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[Video below.] Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu used a fiery address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to defend Israel’s wars against Iran and its terror proxies, reject accusations of genocide in Gaza, denounce what he called an international campaign of lies against the Jewish state, and directly confront New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, declaring that Israel will continue fighting because “we have no other choice.”

The speech began amid extraordinary scenes at UN headquarters in New York, as dozens of delegates walked out when Netanyahu approached the podium, while supporters applauded and members of the Israeli delegation chanted “Am Yisroel Chai.” Reuters independently confirmed the mass walkout.

Netanyahu immediately addressed those leaving.

“If there are any other moral cowards, please do so now,” he said.

From there, Netanyahu launched into a broad defense of Israel’s actions since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, repeatedly framing the country’s military campaigns as a battle for national survival.

Netanyahu recalled his famous 2012 UN appearance, when he displayed a drawing of a bomb and drew a red line to illustrate his warning about Iran’s nuclear program.

“I vowed to prevent Iran’s murderous dictatorship from developing atomic bombs. Nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world. That’s exactly what I did.”

Destroying Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu said, was “very hard to do,” but the decision itself was straightforward.

“For me, it was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make as Prime Minister, because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”

Netanyahu argued that Israel’s military action against Iran had protected countries whose representatives had just walked out of the General Assembly chamber.

“Israel was also defending many of the countries that just left this hall. In fact, many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes. It’s hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy, but that’s exactly what it is.”

PBS, in its coverage of the speech, also reported Netanyahu’s defense of the attack on Iran and his assertion that ordering it was among the easiest decisions he had made as prime minister.

Netanyahu then reached back nearly six decades to the Six-Day War, arguing that the threats against Israel predated its control of Yehuda and Shomron, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

“We weren’t then in Judea and Samaria, the historic heartland of the Jewish people. We weren’t in Gaza. We weren’t in the Golan Heights.”

He also directly answered Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa over Syria’s claims to the Golan Heights.

“Oh, and Mr. al-Sharaa, Jews have been on the Golan Heights since the days of Moses; you can read it in the Bible.”

Netanyahu ridiculed accusations that Israel is a colonial power, pointing to the country’s small geographic size.

“We weren’t in any of these places; we were a tiny sliver of land. We still are. That is equal to about 1/3 of one percent of the landmass of the entire Arab world. Yet they accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism. Some colonialism.”

He singled out critics in Britain and France, noting their countries’ own colonial histories.

“People in Britain, and in France. For G-d’s sake, they invented the term. Their colonies embrace the entire globe. Colonialism – give us a break – another lie.”

Netanyahu then made the speech personal, recounting his memories from the tense days immediately preceding the Six-Day War.

He was a high school student in the United States at the time, he recalled, but returned to Israel five days before the war and found the country preparing for a potentially catastrophic conflict.

He went to see his older brother, Yoni Netanyahu, who was serving with the paratroopers and preparing for battle.

Yoni gave him a simple message.

“We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”

That line became the central refrain of Netanyahu’s address.

He connected his brother’s words to October 7, calling the Hamas assault “the darkest day in Israel’s history.”

Netanyahu stressed that there was no Israeli presence inside Gaza when Hamas terrorists crossed into southern Israel and carried out the massacre.

“There wasn’t a single Israeli then in Gaza, not a civilian, not a soldier, not one. It didn’t matter a bit. The Hamas terrorists committed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.”

“On that darkest of days, our enemies expected to collapse. Well, we didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions!”

Netanyahu portrayed the war that followed as an extraordinary military test for a country of Israel’s size.

“Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven-front war?”

He said Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other enemies had attempted to overwhelm Israel simultaneously but had failed.

“With our great American friends, we crushed Iran’s army, navy, air force, and nuclear facilities.”

“Israel hammered Hamas. We pummeled Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said.

At that point, Netanyahu produced a pager from his pocket in an apparent reference to the September 2024 operation in which thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives exploded.

“Remember the beepers?” he asked. “We, I can tell you this: Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”

Netanyahu devoted another section of his speech to terrorism in Yehuda and Shomron and what he described as a stark disparity between international attention to Palestinian terrorism and violence committed by extremist Jewish youths.

He said terrorists continue trying to murder Israeli civilians in Yehuda and Shomron, including families traveling on the roads.

Netanyahu acknowledged acts of vigilantism by a relatively small group of Jewish extremists and condemned them.

“I can’t stand that. I won’t stand for vigilantism. We’re a country of law. So we put our Shin Bet on them.”

But he accused foreign governments and media outlets of disproportionately emphasizing what they call “settler violence” while giving far less attention to Palestinian terrorist attacks.

“What a distortion. It’s an obsession. Leaders of countries seriously talk about that, and they say it with such importance: ‘We can’t stand settler violence.’ You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Netanyahu specifically addressed French President Emmanuel Macron, challenging Macron’s assertion that Hamas does not operate in Yehuda and Shomron. He cited the murder of Eliyahu Shakron, a French citizen and father of six, in a shooting attack days earlier that Israel attributed to a Hamas terrorist.

He also spoke about Neria Leiter, an IDF reservist and son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who was seriously wounded in a ramming attack.

Netanyahu read words Neria had posted before the attack:

“We have no other country. It’s a privilege to defend it.”

Netanyahu then made a pledge to Leiter and Israel’s other wounded and fallen fighters.

“Your sacrifice will not be in vain. We will continue to defend our state. We will continue to win, because we have no other choice!”

Netanyahu thanked President Donald Trump for joining Israel in the campaign against Iran and for helping secure the return of hostages from Gaza.

“Why are we winning? Yoni said it simply: ‘We have no other choice!’ Our goal never wavered: to win with unwavering resolve, unrelenting courage, because this is Israel – one nation, fighting for one future, left and right, young and old, religious and secular.”

Netanyahu acknowledged Israel’s deep internal disagreements but said that in moments of existential danger the country comes together.

“Do we have our differences? Of course we do. Who doesn’t? But in critical moments, we stand together because what unites us is so much stronger: our history, our values, our courage, the courage of our brave people who withstood 1,000 ballistic missiles that Iran rained down on our civilians.”

The prime minister then shifted from the battlefield to what he characterized as another war Israel is fighting — a battle over public opinion.

Netanyahu accused foreign governments of pouring enormous sums into efforts to demonize Israel, singling out Qatar.

“Several foreign countries have spent untold billions to spread lies about my country. The first to do so was Qatar. Decades ago, it started massively funding American universities and toxic media outlets like Al Jazeera. They did the same in Europe.”

“Their goal was clear: brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, hate the West. This is the same Qatar that hosts the Hamas butchers of October 7th.”

Netanyahu then turned his attention to Turkey, accusing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of becoming a “superspreader of antisemitic lies.”

He accused Erdoğan of hosting Hamas leaders, repressing political opponents and journalists, killing Kurdish civilians, denying the Armenian genocide and illegally occupying northern Cyprus. He also charged that Turkey has ambitions to dominate Syria.

Netanyahu responded particularly sharply to Erdoğan’s rhetoric concerning Yerushalayim.

“He says he is going to be the ‘ruler of Jerusalem.’ No sir, you won’t. This is our country, our city, our eternal capital.”

Another major section of Netanyahu’s address was devoted to the war in Gaza and accusations that Israel has committed genocide — allegations Israel rejects and which have become a central focus of international criticism of the war. Reuters noted that Netanyahu arrived at this year’s General Assembly amid intense criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and its broader regional campaigns.

“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” Netanyahu declared.

He argued that the IDF has taken extensive measures to minimize civilian deaths while Hamas has deliberately embedded itself among civilians.

Netanyahu cited urban-warfare expert John Spencer in arguing that Israel’s efforts to protect civilians have exceeded those of other militaries in comparable conflicts.

He then lashed out at those promoting allegations against Israel and the IDF.

“To all those that are spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth.”

That brought Netanyahu to one of the most pointed portions of the speech: a direct attack on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fierce critic of Netanyahu and Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Mamdani has called Netanyahu a war criminal and accused Israel of genocide, allegations Israel strongly rejects. Reuters reported that Mamdani had previously said he wanted Netanyahu arrested if he visited New York, although the mayor subsequently acknowledged that he lacked the legal authority to order such an arrest.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me: ‘This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly.’”

Netanyahu accused Mamdani of associating with radical figures, praising people convicted of supporting Hamas and repeatedly leveling what Netanyahu called false accusations of genocide against Israel.

“Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me; you can’t silence the truth.”

Reuters separately reported the confrontation, quoting Netanyahu’s declaration to Mamdani that “you can’t silence me” and describing the mayor as one of the central targets of the Israeli leader’s UN address.

Netanyahu then delivered his answer to the genocide accusations.

“Here’s a simple truth. Israel didn’t commit genocide; Israel prevented genocide. That’s exactly what Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them. They would have killed every last one of us.”

He warned that anti-Israel rhetoric has consequences far beyond diplomatic debates at the United Nations, pointing to a series of antisemitic attacks around the world.

“The lies you and other antisemites spread about the Jews and the Jewish State have real consequences. In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized, targeted simply for being Jews.”

Netanyahu cited attacks against Jews in cities around the world before closing that portion of his address with a broader declaration about Jewish self-defense.

“The antisemites of the world want to terrify our people. I have news for them. The days when Jews were defenseless victims, marched to the slaughter – those days are over.”

The address came at a particularly contentious UN General Assembly, with the wars involving Israel, Iran and their respective allies dominating much of the week’s diplomacy. Netanyahu’s appearance itself illustrated the international divisions surrounding Israel: dozens of diplomats walked out, while supporters in the chamber applauded him.

Throughout the speech, however, Netanyahu returned repeatedly to the same message — the words he said his brother Yoni had spoken to him on the eve of the Six-Day War nearly six decades ago.

Israel, he argued, has survived repeated attempts to destroy it because its people understand that defeat is not an option.

“We’re going to win,” Netanyahu said. “We have no other choice.”

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{Matzav.com}

The family of a chareidi special-needs child from Bnei Brak is demanding that authorities reopen a case against an Arab bus driver who was filmed approaching the boy, standing extremely close to him and shouting at him. The family says the encounter left the child severely traumatized, suffering from nightmares and refusing to travel alone by bus to school.

The incident occurred on October 29, 2025, as the minor was walking on a street near a bus terminal in Bnei Brak. Video footage from the scene reportedly shows the driver getting off the bus, walking toward the boy, moving very close to him and shouting at him from close range.

According to an appeal filed on behalf of the family by attorney Chaim Bleicher of the Honenu legal organization, the frightened child fled the scene. When he arrived home, the appeal states, he sat down on the floor and “screamed hysterically,” while complaining of ringing and pain in his ear.

The family says the effects of the incident have continued long afterward. According to his relatives, the boy has suffered from anxiety and nightmares since the encounter and now refuses to take the bus to school by himself. As a result, his mother has been forced to drive him to school each day.

Following the incident, the family filed a police complaint and provided investigators with the video footage. Police subsequently closed the case against the driver.

Bleicher has now appealed the decision to the State Attorney’s Office Appeals Department, asking prosecutors to reopen the case, fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the confrontation and pursue criminal charges against the driver.

The appeal states that the boy’s mother previously challenged the decision to close the case but says she never received a response. According to the mother, the driver’s conduct in the video, together with laughter allegedly seen following the encounter, indicates that his intention was to frighten and humiliate her son.

The mother further said that her children had previously complained to her about Arab bus drivers shouting at them and frightening them. In this case, she said, she decided to turn to police because of the extreme level of fear and distress her son displayed after returning home.

Following the filing of the appeal, Bleicher said the authorities had failed to appreciate the seriousness of what allegedly occurred.

“When examining the background of the incident and the circumstances of the victim, the only conclusion is that this is not at all a ‘trivial matter,’ but rather a serious act. The driver and his friends laugh after the crime, while the child suffered an injury that may accompany him for the rest of his life,” Bleicher said.

Bleicher also criticized the decision to close the investigation, saying his organization has received repeated complaints involving the conduct of some Arab public transportation drivers.

“Unfortunately, we constantly encounter complaints about threats, intimidation, unnecessary sudden stops by minority bus drivers, acts of violence, and skipping stops. Unfortunately, there are drivers who exploit their position and status in order to harm and terrorize the Jewish public,” he said.

Bleicher said the family is seeking both criminal prosecution and the driver’s removal from public transportation work.

“We demand that the driver be prosecuted and that the law be enforced in a manner that will serve as a deterrent, as well as that the suspect’s employment as a public transportation driver be terminated. Every day that the steering wheel is in the hands of hostile drivers constitutes a serious danger to the entire public,” he said.

A British tourist has triggered widespread outrage and ridicule after posting a TikTok video complaining about the prices and quality of drinks at a café near the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Poland, where approximately 1.1 million people were murdered during the Holocaust.

The video, titled “Prices at Auschwitz,” amassed more than four million views before being removed from public view, and the controversy surrounding it quickly attracted media attention in both Britain and Poland.

The tourist, identified as Lynne, offered viewers what she described as a useful “tip,” advising anyone visiting Auschwitz to bring their own drinks.

She complained that the café did not offer decaffeinated coffee or alternative milk options and described a strawberry smoothie she purchased as “very watery.” She also claimed that the lemonade ordered by her daughter smelled like toilet cleaner.

Lynne described the £9 bill for the two beverages as “very expensive,” while contrasting it with the £1.20 taxi ride to the site, which she called a “bargain.”

The video prompted thousands of angry responses from social media users who accused the tourist of displaying extraordinary insensitivity by focusing on refreshments and prices while visiting one of the most infamous sites of the Holocaust.

“The focus should be on honoring their memory, not turning the experience into a personal review,” one commenter wrote.

Others responded with dark sarcasm. One comment that reportedly received 84,000 likes asked, “Will the cruelty at this place ever end?”

Another commenter wrote, “No one knows suffering like these two ladies.”

Some users also questioned why a café was operating at the site in the first place.

Despite the backlash, Lynne refused to apologize. Instead, she posted follow-up videos defending herself and attacking her critics, whom she described as “wokes” and “snowflakes.” She argued that some of the responses directed at her were themselves disrespectful to those murdered during the Holocaust.

“No one died in the café, no one was murdered there in gas chambers. I just had a drink there, and it’s not even close to the entrance to the camp,” she said.

She also accused the site of profiting from the Holocaust and criticized what she described as the commercialization of Auschwitz.

“It should be a memorial site, not an attraction. I’ll get over it, and they’ll get over it,” she said.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum responded to the controversy by stressing that the café in question is independently operated and is not run by the museum. A museum spokesman told The Times of London that prices at the establishment are clearly displayed for customers.

“For us, the important point remains that people come to the Memorial to learn about the history of the concentration and extermination camp, to learn about the fate of its victims, and to commemorate their memory,” the museum said.

[Video below.] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly by prerecorded video on Thursday after the United States denied him a visa for the second consecutive year, using his speech to level a series of accusations against Israel and call for the Gaza Strip, Yehuda and Shomron, and eastern Yerushalayim to ultimately be placed under Palestinian Authority control.

Abbas delivered the address remotely from Ramallah after the Trump administration extended visa restrictions on senior Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials ahead of the UN gathering in New York. The General Assembly voted last week to allow Abbas to participate by video, approving the measure by a vote of 152-3, with four abstentions.

The State Department has accused the PA and PLO of failing to comply with commitments made under previous agreements, supporting terrorism and attempting to “internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” through actions against Israel in international bodies. Palestinian officials have rejected the U.S. accusations and criticized the visa restrictions.

Opening his remarks Thursday, Abbas criticized Washington’s refusal to permit him to attend the gathering in person, calling the move a violation of UN procedures. He called on the United States to remove the sanctions imposed on Palestinian officials and resume dialogue aimed at advancing a two-state solution.

Abbas then turned much of his address toward Israel, accusing it of waging what he called a genocidal campaign in Gaza.

“In Gaza, the Palestinian people are being subjected to killing, destruction, starvation and a genocidal war that has created a major humanitarian catastrophe,” Abbas charged.

Israel has rejected accusations that its military campaign constitutes genocide, maintaining that its operations have been directed against Hamas and other terrorist organizations and that it takes measures to reduce civilian casualties.

Abbas also accused Israel of attempting to force Palestinians from their homes and of expanding Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron while seeking to “Judaize” Yerushalayim.

“This is a colonial plot intended to force us to leave. We warn you not to allow another Nakba and massacre like in 1948,” Abbas said.

He further called on the international community to halt arms shipments to Israel and accused the IDF of providing protection to what he described as “violent gangs that burn communities.” His speech also included accusations of “settler terrorism” in Yehuda and Shomron.

At the same time, Abbas laid out his demand for Palestinian Authority rule over Gaza as part of a unified Palestinian political structure encompassing Gaza, Yehuda and Shomron, and eastern Yerushalayim. He called for the territories to operate under “one law and one weapon,” a formula Abbas has repeatedly invoked in discussing the future governance of Gaza.

Abbas also called for accelerated implementation of the next stage of the UN-backed framework involving the establishment of a “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Notably, reports on Thursday’s address said Abbas did not mention Hamas in his speech, despite having condemned the terrorist organization’s October 7, 2023, attack in previous public remarks.

The U.S. decision to keep Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials out of the country stands in contrast to Washington’s decision to issue visas to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and members of the Iranian delegation for this year’s General Assembly. Pezeshkian addressed the gathering Wednesday amid the continuing U.S.-Iran confrontation.

The diplomatic spotlight at the UN will turn next to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Thursday evening. Netanyahu is expected to use his speech to respond to international criticism of Israel and address the continuing regional conflicts involving Iran and the Palestinians.

{Matzav.com}

New York Attorney General Letitia James suffered a legal setback Wednesday when a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit she and 18 other states brought against the Trump administration over access by Department of Government Efficiency personnel to sensitive U.S. Treasury payment systems. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas concluded that the states’ central claims had become moot because the Treasury’s DOGE team had been disbanded and DOGE-affiliated employees no longer had the access the lawsuit sought to block.

The dispute dated back to the opening weeks of President Donald Trump’s current term. Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 establishing DOGE and directing federal agencies to create their own DOGE teams as part of an effort to identify waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal government. The order set July 4, 2026, as the termination date for the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization.

James subsequently led New York and 18 other states in a lawsuit after DOGE-linked personnel were granted access to systems operated by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The bureau functions as a central clearinghouse for federal payments, including funds sent to states, and maintains sensitive financial information.

The states argued that allowing DOGE personnel into those systems created risks to sensitive information and potentially threatened the processing of federal payments. They also contended that the administration had exceeded its legal authority in providing the access.

Vargas, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden, initially sided with the states on an interim basis. In February 2025, she issued a preliminary injunction restricting the Treasury DOGE team’s access to the covered systems. The order was subsequently modified to permit access by personnel who met specified requirements involving vetting, training, hiring, reporting and security measures.

But the circumstances underlying the lawsuit had changed significantly by the time Vargas issued her latest ruling. With the Treasury DOGE team disbanded and no DOGE-affiliated personnel remaining at Treasury, the judge concluded that there was no longer an ongoing access policy for the court to prohibit.

Vargas ruled that the “plaintiffs’ claims related to access by DOGE-affiliated employees to sensitive Treasury information are dismissed as moot.”

The states had also challenged an automated Treasury system that they said was capable of pausing federal payments. Vargas rejected that portion of the lawsuit as well, finding that the states had failed to identify a specific federal payment owed to them that had actually been frozen or canceled through the system.

In her 17-page ruling, Vargas dismissed the remaining claims under the federal rules governing failure to state a claim and directed that the case be closed.

“For the reasons stated herein, the Court dismisses the Access Claims as moot. The Court GRANTS the Government’s motion to dismiss the remaining claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” Vargas wrote.

The decision brings an end at the district-court level to one of the prominent legal battles that erupted during the early months of Trump’s second term over DOGE’s access to federal government systems.

James has repeatedly clashed with Trump in court over the years. In 2022, her office brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization and other defendants over the valuation of assets in financial statements. The case ultimately produced a judgment carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in financial penalties, although a New York appeals court later eliminated the monetary penalty while leaving the finding of liability in place.

The latest ruling, however, concerned a separate fight over the Trump administration’s DOGE initiative and Treasury Department systems. In that case, the administration ultimately prevailed in having the remaining lawsuit dismissed after arguing that the challenged DOGE access no longer existed and that the states had failed to establish viable remaining claims.

President Donald Trump should use his high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday to pressure Beijing to stop supporting Iran, a move that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast says could help stabilize the Strait of Hormuz and ultimately bring down gasoline prices for Americans. The meeting comes as the national average for regular gasoline has climbed to roughly $4.48 per gallon, according to AAA, which cited volatility in the Strait and elevated crude oil prices as major factors behind the increase.

Mast, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that China’s relationship with Tehran is contributing to instability in one of the world’s most important oil-shipping corridors. He said Trump has an opportunity during his talks with Xi to directly address Chinese support for Iran.

“If President Trump can secure that China will stop arming Iran, who is trying to destabilize this key oil route through the globe, then the president will have done something very important for affordability, especially in terms of global crude prices, which equal prices at the pump here in the United States of America,” Mast said.

The cost of living has become an increasingly prominent issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, with Republicans and Democrats battling over responsibility for higher household expenses. Gasoline has become a particularly visible part of that debate as the U.S.-Iran war and uncertainty surrounding shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have roiled global energy markets.

AAA reported Thursday that the nationwide average for regular gasoline stood at $4.4825 per gallon, compared with $4.0991 a month earlier and $3.1634 at the same point last year. AAA said the current price is the highest national average ever recorded for this time of year, with crude oil prices and continuing volatility around the Strait of Hormuz keeping pressure on motorists.

Mast said China “probably is the number one actor that is working to raise those prices,” pointing to Beijing’s relationships with both Iran and Russia.

China has maintained significant economic ties with Iran even as the Trump administration has sought to tighten Tehran’s financial isolation. The administration warned countries in August that continued business with Iran could expose them to secondary U.S. sanctions, although it initially stopped short of immediately imposing those penalties.

Mast argued that China’s role goes beyond economic support, accusing Beijing of providing assistance that enables Tehran to threaten vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

“China is arming Iran so that Iran can indiscriminately attack civilians moving through the strait. That is the fundamental difference about what China is doing … the United States, looking to protect all of those resources going through there, the civilians going on the ships through there and the civilians across all of the countries throughout the Gulf,” Mast said.

The congressman credited Trump with keeping commercial shipping and oil moving through the strategically vital waterway despite the ongoing hostilities.

Over the last two months, Mast said, Trump “moved over a billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“He’s moved over 2,000 ships through the Strait of Hormuz, civilian merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has moved nothing. But that doesn’t mean that the global oil markets don’t see instability,” Mast said.

The Strait of Hormuz remains a central point of contention in the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iranian officials said earlier this week that Tehran was prepared to reopen the strategic waterway within a week if Washington reduced military pressure and lifted its blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump’s Thursday talks with Xi come during the Chinese leader’s September 23-25 state visit to the United States. It is the third meeting between Trump and Xi during Trump’s current term and Xi’s first trip to the United States since Trump returned to the White House. China’s Foreign Ministry has said the leaders are expected to discuss U.S.-China relations as well as major international issues.

Iran is expected to be among the important geopolitical issues surrounding the summit. The conflict has complicated Washington’s relationship with Beijing, while Gulf countries have also looked to China to use its considerable economic influence over Tehran to help ease tensions and restore shipping through the Strait.

Asked what leverage Trump could employ to persuade Xi to reduce Chinese support for Tehran, Mast pointed to the recently enacted Russia-Iran sanctions legislation, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The measure gives the administration additional tools to target countries and businesses maintaining significant economic relationships with Moscow and Tehran.

“China is the number one target for that sanctions bill. It would affect, has the potential to affect, a great deal of trade if President Trump chooses not to waive some of his sanction authorities that he’s given in that bill,” Mast said.

Anthropic says its Claude artificial-intelligence system has made what the company describes as a genuine scientific discovery, identifying a previously unknown enzyme system hidden inside the genomes of bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — that could potentially open a new avenue of biological research and, eventually, gene-editing technology. For now, however, researchers emphasize that they do not yet know exactly what the newly discovered system does.

The discovery was announced Wednesday as Anthropic unveiled a new life-sciences research group and laboratory devoted to using Claude to conduct fundamental biological research. The project represents an effort to move AI beyond assisting scientists with writing, data analysis and literature reviews and toward having AI agents independently search enormous biological datasets, generate hypotheses and help direct experiments.

“Claude has discovered a previously unknown enzyme system hidden in the DNA of bacteriophages,” Anthropic said in announcing the finding.

“We don’t yet understand what this system does, but only a handful of known systems share its features, and all of them are able to cut, copy, and paste DNA. Historically, the discovery of such programmable systems has helped revolutionize medicine.”

The newly identified system has been dubbed ART, short for “array-associated reverse transcriptases.” Claude found it while analyzing large collections of bacteriophage genetic sequences, searching for unusual proteins and patterns that might point scientists toward biological mechanisms that had previously escaped attention.

According to Anthropic, Claude agents searched through more than 200,000 reverse transcriptase enzymes and narrowed them into groups worthy of further investigation. Reverse transcriptases are enzymes capable of producing DNA from an RNA template and play important roles in a range of biological processes.

One of the candidates caught Claude’s attention because the gene encoding the enzyme was located beside an unusually long array of repeating DNA sequences. The arrangement bore similarities to the repeating genetic structures associated with CRISPR, the natural bacterial defense system whose discovery ultimately led scientists to develop powerful tools capable of precisely editing DNA.

The comparison to CRISPR is particularly significant because CRISPR-based technology has transformed biological research and medicine. Scientists can use versions of the system to target specific portions of genetic material, enabling research into genetic diseases and the development of new therapies. Anthropic is not claiming that ART can presently perform the same functions, and its biological purpose remains unknown.

What makes the finding especially notable is the role played by the AI itself. Anthropic says its scientists provided Claude with broad research goals rather than directing it toward the specific enzyme system it ultimately identified. Claude examined the biological data, noticed unusual patterns, proposed candidates and helped formulate hypotheses that could then be tested experimentally.

At one stage, Claude reportedly noticed the repeated DNA sequences through direct examination of the genomic information surrounding one of the candidate enzymes. That observation helped lead researchers toward the previously uncharacterized system.

The discovery does not mean that an AI system independently operated a laboratory or conducted the entire scientific process without humans. Anthropic scientists remained involved, and physical laboratory experiments were performed by human researchers. The company’s approach is instead designed around AI agents carrying out substantial portions of the computational research and hypothesis-generation process while scientists supervise the work and perform experimental validation.

Researchers have already begun investigating whether ART actually performs the kinds of genetic manipulation suggested by its structure. Anthropic said the system contains characteristics resembling a small number of known biological mechanisms capable of manipulating genetic material, but further laboratory testing is required to establish its function.

That distinction is important. The finding remains an early-stage discovery rather than a new medical treatment or a proven replacement for CRISPR. The work has been released as a preprint and has not yet completed the traditional peer-review process, and scientists still need to determine what ART does inside bacteriophages and whether it can be harnessed or programmed for useful applications.

Still, the history of molecular biology gives researchers reason to investigate unusual systems found in bacteria and bacteriophages. CRISPR itself originated as a natural microbial defense mechanism before scientists learned how to adapt it into a programmable gene-editing technology. Other molecular tools used throughout biotechnology similarly originated in biological mechanisms that initially had no obvious medical application.

Anthropic says the experiment illustrates a larger goal: deploying increasingly capable AI agents as scientific collaborators that can search through quantities of biological information far beyond what individual researchers could reasonably examine manually.

The company’s new life-sciences laboratory is focused on precisely that approach — giving Claude access to biological datasets, allowing it to identify unexplored protein families and other potentially significant patterns, generating large numbers of hypotheses, and then testing the most promising ideas experimentally.

The implications could be substantial if systems such as ART eventually prove useful. Programmable molecular machinery can potentially become the foundation for new research tools, diagnostics, gene therapies and other medical technologies. But whether Anthropic’s newly discovered system will ultimately have any such application remains an unanswered question.

For now, the more immediate breakthrough may be the method by which it was found: an AI agent was given a broad scientific problem, searched an enormous body of genetic information and surfaced a biological system that researchers had not previously characterized — providing an early glimpse of how artificial intelligence could increasingly participate in the process of scientific discovery itself.

The U.S. military is using high-energy laser weapons in the Strait of Hormuz to destroy Iranian drones and other airborne threats, marking a significant battlefield deployment of technology that the Pentagon has spent decades trying to transform from experimental systems into practical weapons of war, according to a new report.

The laser systems are being used against Iranian military hardware, including attack drones, amid the continuing confrontation in and around the strategic waterway. Unlike the bright beams associated with science fiction, the military’s high-energy infrared lasers are invisible to the human eye. They work by concentrating energy on a precise point of a target until critical components are damaged or destroyed.

The technology offers the U.S. military a particularly important advantage against relatively inexpensive Iranian drones: cost. Traditional air-defense missiles can cost millions of dollars per interceptor, creating a major imbalance when they are fired at drones costing a small fraction of that amount. Laser systems, by contrast, rely primarily on electrical power and can engage targets at a dramatically lower cost per shot. The Defense Department says directed-energy systems can be used against drones and incoming cruise missiles “at a much lower cost than using more expensive kinetic weapons like missiles.”

“We can very specifically track and target drones and put the spot exactly where we want it, [in order] to disable its sensors or kill [i.e. explode] the drone itself,” Mark Neice, president of Directed Energy Consultants, which works with the military, told the New York Post.

Laser weapons generally draw electricity from generators, batteries or a platform’s power system and convert that energy into a highly concentrated beam. Unlike conventional guns or missile launchers, they do not depend on a limited supply of physical ammunition, although their effectiveness can be affected by available power, cooling requirements, atmospheric conditions and the ability to maintain a precise line of sight to a target.

The technology has advanced significantly in recent years. The Pentagon has moved beyond treating directed-energy weapons primarily as research projects and is now preparing to field them on a much larger scale. Earlier this month, the Army awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million contract for its Enduring-High Energy Laser program, the first U.S. Army production contract for a high-energy laser weapon system. The company is expected to supply dozens of LOCUST X3 systems over the coming years.

The LOCUST system has already emerged as one of the most operationally experienced lasers in the American arsenal. The technology has been deployed overseas since 2022 and has also been integrated onto Army vehicles.

One unusual feature of some of the military’s directed-energy systems is the way operators control them: modified video-game-style controllers are used to make the weapons relatively intuitive for troops.

“If you’ve shot a Spartan laser in ‘Halo’, you can probably fire [one of the cutting-edge weapons] in real life,” Jared Keller, a military technology journalist and author of the Laser Wars newsletter, told the New York Post.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth received a firsthand look at the technology during a June visit to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where the Pentagon demonstrated several high-energy laser and high-power microwave weapons. The demonstration included systems ranging from a 20-kilowatt LOCUST weapon to a 300-kilowatt Lockheed Martin system known as Valkyrie.

“Secretary Hegseth was able to take over a controller and shoot down a drone with, I think, a couple minutes of training,” Keller reportedly told the outlet.

Hegseth later said he watched “incoming drones and cruise missiles” get stopped “dead in their tracks.”

The Pentagon is now preparing for a major expansion of the technology. Hegseth told Congress earlier this year that the military intends to acquire “tens to hundreds” of directed-energy weapons, while the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal includes more than $2 billion for directed-energy research, development and testing.

The Navy, meanwhile, is pushing toward the eventual deployment of laser weapons across its fleet. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said this week that directed energy could allow American warships to reserve their limited and expensive missile inventories for more dangerous threats while using electrical power to defeat drones and other lower-cost weapons.

“I don’t view directed energy as a replacement for kinetic weapons. I view it as an essential part of a layered defense that can fundamentally change our magazine-depth problem,” Caudle said.

“That changes both the economics and endurance of naval combat and allows us to preserve our most capable kinetic weapons for the threats that demand them.”

The reported use of laser weapons in the Strait of Hormuz comes as the strategically critical shipping route remains at the center of the confrontation with Iran. Tehran has restricted passage through the strait, while U.S. forces have sought to keep oil tankers and other shipping moving through the waterway. Iran has also continued employing drones and other weapons against vessels and American forces operating in the region.

For the Pentagon, the fighting is providing a real-world test of a technology pursued by the U.S. military for roughly half a century. After decades in which laser weapons repeatedly appeared to be on the verge of battlefield deployment, military leaders now say the underlying science has largely been solved and that the primary challenge is producing reliable systems in large numbers and integrating them into ships, vehicles and existing air-defense networks.

It is the end of an era for a candy that became almost as familiar at American Jewish celebrations as the events themselves: Sunkist Fruit Gems have been discontinued.

The brightly colored, individually wrapped fruit candies — a fixture for decades at aufrufs, shalom zochors, candy tables, fundraisers and countless other Jewish celebrations — were discontinued by their manufacturer effective May 1, according to a Ferrara Candy Company customer service representative quoted by eJewishPhilanthropy. Remaining supplies are now dwindling, and one longtime candy wholesaler says the once-common confection is rapidly becoming a collectible.

For generations of Jewish families, Fruit Gems occupied an unusual place in the candy world. They were inexpensive, colorful, individually wrapped and kosher, making them particularly useful for celebrations at which candy is tossed, like auf rufs.

They were also a familiar sight in mishloach manos on Purim, at fundraisers and candy sales, and on tables at Jewish organizational dinners and events.

But after more than half a century, the familiar Sunkist-branded candy is disappearing.

“They’re an iconic American candy brand,” Jon Prince, owner of CandyFavorites.com and McKeesport Candy Co., told eJewishPhilanthropy.

Prince said his company still has a small remaining supply, but the situation has changed dramatically.

“We have a very limited amount left,” he said. “They’ve gone from being a classic candy to being a collectible.”

Fruit Gems trace their history to 1955, when they were introduced by the Los Angeles-based Ben Myerson Candy Company. In 1966, the company entered into a licensing agreement with Sunkist, giving the candies the name that would become familiar to generations of consumers.

The company remained family-owned for decades before being acquired by Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2006.

Another major change came in 2023, when Ferrara Candy Company acquired Jelly Belly. Ferrara officially completed that acquisition in November 2023, bringing Jelly Belly and its other confectionery products into a sprawling candy operation whose portfolio includes Nerds, SweeTarts, Laffy Taffy, Lemonhead and other major brands.

Ferrara has continued to expand aggressively. The company reported $2.2 billion in sales for fiscal 2025 and said the integration of Jelly Belly helped support its growth strategy.

Against that backdrop, Fruit Gems did not survive.

A Ferrara customer service representative identified as Fred told eJewishPhilanthropy that the decision came down to national sales.

“Believe it or not, it’s due to lack of consumer demands across the country,” he said. “If something doesn’t perform, [the company] move[s] onto something else.”

That explanation may come as a surprise to members of the Jewish community, where the candies seemed anything but unpopular.

Prince, whose family has operated McKeesport Candy Co. since 1927, said Sunkist Fruit Gems were among his company’s best-selling products. His business sold well over 1,000 pounds of them last year alone, including large quantities to shuls for Purim and Sukkos fundraisers.

Prince said he discovered the product had been discontinued only when he attempted to place another order in August and was informed that Ferrara would no longer supply it.

“My dad always joked [that] the day comes when this job will not be as fun when you have nothing to sell,” Prince said.

Prince believes the demise of Fruit Gems reflects a larger change taking place in the American candy business as longstanding brands are consolidated under increasingly large corporate owners.

For kosher consumers, the impact can extend beyond particular candies simply disappearing. Products that remain on store shelves can also lose their kosher certification as manufacturing arrangements and production facilities change.

“Kosher food is a niche,” Prince said. “It’s a niche for a specific audience, and to that audience it’s extremely important, but to a company that is interested in quantity versus quality, it’s not so important.”

Prince pointed to other longtime candies whose kosher status has changed over the years. He said wholesalers are not necessarily notified in advance when a product loses its hechsher, sometimes discovering the change only after receiving a shipment.

“Ordering kosher candy in today’s day and age is caveat emptor, buyer beware,” he said.

That has created additional work for wholesalers such as McKeesport Candy, which was an early supplier of the candy buffets that became popular at events in the 2000s. Employees now sometimes have to inspect individual products to make certain that the candy still bears an acceptable hechsher.

The Ferrara representative told eJewishPhilanthropy that kosher status can be affected when factories introduce non-kosher products onto production lines. He advised kosher consumers to inspect the actual packaging every time they purchase candy rather than relying on photographs displayed by online retailers, which may show older packaging and outdated kosher symbols.

The disappearance of Sunkist Fruit Gems has already created an opening for competitors.

Nassau Candy announced this week that it has introduced Clever Candy Fruit Jelly Jewels specifically as an alternative as Sunkist Fruit Gems disappear from the market. The individually wrapped candies have a jelly center and sugar coating and include orange, lemon, grapefruit and lime along with cherry and blueberry. Nassau says the replacement candies are kosher, gluten-free and peanut-free.

“Jelly fruit candies have been around for a long time, but they’re getting harder and harder to come by with Sunkist Fruit Gems sundowning production,” Nassau Candy marketing executive Dana Rodio said in announcing the new product.

Prince also pointed to Sunsations fruit jelly candies as another potential replacement.

Still, for consumers who grew up with the familiar Sunkist package and its brightly colored assortment, a substitute is a substitute.

“But the Sunkist Fruit Gems as you and I know it — gone,” Prince said.

Could enough consumer outrage bring them back?

Technically, perhaps.

The Ferrara customer service representative said discontinued products can sometimes return if there is overwhelming demand nationwide. But he did not sound optimistic about Fruit Gems.

“You never know,” Fred said, “but that’s not likely.”

{Matzav.com}