It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of the Kossoner Rebbe of Boro Park, who was niftar on Friday and buried later that day at the Har Shalom cemetery in Monsey.
Rav Rothenberg led his kehillah from his beis medrash on Ninth Avenue in Boro Park, where he guided his chassidim in the path of his forebears with devotion and humility.
The Rebbe was born an only son to his father, Rav Asher Yeshaya Rothenberg of Kosson, who lived on Rechov Chofetz Chaim in Bnei Brak and was niftar approximately fifteen years ago. His father was the son of Rav Moshe Shmuel of Kosson, grandson of the Shmuah Tovah of Kosson and great-grandson of Rav Yosef of Kosson, the author of Bnei Shloshim.
He was a descendant of a distinguished lineage of tzaddikim from the Ziditchov, Komarna, and Tosh dynasties. Through marriage, he was a son-in-law of Rav Menachem Mendel Rubin, the Admor of Kerestir, and a grandson of Rav Yeshayale of Kerestir.
Known for his rare humility, warmth, and refinement, the Rebbe served the Ribono Shel Olam with deep sincerity and toiled in Torah day and night. He taught Torah to many talmidim and for years served as a melamed at the Belzer Talmud Torah in Boro Park. With a warm smile and genuine affection, he uplifted his talmidim and instilled within them a sense of kedushah.
He was deeply connected with the Satmar Rebbe, the Vayoel Moshe, and remained closely attached to his derech throughout his life.
At the corner of 50th Street and Ninth Avenue in Boro Park, Rav Rothenberg led his beis medrash, becoming known in particular for his avodah of tefillah, which left a lasting impression on his chassidim and admirers.
In recent years, the Rebbe endured significant yissurim. On Erev Shabbos, he was niftar.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}
California Gov. Gavin Newsom today blamed President Trump for the deadly shooting of an armed anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis, accusing the president of deliberately creating conditions to justify invoking the Insurrection Act.
Newsom asserted that Trump was seeking to manufacture chaos as a pretext for deploying extraordinary federal powers.
“Yesterday, hundreds of thousands filled the streets of Minnesota – marching in subzero temperatures in a PEACEFUL protest. Not the excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act the President wanted,” he wrote on X on today.
“So today, Trump made a shooting happen,” Newsom wrote.
“The President must end his violent occupation of Minnesota. NOW.”
The shooting occurred during what federal officials described as a “targeted operation” shortly after 9 a.m. local time, as Customs and Border Patrol agents attempted to arrest an accused criminal migrant. Authorities said Alex Jeffrey Pretti approached the agents while armed and attempted to interfere with the arrest.
Pretti, 37, who local officials said was a lawful gun owner, was shot following a physical confrontation with the agents and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident marked the second fatal shooting of a protester in Minnesota this month tied to encounters with immigration authorities, following the Jan. 7 death of Renee Nichole Good.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also condemned federal authorities after the shooting and urged lawmakers to cut off funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We have a responsibility to protect Americans from tyranny,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.
“DHS just shot a man in broad daylight two weeks after they shot a mother in the face without consequence.”
“They need our votes to continue. We cannot give it to them. Every Senator should vote NO,” AOC blasted.
{Matzav.com}
President Trump accused Minnesota’s top political leaders of fueling unrest after a 37-year-old man was shot and killed today when he allegedly brandished a firearm near federal agents attempting to arrest a migrant.
In a Truth Social post, the president shared an image of the weapon authorities said belonged to the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about?” Trump wrote.
“Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
Trump directed sharp criticism at Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both of whom have publicly opposed the presence of federal immigration agents in the city.
“The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric!” the president wrote.
“Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America. LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB!”
The president argued that conditions would be significantly worse if Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not carried out extensive enforcement actions.
“12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!” he wrote.
Trump said the federal presence in Minnesota is tied to an ongoing welfare fraud investigation in the state.
“Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account?” he wrote, referring to the Minnesota congresswoman.
“And where are the Tens of Billions of Dollars that have been stolen from the once Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy.”
“We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW,” Trump continued. “Those Fraudsters who stole the money are going to jail, where they belong! This is no different than a really big Bank Robbery. Much of what you’re witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud.”
In the aftermath of the shooting, Walz authorized the deployment of the Minnesota National Guard following the death of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who authorities said was killed after attempting to interfere with the arrest of a criminal migrant.
{Matzav.com}
Several major international airlines abruptly suspended weekend flights to Israel and other Middle Eastern destinations, citing rising regional tensions, according to reports Friday night.
Channel 12 News reported that Dutch carrier KLM and Air France halted flights to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, with both airlines attributing the move to escalating instability in the region.
Additional carriers soon followed. i24NEWS reported that Lufthansa and Swiss canceled their Saturday flights to the Middle East, while United Airways and Air Canada also scrapped scheduled flights to Israel.
The sudden wave of cancellations comes amid growing speculation that President Trump may authorize military action against Iran following a deadly crackdown by the regime on anti-government protesters.
KLM had only resumed service to Israel at the end of September, part of a broader return by foreign airlines after earlier hostilities between Iran and Israel subsided.
On Thursday, Trump delivered another forceful message to Tehran while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One during his return flight from Davos to Washington, pointing to a major U.S. military buildup in the region.
“We have a lot of ships going in that direction, just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”
Trump also reiterated his claim that he intervened last week to stop mass executions planned by Iranian authorities.
“I stopped 837 hangings [last] Thursday. They would have been dead. Every one of them would have been hung. This is like from a thousand years ago,” he said.
“I said ‘if you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit. It’ll make what we did to your Iran nuclear look like peanuts.’ And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it. And they actually said they canceled it. They didn’t postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign.”
Despite pointing to that outcome, Trump stressed that the United States continues to prepare militarily.
“But we have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”
Speaking earlier this week in an interview with CNBC, Trump addressed the deteriorating situation in Iran and said Washington remains on alert.
“We hope there’s not going to be further action. They were shooting people indiscriminately on the streets and they were going to hang 837, mostly young people,” he said, referring to his warning that the U.S. would respond forcefully if protesters were harmed.
{Matzav.com}
President Trump told The NY Post that a classified weapon he dubbed “The Discombobulator” played a decisive role in the U.S. operation that led to the arrest of Venezuela’s drug-linked leader Nicolás Maduro.
According to Trump, the previously undisclosed technology was used during a daring Jan. 3 raid in Caracas, when U.S. helicopters moved in to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on federal narcotics and weapons charges — an operation he said was carried out without a single American casualty.
“The Discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said during an exclusive interview conducted in the Oval Office.
“I would love to,” the president added, before acknowledging that the weapon was deployed during the covert mission.
“They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off. We came in, they pressed buttons and nothing worked. They were all set for us.”
Trump addressed the secret weapon after being asked about recent reports claiming the Biden administration had acquired a pulsed-energy device believed by some to be connected to “Havana Syndrome.”
Details about the technology remain scarce, but those reports followed firsthand accounts from Venezuela describing how Maduro’s armed guards were incapacitated, with some allegedly collapsing while “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood.
One former member of Maduro’s security detail later said that “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation.”
“The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react,” he said, adding that helicopters soon followed — “barely eight” — delivering roughly 20 U.S. troops into the area.
According to the account, “The Discombobulator” was then directed at forces protecting Maduro.
“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,” the witness said.
“We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”
Maduro, 63, is currently being held in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn as he awaits trial on narcoterrorism charges. His former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has assumed the role of interim president.
“We have a great relationship with the new president,” Trump said. “She’s been terrific.”
{Matzav.com}Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly gone into hiding, retreating to an underground bunker amid fears he could be targeted by U.S. airstrikes as the USS Abraham Lincoln heads toward the Persian Gulf.
According to a report by Iran International cited by the Jerusalem Post, the 86-year-old leader relocated to a heavily fortified shelter in Tehran linked to an extensive network of underground tunnels after senior military commanders warned that the chances of an imminent U.S. attack were rising.
The report said Khamenei has delegated responsibility for the Islamic Republic’s daily operations to his youngest son, Masoud Khamenei, 53.
Masoud Khamenei is now tasked with emergency oversight duties, including serving as the main conduit between the supreme leader and Iran’s executive leadership, according to the same account.
Iranian officials reportedly assessed the risk of U.S. strikes as especially high after President Trump announced that American naval forces were moving toward the Middle East, issuing a warning to the ayatollah amid escalating rhetoric between Washington and Tehran.
Trump said Friday that the U.S. Navy was dispatching a large “armada.”
Stars and Stripes reported that the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group — accompanied by three destroyers — is traveling from the Indian Ocean toward the Persian Gulf near Iran.
Despite the heightened military posture, Iranian leaders have publicly refused to de-escalate. President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that any strike by the U.S. or Israel targeting the supreme leader would be treated as “an all-out war against us.”
Iran’s parliamentary commission on national security echoed that stance this week, declaring that an attack on Khamenei would amount to grounds for a jihad, according to the Iranian Students News Agency as cited by the Jerusalem Post.
Khamenei, who is usually active online, has not posted on X since Jan. 17. It remains unclear exactly when he entered the bunker.
This is not the first time the supreme leader has withdrawn underground during a crisis. Khamenei also disappeared from public view last June when he reportedly sheltered in a bunker during the 12-Day War with Israel. At that time, he was said to have prepared a list of possible successors in case he was killed.
In his most recent post this year, Khamenei vowed to pursue both domestic and foreign “criminals” he blamed for the nationwide protests that erupted on Dec. 28.
Those demonstrations — fueled by economic collapse following the worst drought in decades — have been met with lethal force, with regime security units reportedly killing at least 3,000 civilians. Some groups have claimed the death toll could be as high as 20,000.
{Matzav.com}President Trump warned on Friday that the United States could impose a sweeping 100% tariff on Canadian goods, sharply criticizing Prime Minister Mark Carney for pursuing closer trade ties with China.
In a series of statements, Trump derided Carney — whom he repeatedly referred to as “governor” — and said the Canadian leader was dangerously misguided in believing he could gain leverage over Beijing.
“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
Trump went on to caution that Canada would not be allowed to serve as a conduit for Chinese exports into the United States.
“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” he said.
The president warned that any agreement between Ottawa and Beijing would trigger severe economic consequences, recalling that he imposed a 35% tariff on Canada in August.
“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote.
Carney earlier pushed back against Trump’s geopolitical ambitions, including efforts related to Greenland, while speaking Tuesday before a gathering of world leaders and global elites.
“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it,” Carney said. “Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
The Canadian prime minister traveled to China from Jan. 14 to Jan. 17, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and announced agreements aimed at increasing the flow of Chinese electric vehicles into Canada at reduced tariffs.
Just a week earlier, Trump had taken a more relaxed tone about Canada’s outreach to Beijing.
“That’s what he should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump said at the time.
The shift in rhetoric suggests growing concern within the administration that China could use Canada as a backdoor to expand its access to U.S. markets, even as Trump continues to threaten new tariffs against Beijing over trade practices and policy disputes.
On Jan. 12, Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on any country that does business with Iran, a move that raised the prospect of renewed trade tensions with China, whose global trade surplus reached a record $1.2 trillion last year.
The latest exchange marks another chapter in the increasingly bitter relationship between Trump and Carney, the former head of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada. Last week, Trump removed Canada from his newly created “Board of Peace” after Carney criticized his foreign policy stance.
“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said at Davos. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney fired back on Thursday.
“Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian,” he said.
Trump initially began his term floating the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, but the rhetoric faded after Carney’s election as prime minister in April. Trump had previously sparred with Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, whom he also occasionally referred to as “governor.”
{Matzav.com}
