additionally, Google operates a digital exchange that connects advertisers with publishers, enabling the company to retain at least 30% of each advertising dollar.

Google counters these allegations, claiming its clients prefer the convenience of working with a single company. During Monday’s opening arguments in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Justice Department attorney Julia Tarver Wood noted that Google’s acquisitions have bolstered its dominance, and the company has allegedly manipulated ad auction processes for its own advantage.

In response, Google refuted the DOJ’s claims, stating in court that “success is not illegal” and emphasizing that customers select Google over its rivals because it delivers superior service.

On Sunday, Google issued a blog post cautioning that dismantling its ad business could cause disruption for its users.

“Google’s ad tech fees are actually lower than reported industry averages — hardly a sign of monopoly abuse,” the company argued.

Karen Dunn, Google’s lead lawyer, remarked in her opening statements that the company’s heavy investments in research and development have driven innovation in the sector and that it is “intensely competing” against major players like Microsoft and Disney.

Dunn also pointed out that the online ad market has grown substantially, from $8 billion in 2008 to $140 billion in 2022.

A victory for the DOJ could provide a boost to Google’s competitors — including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok — which are “all ascendant while Google’s share is falling,” Dunn noted.

Wood said the prosecution intends to call witnesses from several media organizations, such as USA Today, News Corp. (owner of The Wall Street Journal), and The Daily Mail.

This year, Google has already lost two antitrust cases. In August, a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled that Google holds an unlawful monopoly in online search.

Furthermore, in December, a San Francisco jury ruled in favor of Epic Games in a case that found Google’s app store to be an illegal monopoly.

{Matzav.com}

Gal Hirsch, the Israeli government’s official envoy overseeing efforts to free hostages in Gaza, has made an offer to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – offering the blood-drenched terrorist leader safe passage for him and his family if Hamas were to relinquish control of the Gaza Strip and release all hostages currently held by the group. “We are ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” Hirsch told Bloomberg News.  “We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza.” Hirsch added that he had presented this offer a day and a half ago, though he did not comment on whether there had been any response from Hamas. The proposal, which represents a bold diplomatic gesture, underscores Israel’s desire to resolve the hostage crisis while also seeking long-term changes in Gaza’s governance. As of now, there has been no confirmation of interest or response from Hamas, leaving the fate of the hostages and the potential for a breakthrough in negotiations uncertain. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

I often see anonymous letters posted on your platform addressing issues within our community, and I felt inspired to share a thought that I believe could lead to positive change. Am I the only one noticing this problem? When I explain the shidduch system to those outside the frum community, I often find myself embarrassed by its glaring flaws. The concept of the shidduch system is beautiful in theory, but its execution has become bogged down by unhelpful technicalities, causing unnecessary challenges for everyone involved. One particular issue seems to have a simple solution. Many boys and their parents express feeling overwhelmed by the constant flood of resumes they receive, often lacking meaningful context or thought. In contrast, many girls—perhaps the majority—wait in silence, hoping for even a single suggestion. This disparity has become so common that it’s been dubbed “the quiet times.” Efforts to balance this system often result in well-meaning individuals suggesting girls to boys who are already drowning in resumes. But isn’t this only making things worse? We’re adding to the pile without addressing the root of the issue. Isn’t it time to flip the script? What if we normalized girls receiving boys’ resumes first, allowing them to give the initial yes? This simple change could create a more balanced system, where girls receive more opportunities for dates, and boys are given more thoughtful, considered suggestions. We girls are capable of handling rejection if it means improving the system. Taking a more active role could help us tap into the blessings and shidduchim Hashem has in store for us. While tefillos are crucial, so is our physical hishtadlus. Just imagine—having a great shidduch idea, approaching the boy, and politely asking for his resume, just as we would with a girl. May we all merit to hear besoros tovos and see Hashem’s hand in every area of our lives, including shidduchim. A simple change can make all the difference. Signed, A single girl, sitting at home and waiting The views expressed in this letter do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review. 

The Swiss House of Representatives voted on Monday to immediately halt payments to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over its ties to terrorism.

The decision, which still needs to be approved by the Swiss Senate, was the latest back and forth between the two governmental chambers over funding to the agency, and mirrors similar moves taken last year.

The 99-88 vote to suspend funding was adopted along with a separate motion calling on Switzerland to directly support aid efforts by other organizations in the Gaza Strip.

“This is a very powerful signal and a continuing vote of no-confidence in UNRWA,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, told JNS on Tuesday.

Neuer, who testified before the Swiss parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee this spring, said the vote was a “slap in the face” to Swiss UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, who had lobbied furiously to prevent it from happening.

The head of the Geneva-based watchdog organization said that the dispute would not be resolved for several months yet, and would likely relate to next year’s funding.

Bombshell intel report causes only temporary freeze

An Israeli intelligence report released earlier this year showed that at least a dozen UNRWA employees actively participated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, and that the agency has hundreds of “military operatives” belonging to Hamas and other terrorist groups on its payroll.

The revelations prompted 17 countries—led by the United States and Germany, UNRWA’s biggest donors—including Switzerland to suspend funding. Nearly all have since resumed funding due to concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The freeze was performative following the U.S. lead, and not something they wanted to do,” said Neuer. “It did not reflect a policy decision or true concern.”

The United States—UNRWA’s largest donor, accounting for some 30% of the agency’s budget—has frozen its donations until at least next year.

Switzerland is UNRWA’s ninth-largest donor nation, contributing more than $21 million in funding in 2023.

In May, the Swiss government approved a contribution of CHF10 ($12 million) to UNRWA for emergency aid.

The atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7 have placed renewed international focus on UNRWA’s terrorism ties, leading to calls from across the Israeli political spectrum to break with the organization and work with alternative aid groups. Meanwhile, the heads of the agency—backed by the outgoing E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borell—successfully placated most international donors with a contested U.N. investigation into its alleged wrongdoing.

UNRWA, which the U.N. established in 1949 to carry out relief and work programs for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled their homes during the 1948 War of Independence, defines refugee status as being hereditary. As a consequence, the number of Palestinian refugees registered with the organization has mushroomed from 750,000 in 1950 to nearly six million today.

The main U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, which cares for the rest of the refugees in the world, has no such policy.

Earlier this year, a former legal adviser to UNRWA told the Knesset that Israel can prevent the agency from operating in Gaza and should be using the current international spotlight on its malign activities to plan for its closure, regardless of any continued foreign funding it receives.

Three months ago, the Swiss House of Representatives also rejected a motion to recognize Palestinian statehood.

(JNS)

The inflation-adjusted median income of U.S. households rebounded last year to roughly its 2019 level, overcoming the biggest price spike in four decades to restore most Americans’ purchasing power. The proportion of Americans living in poverty also fell slightly last year, to 11.1%, from 11.5% in 2022. But the ratio of women’s median earnings to men’s widened for the first time in more than two decades as men’s income rose more than women’s in 2023. The latest data came Tuesday in an annual report from the Census Bureau, which said the median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose 4% to $80,610 in 2023, up from $77,450 in 2022. It was the first increase since 2019, and is essentially unchanged from that year’s figure of $81,210, officials said. (The median income figure is the point at which half the population is above and half below and is less distorted by extreme incomes than the average.) “We are back to that pre-COVID peak that we experienced,” said Liana Fox, assistant division chief in the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division at the Census Bureau. The figures could become a talking point in the presidential campaign if Vice President Kamala Harris were to point to them as evidence that Americans’ financial health has largely recovered after inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022. Former President Donald Trump might counter that household income grew much faster in his first three years in office than in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, though income fell during his administration after the pandemic struck in 2020. The report showed that the typical American household, though having regained its 2019 purchasing power, essentially experienced no increase in living standards from 2019 to 2023. That is a sharp difference from the preceding four years, when inflation adjusted median incomes rose 14% from 2015 through 2019. The data is based on pre-tax incomes, including Social Security and other benefit programs, though it excludes noncash benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. By racial groups, median household income rose 5.4% for whites to $84,630, increased 2.8% for Black Americans to $56,490 and was unchanged for Hispanics at $65,540. Asian incomes were also largely unchanged at $112,800. Census also calculated that 92% of Americans had health care in 2023, largely unchanged from the previous year, though the proportion of uninsured children ticked up a half-point to 5.8%. (AP)

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Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, participated in the inaugural MEAD conference in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, addressing an audience that included Israeli officials.

The engagement, alongside statements from Knesset member Benny Gantz, suggests that efforts toward regional normalization may still be on the table, despite the ongoing conflicts against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Al Saud joined a panel discussion on Sunday night with her Moroccan and Bahraini counterparts. The audience included numerous Israelis, among them official representatives, as well as high-ranking U.S. officials.

Gantz, leader of Israel’s National Unity Party and a former War Cabinet member, addressed the normalization issue in his own interview on Sunday.

“I hope we can develop regional partnerships, partly through events like MEAD. Expanding our relationship with Saudi Arabia, a key Arab nation, could yield mutual benefits in security, economy, science and other areas,” said Gantz.

An Israeli source recently suggested that following the U.S. presidential election in November, a new opportunity might emerge for a three-way agreement involving the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The conference, spearheaded by former U.S. ambassadors to Israel David Friedman and Tom Nides, serves as a forum to facilitate discussions between American and Middle Eastern leaders, including those from moderate Arab states and Israel.

(JNS)