Feed aggregator

Newly surfaced video evidence has revealed a haunting glimpse of the final days of several hostages held by Hamas, showing American Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg Polin and others attempting to mark Chanukah deep beneath the ground where they were imprisoned.

The recording captures the group fashioning a makeshift menorah in the dimness of the tunnel. Despite the unbearable conditions, they join together in singing Maoz Tzur, their voices strained with emotion.

In the background, one hostage can be heard remarking, “Chanukah is awesome, isn’t it?”—a line that, in the context of the setting, sounds drenched in painful irony.

Another voice comments, “It’s strange to see the menorah next to this flag,” seemingly pointing to a Palestinian flag visible beside them.

Among those shown in the clip are Hersh Goldberg Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lubanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino, all taken captive during the October 7 attacks.

Investigators believe the grim footage was recorded shortly before the captives were murdered.

IDF officials say the group was killed inside the very tunnels in which they appeared in the video. Their remains were later located and retrieved during military operations after intelligence pinpointed the site.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered an unusually blunt warning Wednesday: America’s job market may be far weaker than the official numbers suggest. In his post-meeting press conference, Powell said Fed staff believe government data may be overstating monthly job creation by as many as 60,000 jobs. Since published figures show the economy adding roughly […]

The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. Senators rejected a Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts — an unceremonious end […]

The 22-year-old Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk made his first in-person court appearance Thursday as his attorneys push to further limit media access in the high-profile criminal case. A Utah judge is weighing the public’s right to know details in the prosecution of Tyler Robinson against his attorneys’ concerns that the swarm of […]

Police in Goodyear, Arizona, are using artificial intelligence to help create realistic images of suspects in lieu of traditional sketches. They say the AI-generated images are based on victim and witness statements and don’t depict a real person.

WH Press Sec.: As we approach tax season, millions of Americans will see larger refunds thanks to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill — with one study projecting an average refund increase of about $1,000 per filer.

WH Press Sec. goes through some of the economic progress made in 2025 under the Trump administration, including real wages on pace to increase $1,200 per worker, and gasoline down below $3 a gallon. “There’s much work to do, but this has already been significant progress.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned Thursday that Europe must prepare for the possibility of a major war with Russia “like our grandparents endured,” as Moscow escalates its threats and battlefield aggression across the continent. Speaking at a security forum in Berlin, Rutte said complacency in Western capitals is giving the Kremlin dangerous openings. “We […]

A robotaxi rider captured the frightening moment a Waymo he was riding in pulled out onto the road and into the path of another car in San Francisco on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Chris Riotta Rogers says the vehicle was nearly hit.

The Senate on Thursday rejected two competing health care bills, making it almost certain that Obamacare subsidies used by over 20 million Americans will expire at the end of the year. Senators voted 51–48 to advance a GOP plan expanding health savings accounts as an alternative to the outgoing tax credits. A Democratic plan to […]

The IDF on Thursday released the full, previously unseen footage of six Israeli hostages lighting Chanukah candles deep inside a Hamas tunnel weeks before they were murdered. The video, recovered from materials seized during IDF operations in Gaza, marks the first time the public is witnessing a direct, unfiltered glimpse into the hostages’ lives in […]

In a rare public concession, the head of Iran’s state broadcasting corporation has admitted that the military’s dramatic claims of shooting down two Israeli F-35 fighter jets during Operation Rising Lion were entirely false. Peyman Jabali, chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), told students at Shahid Beheshti University that IRIB merely repeated […]

GOP-Backed HealthCare bill fails on the Senate Floor. In a vote of 51-48, 60 were needed to pass the bill.

Satmar philanthropist Reb Yoel Landau arranged a helicopter transport Thursday, flying his father and his Holocaust-survivor grandfather into Spring Valley to address the children of the Satmar Cheder in honor of Kof Alef Kislev. Reb Yoely himself did not attend, but coordinated the special flight to ensure his father and grandfather could participate in the […]

WATCH: Satmar philanthropist Reb Yoel Landau arrived in Spring Valley by helicopter together with his Holocaust-survivor grandfather, who will address the children of the Satmar Cheder in honor of Kof Alef Kislev. Kof Alef Kislev marks the miraculous 1944 escape of Hagon HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum ZATZAL, founder of Satmar Chassidus in America, from the Nazis […]

The U.S. imposed sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, among others, on Thursday as President Donald Trump looks to inflict further pressure on the South American nation. The new sanctions on Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo come a day after Trump announced that the U.S. had seized an oil tanker […]

During these winter months, Shabbos begins very early. Fridays are really short.  There’s so much hecticity and rushing to get ready on time, especially when candle lighting is at 4:10pm.   Can you imagine how difficult it is for people who didn’t grow up frum, are new to Shabbos, and need to leave work early to […]

Hundreds of chasidim lined the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in London on Thursday afternoon, in a massive demonstration expressing their opposition to the IDF’s drafting of bnei Torah.

Winter storm Byron hammered Israel for a second straight day on Thursday, unleashing torrential rain, damaging winds, flooding, and dangerously cold temperatures that claimed at least one life and triggered a nationwide emergency response. A 53-year-old man was found dead in his Netanya apartment with signs of hypothermia, according to ZAKA. Paramedics arrived after a […]

TIME magazine turned the spotlight on the minds driving artificial intelligence on Thursday, announcing that the “Architects of AI” had earned the publication’s highest annual designation for 2025.

According to TIME, this year marked the moment when the reach, influence, and unavoidable force of artificial intelligence “roared into view” and signaled a point of no return in global life and discourse.

In a statement shared across its social platforms, the magazine declared, “For delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible, the Architects of AI are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year.”

Prediction markets had shown AI itself as a strong favorite for the honor, though individual tech leaders—such as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman—were also heavily discussed. Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected American-born pontiff who ascended to the papacy following the passing of Pope Francis, was also floated as a major prospect. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani were likewise among the widely mentioned names.

TIME made waves last year when it selected Trump as its 2024 person of the year after his victory in his second presidential race, a choice that followed Taylor Swift’s selection in 2023.

The tradition behind TIME’s annual selection stretches back nearly a century, beginning in 1927 as editors sought to identify the individual—or, as in this case, the collective—who most profoundly influenced the previous year’s events and global conversation.

{Matzav.com}