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The United States has formally designated three branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday, marking a major step under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in November 2025. The move targets the group’s chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.

“Today, as a first step in support of President Trump’s commitment to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters that pose a threat to the United States as described in Executive Order 14362, the United States is imposing terrorist designations against the Lebanese, Jordanian, and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Rubio said.

According to Rubio, the State Department is taking action against the Lebanese branch by formally classifying it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, while also applying the same designation to its leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh. At the same time, the Treasury Department is imposing SDGT designations on the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood chapters due to their alleged role in providing material support to Hamas.

“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs. The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism,” Rubio said in closing.

President Trump’s executive order issued in November launched the formal mechanism for identifying and designating specific Muslim Brotherhood branches as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Those designations carry significant consequences, including sanctions, asset freezes, and strict limits on funding, sharply constraining the groups’ ability to operate internationally.

{Matzav.com}

A moving gathering took place tonight at the Chabad House in Yerushalayim’s Nachlaot-Rechavia neighborhood, where Rabbi Goldberg and Rabbi Marzel led a special ceremony marking the printing of the Tanya. Among those present were Eitan Mor, who was previously held hostage in Gaza, and Itzik Gvili, the father of Ran Gvili, who was killed after being taken captive.

Mor, who had been living in Nachlaot when he was abducted, arrived together with Gvili to an emotional reception from neighborhood residents, who greeted them with calls of “Am Yisrael Chai.” During the evening, Mor spoke candidly about his experiences in captivity and reflected on how they intersected with the teachings of the Tanya’s author.

He shared that before his abduction, his mother had often reminded him of the idea that “The mind rules over the heart.” Mor explained that after he later described his ordeal in Gaza to her, she told him, “‘In retrospect, you used that principle exactly there,’” noting how it had guided him during moments of danger.

Mor went on to describe a harrowing incident that occurred on the 33rd day of the war, while he was being moved through Gaza City. At one point, he said, he was left alone in a classroom inside a school. A man suddenly entered, shouted at him in Arabic, and Mor felt a wave of fear overwhelm him.

“In that moment, I used the Tanya’s teaching,” he said. “I told myself: don’t listen to your heartbeat. Think. I decided to pretend I was crazy. I started stammering without words, and that’s what saved me. He simply told me to go back to sleep and left.”

Looking back, Mor said the experience made clear to him how deeply those ideas had shaped his response. “In retrospect, I acted exactly as the Tanya teaches,” he said. “And I realized that even people who don’t know the Tanya live by its principles without knowing it. It’s a great joy to return to Nachlaot. Thank you all-and may Ran return quickly, amen.”

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Holocaust Museum has accused Russia of Holocaust distortion over its decision to establish a new annual memorial day to commemorate the Nazi “Genocide of the Soviet People” while omitting any mention of their Jewish victims.

The new memorial day, which was signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, will go into effect this year.

“Yad Vashem condemns this latest attempt to manipulate the historical facts of Nazi persecution for current political purposes,” Israel’s Holocaust Museum said in a Thursday post on X. “This new Russian law effectively erases the distinct Jewish dimension of the Shoah, despite the fact that they were the primary target of Nazi genocide.”

The Jerusalem Holocaust museum noted that while millions of Russians were killed during World War II, many of them in targeted murders, “the Holocaust is defined by the comprehensive campaign aimed at the total eradication of Jewish existence and the murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children, and as such must be recognized and remembered.”

The statement also added that the designated memorial date—April 19—set by the new Russian law has “profound significance” in Holocaust remembrance, as it marks the start of the famous uprising of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.

Around 27 million Soviet citizens died in World War Two, including about 8.7 million military casualties, the highest death toll of any nation.

Israeli academics said on Monday that Yad Vashem was right to speak out.

“It is good that this statement came out, only too bad it did not come sooner because we are in the midst of a continued process of Putin’s manipulation of World War Two,” said Samuel Barnai of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Like every other narrative, the Jewish Holocaust has to be sacrificed for the narrative of Soviet victory. where the victims are the Soviet nation.”

“The Russian law on the so-called genocide of the Soviet people is an outright fiction as the term ‘genocide’ has a narrow legal definition,” Leonid Smilovitsky, Senior Research Associate at Tel Aviv University, told JNS. “It was adopted by the Putin regime 80 years after the end of World War II to serve as a tool of political rhetoric to justify Russia’s current actions related to Ukraine and the Holocaust.”

“It is a strategy of ‘victimhood nationalism’ undertaken by the Russian government to portray Russia as the primary victim of Nazism,” Konstantin Pakhaliuk, Associate Researcher at Ruppin Academic Center, said in an interview with JNS. “The idea first emerged last decade, and since the aggression against Ukraine, it is now used to say that throughout history, Russians were always the victims of the West.”

He added that the new memorial day enacted by Russia was not a straightforward denial of the Holocaust as a Jewish genocide but a distortion of history to downplay the Jewish tragedy and to highlight the Soviet one.

“Its primary purpose is entirely political,” he said. JNS

{Matzav.com}

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Mr. Eliezer (Louis) Glick z”l.

Mr. Glick is survived by his son, renowned machzik Torah and baal tzedakah Reb Shimon Glick, along with extended family and friends who remember him with affection and respect.

The levayah will take place today, at 3 p.m., at Riverside Chapel, located at 180 West 76th Street in Manhattan. The kevurah will take place in Eretz Yisroel.

Yehi zichro baruch.

{Matzav.com}

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid on Monday sharply responded to remarks made by United Torah Judaism chairman MK Moshe Gafni, declaring that a proposed military draft law will not pass and accusing Gafni of crossing red lines.

Lapid’s comments came during a speech in the Knesset plenum, hours after Gafni referred to him in an interview using harsh language. Addressing the interview directly, Lapid said, “A few hours ago, in an interview with Kikar HaShabbat, MK Gafni called me ‘zero.’ I want to remind MK Gafni of what I told him here already 13 years ago — we are done taking orders from you.”

Turning to the substance of the dispute, Lapid added, “MK Gafni must understand, the draft law will not pass. Because it is an un-Jewish act to evade your obligation to fight alongside your brothers who are battling to save this homeland.”

Gafni’s remarks that sparked the response were made in an interview with journalist Yishai Cohen, in which he launched a broad attack on Lapid. Gafni accused Lapid of losing control and acting irresponsibly, claiming that delays in salary transfers and budget approvals that Lapid criticized were practices that also took place during Lapid’s own tenure as finance minister.

In the interview, Gafni escalated his rhetoric, accusing Lapid of obsessively targeting the chareidi public and using inflammatory language whenever related issues arise. “Now this brazen man comes along,” Gafni said, arguing that Lapid selectively ignored similar budget items benefiting religious state schools. He claimed that the accountant general had already explained that the same procedures existed under Lapid’s watch, and accused him of seeking to destabilize the government at any cost. Gafni concluded his remarks with a personal insult, saying of Lapid, “Who is he anyway? Zero.”

{Matzav.com}

A special Yerushalayim-themed broadcast captivated listeners on Monday night as audiences were invited to vote for the greatest Yerushalayim song based on classical Jewish sources. As part of the festive programming titled “Yerushalayim – Oro Shel Olam,” aired during the popular radio show Ba B’Arba hosted by Kobi Brumer, the emotional contest drew hundreds of listener responses.

The broadcast focused on a particularly stirring category: Yerushalayim songs whose lyrics are drawn from seforim hakedoshim. Listeners at home were asked to choose which of the iconic classics deserved to advance to the grand finale later this week and earn a place in the program’s “hall of fame.”

The lineup pitted some of the giants of Jewish music against one another, featuring performances that have long become part of the Jewish musical canon. Competing for listeners’ votes were Avraham Fried with “Yerushalayim Oro Shel Olam,” Mordechai Ben David with the nostalgic favorite “Od Yeishvu,” “Shabchi Yerushalayim,” the moving ballad “Ivru BaShe’arim” by Naftali Kempeh, and “Im Eshkachech” performed by Yaakov Shwekey.

Im Eshkachech was composed by Yochanan Shapiro.

After tallying the many votes that poured in, the outcome was decisive. First place went to Shwekey’s “Im Eshkachech,” whose lyrics are drawn from Tehillim. Over the years, the song has become a staple at Jewish weddings, widely embraced as an emotional chuppah song.

Mordechai Ben David secured second place with “Od Yeishvu,” while Avraham Fried placed third with “Yerushalayim Oro Shel Olam.”

Listeners who took part in the live phone-in vote were also eligible for a prize. Among those who called in to rank their favorite songs, a high-quality karaoke microphone was raffled off toward the end of the program.

LISTEN:

{Matzav.com}

Dear Matzav Inbox,

In response to the recent post on Matzav from Rav Gershon Ribner, I feel compelled to share a painful observation that too many of us are noticing but few are willing to articulate.

There is a deeply troubling trend of girls marrying bnei Torah not out of shared values, yiras Shamayim, or a desire to build a true Torah home, but for cultural, social, or superficial reasons alone. The result is not harmony, but dissonance — marriages that look “frum” on paper yet are hollow at their core.

I recently overheard a so-called frum woman casually shmoozing with a neighbor, her language, attitude, and worldview indistinguishable from the surrounding culture. This is not an isolated incident. This is what happens when shidduchim are driven by money, status, and looks rather than middos and commitment to Torah.

And the image that has haunted me most: Standing in a grocery store, I saw a young man dressed like a slob, next to a woman whose appearance and demeanor could only be described as completely foreign to any notion of tznius or Torah values. The store manager — a man who certainly doesn’t keep 613 mitzvos — muttered under his breath, “Beauty and the beast.” When even the outside world sees the contradiction so clearly, something is terribly wrong.

Hashem yerachem.

This is not about clothing alone, nor about judging individuals. It is about the erosion of standards and the dangerous normalization of marriages built on everything except the foundations that are supposed to define a Torah home. If we continue pretending this isn’t happening, we will bear responsibility for the consequences — for our children, and for the future of our community.

Sincerely,
A. C.

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

DON’T MISS OUT! Join the Matzav Status by CLICKING HERE. Join the Matzav WhatsApp Groups by CLICKING HERE.

The opinions expressed in letters on Matzav.com do not necessarily reflect the stance of the Matzav Media Network.

{Matzav.com}

Rav Dov Landau delivered firm remarks regarding demonstrations against the military draft, warning yeshiva bochurim to stay far away from protests and reassuring them that gedolim are working tirelessly on the issue.

The comments were made ahead of the Fifth Annual Chinuch Conference of the Ha’azinu Center, scheduled for this coming Thursday. In response to questions posed by the organization about the current situation surrounding draft decrees, Rav Landau addressed the growing anxiety among bochurim amid intensified public discussion of enforcement actions by the authorities.

Asked how mashgichim and mechanchim should calm talmidim who feel confused and unsettled by talk of arrests and decrees, Rav Landau acknowledged the gravity of the situation. “The harsh decrees, the draft decree, are something very serious,” he said. “We are making every effort so that the situation should be good.”

When pressed on how an individual bochur can strengthen himself and avoid worry, Rav Landau emphasized caution and trust in the efforts of the gedolei hador. He stressed that talmidim must know that everything possible is being done on their behalf.

Rav Landau sharply criticized those promoting public demonstrations, describing them as deeply harmful. “There are those who go out against [the efforts], and they hold protests, and they are very damaging,” he said. “Do not participate in protests. You must give the bochurim a good feeling that people care deeply about them — that they are cared for very, very much.”

In further remarks, Rav Landau reiterated that the issue is occupying the foremost Torah leaders day and night. “It concerns the elders of the generation greatly,” he said. “They are making every effort. And there are also those who interfere, who hold protests and other foolishness. Do not participate in protests. Tell them that the elders of the generation care very much and are doing everything possible.”

He concluded with a call for vigilance and faith. “There are those who cause damage with protests and other actions. One must be careful and guarded, and we hope, with Hashem’s help, that the actions of the elders of the generation will succeed. Everything is in the hands of Heaven.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Iranian authorities say they intercepted a shipment of communications equipment that had been smuggled in from a neighboring country and was intended for distribution in several provinces affected by recent unrest.

President Trump issued a stark warning to Minnesota residents on Tuesday, telling them to “fear not” because a “day of reckoning and retribution is coming,” as his administration intensifies efforts aimed at illegal immigration enforcement and rooting out large-scale benefits fraud in the state.

Highlighting what he described as progress made through federal intervention elsewhere, Trump pointed to Chicago as an example, arguing that tougher enforcement leads to improved public safety. “Every place we go, crime comes down. In Chicago, despite a weak and incompetent Governor and Mayor fighting us all the way, a big improvement was made. Thousands of Criminals were removed!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Turning his criticism directly toward Minnesota’s leadership, the president accused Democratic officials of enabling unrest. “Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing,” the president continued.

He followed with a message directed at residents of the state, writing in all caps, “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

Trump’s comments come after earlier federal actions in other cities. He had previously sent National Guard troops into Chicago in an effort to curb violent crime, though he announced late last year that the deployment would end following adverse court rulings.

At the same time, Vice President JD Vance disclosed last week that the administration plans to appoint an assistant attorney general dedicated exclusively to combating fraud, with Minnesota set to be the first focus of that initiative.

Tensions in the Twin Cities have escalated in recent weeks following the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, an incident that sparked widespread protests.

The White House has defended the agent involved, maintaining that he acted in self-defense in response to what it described as an act of domestic terrorism.

Legal challenges have followed. On Monday, officials in Minnesota and Illinois filed lawsuits seeking to block the Trump administration’s plan to significantly increase the number of ICE agents operating in their states, arguing that the move violates the 10th Amendment, which reserves certain powers to the states.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that hundreds of additional federal officers would soon be deployed to Minnesota, on top of the roughly 2,000 ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents already stationed there.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back on that plan during a CNN appearance Monday night, saying, “Quite honestly, we need ICE to just do what ICE is supposed to do, which is immigration enforcement. They’re doing far more than that … by harassing people, by using excessive force on a routine basis.”

Trump, in another Truth Social post, framed the issue as a matter of public safety, asking, “Do the people of Minnesota really want to live in a community in which there are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”

He added that federal agents are motivated by a desire to protect communities, writing, “All the patriots of ICE want to do is remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came, most in foreign Countries.”

The president also suggested that demonstrations following Good’s death are being used to divert attention from what he described as massive financial wrongdoing, claiming that billions in taxpayer funds were “stolen by really bad and deranged people.”

While estimates of the total fraud losses differ, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said publicly last month that approximately $9 billion has been stolen since 2018. According to the Justice Department, nearly 100 individuals have been charged in connection with the scheme, with 64 convictions secured so far.

Amid the fallout from the welfare fraud scandal, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced on Jan. 5 that he would not seek a third term in office.

{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: The Trump administration has designated Muslim Brotherhood branches in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt as terrorist organizations. * The Lebanese branch was labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department. * The Jordanian and Egyptian branches were designated by the Treasury Department as global terrorists for supporting Hamas. * The move makes it a […]

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All are asked to daven for the recovery of Rav Yitzchok Hacker, rosh yeshiva of the Grodno Yeshiva and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah, who underwent an emergency catheterization procedure in his leg overnight at Sheba Medical Center.

It has emerged that Rav Hacker has been suffering from a serious infection in his leg. Just last week, he underwent two catheterization procedures in that leg. Doctors have now detected a more severe infection in his other leg, raising concern for a possible life-threatening condition.

Rav Hacker is a son-in-law of the Ponovezh rosh yeshiva, Rav Shmuel Rozovsky zt”l. He has served for four decades as rosh yeshiva of the Grodno Yeshiva, initially in Ashdod and today in Be’er Yaakov.

In the beis medrash of the Grodno Yeshiva in Be’er Yaakov, as well as in the beis medrash of Ponovezh Yeshiva, talmidim and mispallelim recited three chapters of Tehillim for his refuah.

All are asked to daven for the refuah sheleimah of Rav Yitzchok ben Nechamah.

{Matzav.com}

Days after the fatal anti-draft protest in Yerushalayim that tragically claimed the life of 14-year-old Yosef Eisenthal z”l, the boy’s father has drawn attention with blunt remarks reaffirming his opposition to military enlistment.

In an interview with Israel Army Radio on Monday, Rabbi Shmuel Eisenthal addressed the slogan often heard at such demonstrations — “We will die and not enlist” — and said it still reflects his position. “They asked me whether the phrase ‘we will die and not enlist’ still stands. Honestly, I would prefer that he die and not go to the army,” he said.

Yosef Eisenthal was killed after being struck by a bus during a chareidi protest against military conscription in Yerushalayim. The incident unfolded amid severe disorder, as demonstrators blocked major roads, set trash bins on fire, and attacked a bus that entered the area before the deadly collision occurred.

During the interview, Rabbi Eisenthal acknowledged the public reaction his comments would provoke. “I understand that this is difficult to digest, and I am saying this as a bereaved father,” he said. “If they were to ask me whether I had two options — that Yossi go to the army or that he die the way he died — my answer is that I would prefer that he die.”

He stressed that his opposition to the enlistment of yeshiva students has not changed, even after the loss of his son.

The remarks come nearly a week after the deadly demonstration, which has since drawn heavy scrutiny over police handling of the protest. Following the incident, it was revealed that the bus driver had contacted the police emergency center during the unrest and requested assistance, later saying that no officers arrived at the scene in real time.

Last week, N12 reported that, contrary to the police’s initial account, a prior directive had been issued instructing Yerushalayim District officers not to deploy patrol vehicles into the protest zone. The instruction, coordinated with protest organizers and documented in an internal police document, prohibited police vehicles from entering major thoroughfares in the Bar-Ilan area and surrounding streets. As a result, no patrol cars were present in the area even as disturbances intensified.

{Matzav.com}

Inflation likely remained elevated last month as the cost of electricity, groceries, and clothing may have jumped and continued to pressure consumers’ wallets. The Labor Department is expected to report that consumer prices rose 2.6% in December compared with a year earlier, according to economists’ estimates compiled by data provider FactSet. The yearly rate would […]

Pete Hegseth made a high-profile visit Monday to SpaceX headquarters alongside Elon Musk, flashing a Vulcan salute as the war secretary outlined a push to overhaul how the Pentagon develops and deploys new technology.

Welcoming Hegseth to Starbase, the South Texas community built around SpaceX’s launch and manufacturing complex, Musk framed the moment with a pop-culture nod. “We want to make Star Trek real,” Musk said as he greeted the Pentagon chief at the sprawling rocket facility.

Hegseth echoed the sentiment with a brief aside of his own, responding, “Star Trek real,” after Musk introduced him to the audience.

Speaking as part of his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, Hegseth laid out a sweeping vision for maintaining U.S. dominance in what he described as a global race for technological superiority. He stressed the urgency of outpacing rival nations in areas such as artificial intelligence, autonomous platforms, hypersonic weapons, space systems, directed-energy technology, biotechnology, and long-range drones.

He argued that prior to President Trump taking office, the Department of War’s system for bringing new capabilities into service had fallen badly behind modern realities.

“Worse than that, we’ve done nothing but add layer upon layer” of bureaucracy, Hegseth said, criticizing what he called “endless projects with no accountable owners” and a culture of “high churn with little progress and few outputs.”

Comparing the Pentagon’s approach unfavorably to SpaceX’s rapid-development model, Hegseth said, “That sounds about like the exact opposite of SpaceX,” warning that such stagnation is a “dangerous game with potentially fatal consequences.”

He promised a dramatic shift, saying the department would “supercharge” innovation and abandon what he characterized as a complacent mindset. According to Hegseth, the Pentagon is “done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.”

To make that change tangible, he pledged to “cut through overgrown bureaucratic underbrush and clear away the debris, Elon-style, preferably with a chainsaw,” to speed the rollout of new technologies.

As part of that effort, Hegseth revealed that the War Department will begin using X’s Grok artificial intelligence system later this month, alongside Google’s Gemini model. Both tools will be deployed across the department’s classified and unclassified networks, he said.

He also announced a key leadership appointment, naming Cameron Stanley, a former Amazon Web Services executive, as the Pentagon’s new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.

Emphasizing that artificial intelligence depends on the quality and breadth of its data, Hegseth said he has ordered “all appropriate data” to be shared across “every service and component” so it can be “fully leveraged for warfighting capability development and operational advantage.”

“We must ensure that America’s military AI dominates, so that no adversary can exploit that same technology to hold our national security interests or our citizens at risk,” the Pentagon chief said.

He concluded with a warning that the United States’ inherent strengths could be squandered if mismanaged. Hegseth said America’s rivals “do not have our entrepreneurs … our capital markets … our combat-proven operational data … our hard-won classified technologies,” nor the ability to operate in places like “downtown Tehran or downtown Caracas without being seen in the process.” Still, he cautioned, those advantages will count for nothing “if we suffocate those advantages under a stifling bureaucracy.”

{Matzav.com}

The Department of Homeland Security has significantly expanded its public-facing database of criminal illegal aliens, adding roughly 5,000 new entries that allow Americans to review records of what officials describe as the most dangerous offenders living unlawfully in the country, Breitbart News reported exclusively.

Federal officials confirmed Monday that thousands of additional names have been uploaded to wow.dhs.gov, a searchable site that catalogues illegal alien convicts who have been arrested — and in many cases removed — by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Since its launch, the Worst of the Worst website has given Americans greater transparency into who the wicked and dangerous criminal illegal aliens DHS law enforcement has removed from their communities,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

She directed particularly sharp criticism at immigration activists, asking, “To the open-borders and anti-ICE activists, would you like to have these murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists living next door?” McLaughlin added, “This update is just a fraction of who we have arrested — and who we will continue to lock up — under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem.”

The newly added entries include Abdirashid Ibrahim and Zakariya Abdi, both Somali nationals convicted of homicide. Ibrahim also has convictions for domestic violence, weapons possession, and burglary stemming from crimes committed in Nashville, Tennessee. Abdi was additionally convicted of larceny in Bayport, Minnesota.

Also listed are violent gang affiliates, including MS-13 member Ever Rodriguez-Mendoza of El Salvador, who has prior convictions for assault, aggravated assault on a police officer, and robbery in Malvern, Arkansas. He appears alongside Tren de Aragua gang member Yohenry Josue Betancourt Brito of Venezuela, previously convicted of assault and larceny in New York City.

DHS officials also added Inland Empire 13 gang member Carlos Merlos Ortiz of El Salvador, as well as Nelson Ricardo Suarez of Cuba and Ghinh Nguyen of Vietnam. Merlos Ortiz has prior convictions for rape, impersonation, and illegal re-entry in Richland, Washington.

Suarez was previously convicted of crimes involving a child, along with assault, battery, and forced entry in Miramar, Florida. Nguyen’s criminal record includes convictions for rape with a weapon, assault, aggravated assault, kidnapping, discharging a firearm, intimidation, and weapons possession in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Additional names placed in the database include Juan Perez-Barahona of Honduras, who was previously convicted of child molestation, assault, and child neglect in Brooklyn, Connecticut, and Julio Lara-Avila of Mexico, who has prior convictions for assault, battery, terroristic state offenses, cruelty toward a child, and false imprisonment in Pollock, Louisiana.

{Matzav.com}

Thousands of New York City nurses were set to return to the picket lines Tuesday as their strike targeting some of the city’s leading hospital systems entered its second day. The walkout, which comes during a severe flu season, involved roughly 15,000 nurses spread out across multiple private hospitals, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center and […]

As Canadian leader Mark Carney arrives in China on Wednesday, his hosts see an opportunity to peel the longtime U.S. ally away from their rival, at least a bit. China’s state media is calling on the Canadian government to set a foreign policy path independent of the United States — what it calls “strategic autonomy.” Canada has […]

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams revealed Monday that he is launching a new cryptocurrency, known as the $NYC Token, announcing the initiative at a press conference held in Times Square.

Earlier in the day, Adams discussed the project during an appearance on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business Network program, where he said the digital coin is intended to help counter antisemitism and what he described as a growing trend of anti-American sentiment across the country.

“There’s a wave of anti-Americanism that’s sweeping not only our Ivy League college campuses, but in our inner cities,” Adams said. He added that proceeds tied to the token would also support education in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as well as provide scholarship opportunities for New York City students.

“The money that’s raised is going to go to those nonprofits like Combat Antisemitism, going into the college funds, such as the historical HBCUs, so this is money that, without raising taxes, you can use to fight the issues, social issues in our city,” the former mayor added.

The $NYC Token’s official website describes the coin as a symbol of New York City’s spirit, stating that it “represents the unstoppable energy of the Big Apple.”

“Built for dreamers, innovators and believers who understand that in New York, anything is possible,” the website continues. “This is more than a token—it’s a movement.”

“There’s a wave of anti-Americanism that’s sweeping not only our Ivy League college campuses, but in our inner cities.” – Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams

Adams has publicly embraced cryptocurrency for several years and has frequently promoted digital assets during and after his time in office.

As one example, he converted his first mayoral paycheck into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Because of U.S. Department of Labor rules, however, the funds had to be exchanged through Coinbase, since New York City is not permitted to directly pay employees in digital currency, according to a press release issued at the time by the mayor’s office.

In October 2025, Adams signed an executive order establishing the city’s Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology. The office was created to “promote the responsible use of digital assets and blockchain technologies, grow economic opportunities for New Yorkers, attract world-class talent and reinforce the city’s standing as the world’s hub for financial and technological innovation,” according to a press release.

In December, one of Adams’ final actions as mayor was the release of a 61-page blockchain strategy document. The plan was designed to guide city agencies in how to “investigate potential opportunities and risks, build public literacy on emerging technologies and establish mechanisms to track progress and coordinate citywide efforts,” according to a letter accompanying the report that was signed by New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser.

{Matzav.com}