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Under the headline “Israel Nearing Elections,” the main article on the front page of the Yated Ne’eman newspaper in Israel on Thursday morning detailed the instructions of HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau and HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch to act to dissolve the Knesset due to “the attempt to turn lomdei Torah into criminals.” The article states: “The representatives of Maranan and Rabbanan were surprised to discover the list of sanctions that Yuli Edelstein sought to introduce in the conscription law, which could harm many households of lomdei Torah by thousands of shekels per month and, at times, tens of thousands of shekels per year!” “HaRav Landau and HaRav Hirsch instructed the Knesset members: ‘A government that intends to treat the Torah and those who learn it in such a humiliating manner is a bizayon to the Torah and has no right to exist. It it is forbidden to be partners in it. It must be overthrown, and we must go to elections.'” A special editorial, which appears under the main headline, states, “The draconian sanctions of the ‘portiz,’ which are intended not only to bring about the conscription of lomdei Torah but also intended to humiliate, are not only ‘ineffective politics’ that will not achieve their goal— the conscription of lomdei Torah—but are the essence of evil and malice.” “If the law that the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is plotting passes, chalilah, and the list of sanctions that have been exposed is part of the legislation, it will be an outrageous absurdity: an [Israeli] Arab who raises his son for terror and violence will be entitled to receive all these benefits from the State of Israel. A prisoner who is in jail for a serious crime will also not be harmed. But a ben yeshivah whose only sin is his desire to continue studying Torah will pay the full price and the draconian sanctions will severely harm him and his family, even if and when they supposedly meet the target goals.” “And what next? According to Edelstein, after the severe and malicious violation of basic civil rights that are granted even to foreign workers, they will continue to remove garbage from the residential neighborhoods of lomdei Torah. At least for the time being!” “A country whose laws so severely harm lomdei Torah for their learning and does not recognize the value of limud Torah, this is ‘אם בחוקותי תמאסו ואת משפטי תגאל נפשכם. This is a country that has raised a flag of public Chillul Hashem in the eyes of the entire world.” It was also reported on Sunday that HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, one of the heads of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas, instructed the chairman of the party’s negotiating team, former minister Ariel Attias, to inform Prime Minister Netanyahu that the conditions set by Edelstein for advancing the draft law mean “the end of the government’s term.” In addition, HaRav Yosef instructed Attias to maintain an open channel with all parties in the Knesset for possible cooperation after the elections. “The main mission in the Knesset is to strengthen and maintain lomdei Torah, without whom we have no right to exist; therefore, we must act in every way with anyone who is willing to assist in the matter, and there is no connection […]

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The bodies of two hostages were recovered in a daring military operation in the Khan Younis area of Gaza overnight Wednesday and returned to Israel. During the October 7 massacre, Gadi Haggai, H’yd, 72, and his wife, Judith Weinstein Haggai, H’yd, 70, were brutally murdered while on their morning walk on the kibbutz and their bodies were abducted by terrorists from the Mujahideen Brigade, the terror group that abducted and murdered the Bibas family, H’yd. Their deaths were confirmed in December 2023. The location of their bodies was discovered during a Shin Bet interrogation of a captured terrorist. The rescue operation was carried out by IDF forces under the Southern Command with the aid of the Shin Bet, special forces, and Military Intelligence. Gadi and Judith were both US citizens, and Judith also held Canadian citizenship. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)  

I recently came across the advertisement in a very well-known weekend magazine promoting an upcoming charity baseball game, aimed at “raising awareness” and funds for an institution that provides financial literacy and coaching. On the surface, this seems like a noble cause. But dig even slightly below that surface, and the entire premise starts to reek of hypocrisy—and frankly, insult. Among the event’s proud sponsors are several corporations whose executives are making tens of millions of dollars annually, while the workers they employ, many of whom are the very “target demographic” for this charity—are barely scraping by. These same employees are expected to smile while their employers publicly pat themselves on the back for “helping” people better understand budgeting, when the brutal truth is this: no amount of budgeting advice can make up for wages that have stagnated while the cost of living has soared. You want to teach people how to manage their finances? Start by acknowledging the core issue: they are not being paid enough. It’s absurd—offensive, even—to suggest that the working class needs a lesson in frugality, while the corporate elite sponsoring this event continue to rake in record profits. Walk into any of these companies’ offices—especially some of the very ones listed as event sponsors—and you’ll see the glaring inequity. Senior staff and executives are compensated handsomely, living in a completely different financial universe, while the rest are stretched so thin they’re practically transparent. And now we’re pretending this same system can be solved with financial “education”? This isn’t philanthropy. It’s PR. A marketing ploy designed to distract from the reality that many of these business leaders could make a direct, meaningful difference in their employees’ lives by doing something revolutionary—paying them fairly. No one is asking these owners to forfeit their wealth. But maybe—just maybe—instead of sponsoring a game that feels more like a slap in the face than a helping hand, they could take real action. Not symbolic. Not performative. Real. Until then, the rest of us are left to watch this tone-deaf charade unfold, wondering how long we’ll be told that budgeting is the problem, instead of the system that keeps people underpaid in the first place. We all agree that these owners are entitled to whatever they want; they own these companies and can call the shots. But let’s not pretend that the answer to a father of five making $85,000 annually is better budgeting. Sincerely, A hardworking individual, who is paid a salary you’d think is enough, but it just isn’t The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review. 

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. U.S. immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday. “The court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents,” Gallagher wrote. Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in the attack in downtown Boulder on Sunday. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and he confessed to the attack in custody. His family members have not been charged. Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the U.S. illegally, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It’s rare that a criminal suspect’s family members are detained and threatened with deportation. “It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit. Eric Lee, one of the attorney’s representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy. “The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he said. Emails, a text and a telephone call seeking comment from spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington and Colorado have not been returned. Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. They were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, Lee said. “We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement. Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, following the Boulder attack. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. Soliman’s wife said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to the lawsuit. Victims increase to 15 people and a dog Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog. Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press on Wednesday sent an email to prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims. Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” […]

Federal authorities arrested a man they say collaborated with the bomber of a fertility clinic in May, alleging he supplied chemicals used to make explosives and traveled to California to experiment with them in the bomber’s garage months before the attack. The two men had connected in fringe online forums over their shared beliefs against human procreation, authorities told reporters Wednesday. The blast gutted the fertility clinic in Palm Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, with officials calling the attack terrorism. Guy Edward Bartkus, the bomber from California, died in the May 17 explosion. Authorities arrested his alleged collaborator, Daniel Park of Washington, on Tuesday after he was extradited from Poland, where he’d fled four days after the attack. Park spent years stocking up on ammonium nitrate, a chemical that can be used to make explosives, before shipping it to Bartkus and later visiting him in Twentynine Palms, California. He stayed for about two weeks and the two conducted bomb-making experiments in Bartkus’ room and a detached garage, said Akil Davis, the FBI’s assistant director in charge. Park, 32, was taken into custody on Tuesday night at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told reporters. Park is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday in Brooklyn. Authorities searched Park’s home in Kent, a suburb of Seattle, and found “an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing,” Davis said. Park shipped 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate in January to Bartkus and bought another 90 pounds of the chemical and had it shipped to Bartkus days before the March 17 explosion, authorities said. Park purchased ammonium nitrate online in several purchases between October 2022 and May 2025, according to the complaint. Park and Bartkus, age 25, had met in online forums dedicated to the anti-natalist movement, bonding over a “shared belief that people shouldn’t exist,” Davis said. Anti-natalism is a fringe theory that opposes childbirth and population growth and believes people should not continue to procreate. Officials said Bartkus intentionally targeted the American Reproductive Centers, a clinic that provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations. However, investigators haven’t said if Bartkus intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility. He tried to livestream the explosion but failed, the FBI says. Park appeared to be a frequent poster in an anti-natalist Reddit forum going back nearly a decade, according to court papers. In 2016, he spoke of recruiting others to the movement, which he described as hopeful. “When people are lost and distraught, death is always an option,” he allegedly wrote. More recently, this past March, Park posted in the group that he was seeking to find fellow anti-natalists in and around Washington to “start some protests or just any in-person events,” according to court papers. The post did not receive any public comments. Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF explosives expert, had previously said the amount of damage caused indicated that the suspect used a “high explosive” similar to dynamite and TNT rather than a “low explosive” like gun powder. Those types of explosives are normally difficult for civilians to access, but increasingly people are finding ways to concoct explosives at home, he said. “Once you know the chemistry involved, […]

In a candid interview with Arutz Sheva in Hebrew, veteran chareidi political analyst Yisroel Cohen unpacked the growing tensions between the chareidi parties and the Netanyahu-led government, explaining why, despite knowing they have little to gain from the opposition, chareidi MKs may still choose to walk out.

“There’s nothing for them outside,” Cohen stated unequivocally. “In realpolitik terms, the chareidim have nothing to look forward to on the other side. The days when Gantz said, ‘Bring me a blank paper and write whatever you want and I’ll sign it,’ are over — and that’s because of October 7 and the close alignment between the chareidi parties and the right-wing bloc. The messaging coming from Gantz, Lapid, and Yair Golan makes it clear: there’s nothing waiting for the chareidim in a different coalition.”

Still, Cohen acknowledges that the threat of leaving the coalition is not empty rhetoric. “There’s a deeply held chareidi belief that they cannot be part of a government that brands lomdei Torah as criminals or draft dodgers,” he said. While expressing his own sorrow over the widening cracks within the religious bloc — a bloc he says still agrees on 80 percent of the issues and shares the same beliefs — Cohen lamented that, since the horrors of October 7, the relationship between the chareidim and the religious Zionist camp has become increasingly strained, especially around the issue of the draft.

He recalled how, in past decades, the political left would talk about donning a shtreimel if it meant achieving peace. Today, however, Cohen observed, the left has shifted sharply in a progressive and anti-religious direction. Against that backdrop, he invoked the words of Maran Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, who spoke of the enduring alliance between the chareidi world and the traditional and peripheral communities of Israel.

Yet even as the chareidim feel they have remained loyal to Netanyahu through repeated elections, they now question whether that loyalty was a mistake. “The Likud, Religious Zionism, and Ben Gvir’s party all got what they wanted. The chareidim? They were pushed aside by Netanyahu — again and again.”

Pressed on whether going to the opposition wouldn’t itself harm Torah study — given that Gantz, Lapid, Golan, and Liberman are unlikely to be better partners for chareidi interests — Cohen responded by quoting the Gerrer Rebbe, who said, “We’re not in charge of Heaven’s calculations. Hashem has His own ways to protect the chareidi public, even if it’s in the opposition.” Beyond that, Cohen added, there’s a fundamental red line: “We cannot accept being part of a government that defines Torah learners as criminals.”

Looking ahead, Cohen said there’s also a strategic recalibration taking place. “Some in the chareidi leadership believe that their alliance with the political right has eroded their deterrent power. Maybe, by stepping out — if not now, then in the long term — they can reestablish themselves as a decisive swing vote.”

Asked whether chareidi leaders are concerned about how they’ll be perceived by the broader Israeli public if they bring down a government during wartime, Cohen acknowledged that some rabbanim do worry about that perception and would prefer to avoid such a move — especially during a war. “But,” he added, “they see limud haTorah as non-negotiable. It’s their core demand. And they didn’t get it, even after handing Netanyahu the 61 seats he needed to form a government.”

As for the financial and political achievements the chareidi parties have secured until now, Cohen admitted there were many. “But the sanctions imposed in the draft issue scared them — deeply. If Yuli Edelstein had been more flexible, there might have been room for a different kind of conversation, built on shared values.”

“We’re now closer than ever to the collapse of the government,” Cohen warned, “but there’s still a week. If Netanyahu rolls up his sleeves and dives headfirst into the issue, a resolution is possible. Most of the chareidi leadership isn’t looking to dismantle the coalition just for the sake of it. They just want a law that they can live with. They know the ‘dream bill’ from two years ago is no longer realistic — they understand that October 7 changed the landscape. But they’re still waiting for something.”

And what of the rumors that United Torah Judaism leader Moshe Gafni might be quietly negotiating with Gantz or Lapid? Cohen doubts it. “Given how committed the opposition leaders are to the draft issue, it’s hard to believe. Still,” he allowed, “some may feel that it can’t get worse than this — and perhaps, under a different government, the attorney general and the Supreme Court would provide more room to maneuver.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

Two men arrested in Washington state with an arsenal that included dozens of guns, explosives and body armor, along with Nazi paraphernalia, were former military members who attacked a soldier with a hammer while stealing gear from Joint Base Lewis-McChord last weekend, investigators say. Levi Austin Frakes and Charles Ethan Fields were arrested Monday night at their home in Lacey, near Olympia, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Federal court records did not list an attorney for either man. One of the defendants told investigators the pair had been stealing equipment from the base for the past two years to sell or trade, and agents found about $24,000 in cash at the home, wrote Special Agent Christopher J. Raguse of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The federal complaint charges them with robbery, assault and theft of government property. They also face investigation on state charges of unlawful possession of incendiary devices, short-barreled rifles and a machine gun. Each was being held at the Thurston County Jail on $500,000 bail. Agents found rifles staged at the upstairs windows, a probable cause affidavit filed in Thurston County Superior Court said. The federal complaint said agents “observed numerous Nazi/white supremacy memorabilia, murals, and literature in every bedroom and near several stockpiles of weapons and military equipment.” Photos from inside the home included in court documents showed a wall decorated with a red Nazi flag emblazoned with a black swastika and a black SS flag, referencing the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi paramilitary led by Heinrich Himmler. According to the complaint, a soldier entered a building at the Army Ranger compound at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Sunday night and found two men, partially masked, with a cluster of U.S. Army property around them. The soldier questioned them about what they were doing and told them to pull down their masks, which they did. A fight ensued, and one of the men brandished a hammer and struck the soldier in the head. The soldier continued to fight despite losing a large amount of blood and managed to get control of the hammer — at which point, one of the men pulled a knife. The soldier then let them go, the complaint said. They had attempted to steal about $14,000 worth of body armor, ballistic helmets and communications equipment Sunday, most of which they left behind when they dropped their rucksacks as they fled, the complaint said. During the fight, one of the men dropped his hat. It said “Fields” on the inside. Using base entry logs and surveillance video, investigators determined that Fields and Frakes had entered Lewis-McChord together about an hour before the attack, investigators said. Additionally, the wounded soldier, who required hospital treatment, told investigators that he asked around his unit about the name Fields after finding it on the hat. The soldier learned that Fields had been assigned to the Ranger Battalion around 2021, and he was able to identify him as one of the attackers based on photos shown to him by others in his unit, the complaint said. The men had access to the base because they were veterans, the probable cause statement filed in state court said. Court documents did not include details of Frakes’ military service. Public information officers for Department of Defense, Joint Base […]

President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed his administration to investigate Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline” and casting doubts on the legitimacy of his use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents. The order marked a significant escalation in Trump’s targeting of political adversaries and could lay the groundwork for arguments by the Republican that a range of Biden’s actions as president were invalid. The Justice Department under Democratic and Republican administrations has recognized the use of an autopen to sign legislation and issue pardons for decades, Trump presented no evidence that Biden was unaware of the actions taken in his name, and the president’s absolute pardon power is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” Trump wrote in a memo. “The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.” Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington to handle the investigation. Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear how far Trump will push this effort, which would face certain legal challenges. But it reflects his fixation on Biden, who defeated him in 2020, an election that Trump never conceded and continues to falsely claim was rigged against him. Trump frequently suggests that Biden was wrong to use an autopen, a mechanical device that replicates a person’s authentic signature. Although they’ve been used in the White House for decades, Trump claims that Biden’s aides were usurping presidential authority. Biden issued pardons for his two brothers and his sister shortly before leaving office, hoping to shield them from potential prosecution under Trump, who had promised retribution during last year’s campaign. Other pardon recipients included members of a congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump often suggests that his political opponents should be investigated, and he has directed the Justice Department to look into people who have angered him over the years. They include Chris Krebs, a former cybersecurity official who disputed Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, and Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official who wrote an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president in 2018. Meanwhile, House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, a Republican, requested transcribed interviews with five Biden aides, alleging they had participated in a “cover-up” that amounted to “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history.” “These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House,” Comer said in a statement. “They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.” Interviews were requested with White House senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and Steve Ricchetti, a former counselor to the president. Comer reiterated his call for Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, and former senior White House aides Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Neera Tanden to appear before the committee. He warned subpoenas would be […]

Today, former minister Rabbi Ariel Attias met with Rav Moshe Maya, the elder member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas, to update him on the current impasse in negotiations over the chareidi draft law and the demands being made by MK Yuli Edelstein, head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Attias, who is leading the discussions on behalf of the chareidi parties regarding the legal status of bnei yeshiva, briefed Rav Maya on the sharp disagreements that have emerged, particularly Edelstein’s insistence on inserting stringent clauses into the draft bill.

“I asked Edelstein yesterday during our latest conversation — what exactly are you aiming for? What do you want?” Attias recounted to Rav Maya. “He told me he wants draft targets to be set for five years, not seven as proposed by Defense Minister Katz. In addition, he’s demanding that if 95% of those targets aren’t met, all yeshiva funding should be canceled — unlike the position of the chareidi parties, which calls for proportional adjustments based on compliance rather than an all-or-nothing approach.”

Rav Maya responded forcefully: “This is completely unacceptable to us. These are principles that degrade talmidei chachamim. This is a law that declares we have no share in the G-d of Israel.” Quoting the Rambam, he added: “Those who study Torah are exempt from army service.”

Rav Maya pressed further: “Why don’t you separate those who are truly learning Torah from those who aren’t? Why should we be setting quotas and benchmarks? Why are we including non-learners in this law at all?”

Summing up the uncertain state of affairs, Attias remarked, “We are still undecided on the right course — whether to push for the dissolution of the Knesset or simply to leave the coalition.”

Rav Maya replied unequivocally, “We cannot remain in this government any longer. How exactly we’ll go about that…we’ll decide soon with Aryeh [Deri].”

Meanwhile, Shas is preparing for a special meeting of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, expected to take place next week at the party’s headquarters in Har Chotzvim.

{Matzav.com Israel}

Astronomers have discovered a strange new object in our Milky Way galaxy. An international team reported Wednesday that this celestial object — perhaps a star, pair of stars or something else entirely — is emitting X-rays around the same time it’s shooting out radio waves. What’s more, the cycle repeats every 44 minutes, at least during periods of extreme activity. Located 15,000 light-years away in a region of the Milky Way brimming with stars, gas and dust, this object could be a highly magnetized dead star like a neutron or white dwarf, Curtin University’s Ziteng Andy Wang said in an email from Australia. Or it could be “something exotic” and unknown, said Wang, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted the X-ray emissions by chance last year while focusing on a supernova remnant, or the remains of an exploded star. Wang said it was the first time X-rays had been seen coming from a so-called long-period radio transient, a rare object that cycles through radio signals over tens of minutes. Given the uncertain distance, astronomers can’t tell if the weird object is associated with the supernova remnant or not. A single light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. The hyperactive phase of this object — designated ASKAP J1832−091 — appeared to last about a month. Outside of that period, the star did not emit any noticeable X-rays. That could mean more of these objects may be out there, scientists said. “While our discovery doesn’t yet solve the mystery of what these objects are and may even deepen it, studying them brings us closer to two possibilities,” Wang said. “Either we are uncovering something entirely new, or we’re seeing a known type of object emitting radio and X-ray waves in a way we’ve never observed before.” Launched in 1999, Chandra orbits tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth, observing some of the hottest, high-energy objects in the universe. (AP)

President Trump has issued a sweeping proclamation that temporarily blocks international students from enrolling at Harvard University, halting new visa entries for the next six months. The announcement marks a dramatic escalation in the administration’s efforts to reshape the student visa program used by elite institutions.

According to the White House, the action halts access for individuals seeking to begin studies at Harvard under visa classifications associated with student and exchange programs. Citing national security concerns, potential criminal activity, and institutional discrimination, the administration defended the move as a matter of urgent public interest.

Trump has previously accused Harvard of “treating the US with great disrespect,” and now asserts that the school no longer deserves to manage international student admissions under the current visa framework.

“When a university refuses to uphold its legal obligations, including its recordkeeping and reporting obligations, the consequences ripple far beyond the campus,” the proclamation said, noting that it is of “national interest” to deny foreign nationals access to Harvard.

“They jeopardize the integrity of the entire United States student and exchange visitor visa system, compromise national security, and embolden other institutions to similarly disregard the rule of law.”

As part of the directive, Trump has instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the status of the nearly 7,000 foreign nationals at Harvard who are currently studying on F-1, M-1, or J-1 visas, raising the possibility that they could be forced to leave before the 2025–2026 academic year begins.

The order singles out Harvard alone, leaving other American universities unaffected.

This executive move follows closely behind a Massachusetts judge’s ruling that temporarily blocked an earlier federal effort to stop Harvard from accepting international enrollees — a group that makes up more than 25 percent of its student population.

The underlying dispute began when the university declined a federal request to provide documentation of foreign students’ activities, including recordings of any protest involvement dating back five years.

In a parallel development, the Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Kristi Noem, served Harvard with a notice that it would be disqualified from participating in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program — a decision that was promptly stayed by court order.

Trump has also vowed to redirect approximately $3.3 billion in federal funding currently allocated to Harvard to vocational education programs, unless the university agrees to meet a list of conditions aimed at eliminating antisemitic incidents on campus.

Among those potentially affected are prominent international students, including Cleo Carney, daughter of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium.

{Matzav.com}

In a recent interview, Matthew Miller, who previously served as the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department during President Joe Biden’s administration, accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes during their military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Speaking on a podcast with Sky News, Miller stated, “It is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes.”

Despite making this accusation, Miller clarified that he does not believe the Israeli military is carrying out a campaign of genocide in Gaza.

Miller explained that war crimes can be assessed in two main ways. “There are two ways to think about the commission of war crimes,” he said. “One is if the state has pursued a policy of deliberately committing war crimes or is acting recklessly in a way that aids and abets war crimes. Is the state committing war crimes?” He continued by noting, “That, I think, is an open question [in regard to Gaza]. I think what is almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes where Israeli soldiers, members of the Israeli military, have committed war crimes.”

The Israeli government has consistently rejected these kinds of accusations, maintaining that its military operations are conducted with efforts to minimize harm to civilians, despite facing an enemy embedded within civilian areas.

Nonetheless, international observers have questioned Israel’s actions, particularly pointing to the scale of civilian deaths and the strict controls on humanitarian aid entering Gaza as evidence that contradicts its claims of protecting noncombatants.

Miller added further context by discussing how democracies should be judged based on their response to misconduct within their armed forces. “In almost every major conflict, including conflicts prosecuted by democracies, you will see individual members of the military commit war crimes, and the way you judge a democracy is whether they hold those people accountable,” he said.

He added, “We have not yet seen them hold sufficient numbers of the military accountable, and I think it’s an open question whether they’re going to.”

Miller also touched on policy differences within the Biden administration regarding how to manage the Gaza conflict, including the question of halting weapons shipments to Israel. He suggested that such actions might have inadvertently encouraged Hamas to continue the fighting rather than negotiate a ceasefire. “It was clear to us in that period that there was a time when our public discussion of withholding weapons from Israel, as well as the protests on college campuses in the United States and the movement of some European countries to recognize the state of Palestine… All of those things together were leading the leadership of Hamas to conclude that they didn’t need to agree to a ceasefire, they just needed to hold out for a little bit longer, and they could get what they always wanted,” he said. “And maybe a widening of the war where Hezbollah could come in, where Iran could come in.”

He confirmed that the Biden administration did stop the delivery of large 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in the spring of 2024. The reason, Miller said, was concern that Israel might not use them in a way that was “appropriate in Gaza.” He noted that this decision was later reversed by the Trump administration.

Reflecting on the period from late May 2024 to mid-January 2025, Miller expressed regret about the lack of stronger action from the U.S. to push for a ceasefire. “The thing that I look back on… is in that intervening period between the end of May [2024] and the middle of January [2025], when thousands of Palestinians, innocent civilians, were killed… was there more that we could have done to pressure the Israeli government to agree to that ceasefire? I think at times there probably was,” Miller said.

He concluded by pointing out that blame for stalled negotiations could not rest solely with Hamas. “Israel was not the only party to this negotiation. You saw Hamas repeatedly move the goalposts, but you saw [Prime Minister Netanyahu] move the goalposts as well, and I do think there are times we should’ve been tougher on them,” he added.

{Matzav.com}

New York City experienced the fewest shootings and murders ever recorded during the first five months of 2025, according to data released by Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD. The mayor’s office credited a comprehensive crackdown on illegal firearms for the milestone.

From January through May, the city saw 264 shootings, marking a new historic low—beating the previous record of 267 during the same months in 2018, City Hall reported. The number of homicides during this period dropped to 112, slightly under the earlier lows of 113 in both 2014 and 2017.

“This is not just a statistical win—these numbers represent thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today and safer today, families who can sleep more soundly at night, and communities that are thriving because they know their city isn’t just coming back from the throes of the pandemic—it is back,” Adams said.

The mayor credited the drop in violence to a targeted law enforcement approach and the steady commitment of the NYPD. He emphasized that since taking office in 2021, the department has confiscated more than 22,000 illegal weapons, including ghost guns.

“Here’s how your mayor and your NYPD cops delivered the safest January-May for gun violence in New York City: three-plus years of relentlessly going after guns on our streets and a data-driven policing strategy that puts more cops in the right places at the right times to do what they do better than anyone else in the world,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “We will not let up.”

Tisch outlined the department’s next phase in curbing violence, which includes deploying 1,500 officers to foot patrols across 70 designated areas under a summer crime prevention plan. Meanwhile, the mayor spotlighted newer programs like the Quality of Life Division and Community Link, aimed at delivering broad support to struggling neighborhoods.

“Equally as important, these results reflect our focus on upstream solutions and our unprecedented investments in our young New Yorkers, because we know that preventing crime starts with providing opportunity to the next generation,” Adams said. “But let’s be clear: we are not even close to done. It’s not enough for New Yorkers to be safer—they must feel safer, too.”

{Matzav.com}

Europe and the United States say progress has been made but there were no breakthroughs during a meeting in Paris to negotiate a settlement of a tense tariff spat with worldwide economic ramifications between two global economic powerhouses. The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “I am pleased that negotiations are advancing quickly,” said Greer. He said the EU negotiators showed a “willingness by the EU to work with us to find a concrete way forward to achieve reciprocal trade. I look forward to continued constructive engagement in the coming days and weeks.” “We’re advancing in the right direction at pace,” Šefčovič said at a news conference. He said ongoing technical meetings between EU and U.S. negotiators in Washington would be followed by a video conference between himself and Greer to “assess the progress and charter the way forward.” Brussels and Washington are unlikely to reach a substantive trade agreement in Paris. The issues dividing them are too difficult to resolve quickly. President Donald Trump regularly fumes about America’s persistent trade deficit with the European Union, which was a record $161 billion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Trump blames the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from Europe on unfair trade practices and often criticizes the EU’s 10% tax on imported cars. America’s tax on imported cars was 2.5% until Trump raised it to 25% in April. The EU has argued its purchases of U.S. services, especially in the technology sector, all but overcome the deficit. After the Trump administration’s surprise tariffs on steel last week rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing, wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington, the EU on Monday said it is preparing “countermeasures” against the U.S. The EU has offered the U.S. a “zero for zero” deal which would see both sides end tariffs on industrial goods, including autos. Trump has rejected that idea, but EU officials say it’s still on the table. The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., and reduce duties on cars, but it is not likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax, which is akin to a sales tax, or open up the EU to American beef. “We still have a few weeks to have this discussion and negotiation,” French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said in Paris on Wednesday ahead of the OECD meeting. “If the discussion and negotiation do not succeed, Europe is capable of having countermeasures on American products and services as well.” Greta Peisch, who was general counsel for the U.S. trade representative in the Biden administration, said the zero-for-zero proposal could provide a way to make progress if the Trump administration “is looking for a reason not to impose tariffs on the EU.’’ But Peisch, now a partner at the Wiley Rein law firm, wondered: “How motivated is the U.S. to come to a deal with the EU?’’ Trump, after all, has longstanding grievances and complaints about EU trade practices. One target of his ire is the value-added tax, similar to U.S. state sales taxes. Trump and his advisers consider VATs unfair […]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D) appears to be issuing a warning that Democrats intend to publicly reveal the identities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, including those who operate undercover. Jeffries indicated that Democrats are determined to expose these agents, stating that it would be done “no matter what it takes.”

At a recent press conference, Jeffries expressed his party’s intent to uncover the names of ICE agents who apprehend and deport illegal immigrants, many of whom have criminal convictions, by enforcing federal immigration policies.

“Every single ICE agent who is engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that,” Jeffries said.
“This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We’re not behind the iron curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes will of course be identified.”
“That is in fact the law and we’re going to make sure that the American people have the transparency necessary to hold people accountable when they’re folks who cross the line here in America. That’s what’s going to happen.”

These remarks by Jeffries, along with other controversial statements from Democrats, come at a time when ICE officers are facing unprecedented levels of physical attacks while trying to do their jobs.

According to recent figures from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there has been a dramatic surge in the number of assaults on ICE agents, with reports showing a 413% increase in such incidents over the past several months.

Adding to the rhetoric, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) recently described ICE as “Trump’s modern Gestapo,” invoking a disturbing comparison to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi-era secret police.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping order blocking travel to the U.S. from nearly 20 countries identified as high-risk for terrorism, visa abuse and failure to share security information. The new travel restrictions — announced under Executive Order 14161 — apply to nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, all deemed “very high risk” due to terrorist activity, weak or hostile governments, and high visa overstay rates. In a video posted Wednesday night, President Trump said, “The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don’t want them.” “In the 21st century, we’ve seen one terror attack after another carried out by foreign visa overstayers from dangerous places all over the world,” he added. “Thanks to Biden’s open-door policies, today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.” Trump said his first-term travel restrictions were “one of our most successful policies” and “a key part of preventing major foreign terror attacks on American soil.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)