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Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates A Quarter Point As US Job Market Wobbles
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates on Wednesday by a quarter point, setting them between 4% and 4.25%. This marks the first cut since December 2024 and offers long-awaited relief for borrowers.
Stephen Miran, who once served as an economic adviser to Trump and was recently appointed to the Fed, stood alone in opposing the decision. He argued instead for a deeper reduction of half a percentage point.
Officials at the Fed had been hesitant to move forward with cuts, concerned that tariffs could reignite inflation. Prices had already shown signs of heating up during the summer, while broader economic indicators have been uneven.
This move also reflects Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s message at Jackson Hole last month, when he indicated that a cooling job market has become a bigger risk than inflation, noting that tariffs are more likely to cause a temporary price increase rather than a sustained surge.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average responded strongly, jumping 414 points, or 0.9%, and hitting a fresh intraday record.
Attention now turns to October, with many wondering if another reduction could be in store. Back in June, policymakers had projected two cuts before the year’s end.
At the same time, President Trump has been increasing his criticism of the central bank, pressing for lower rates. His remarks have become increasingly personal, and on Sunday he labeled Powell “incompetent.”
Miran officially joined the Fed’s board just minutes before the start of Tuesday’s two-day policy meeting.
Also taking part in Wednesday’s vote was Fed governor Lisa Cook, whom the Trump administration has tried to remove over allegations of mortgage fraud.
{Matzav.com}
LISTEN: Nissim Saal Presents Stirring Rendition of Carlebach’s “Meloich”
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates for First Time in 2025, Signals Two More This Year
BREAKING: Fed Delivers First Rate Cut of 2025, Drops Interest Rates by 25 Points
Campus in Mourning: Utah Valley Students Return to Scene of Charlie Kirk Assassination
Crackdown Escalates: Avreich Arrested on Highway, 25 Detained at Ben Gurion Airport
The wave of arrests of chareidi yungeleit accused of draft evasion reached new intensity today. Rabbi Eliyahu Nachum, an avreich from central Israel, was stopped by traffic police and, upon identification, was transferred to military police custody after being classified as a deserter for over two years. Authorities said he had failed to report to the draft office, in line with instructions from leading gedolim not to cooperate with enlistment procedures.
In a separate development, drama unfolded at Ben Gurion Airport over the past two days, as roughly 25 additional chareidi men were detained while attempting to travel abroad, many en route to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. They were taken to Tel Hashomer, where they now face military hearings.
In total, more than 70 young chareidim are currently being held in military prison. Unless released, they are expected to spend the upcoming Yamim Noraim behind bars.
The Vaad LeHatzolas Olam HaTorah announced that an urgent gathering of rabbonim will take place in the coming hours at various roshei yeshiva’s homes.
This follows several similar arrests in recent days. Last week, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from Chut Shel Chessed was stopped at the airport on his way to Uman and jailed as a deserter. A day earlier, a Lubavitcher chossid attempting to travel to New York for Tishrei was also taken into custody and sentenced to 20 days in military prison.
{Matzav.com Israel}
FBI Arrests Suspect in Pittsburgh Field Office Gate Attack
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Trump: Biden Tried to Put Charlie Kirk ‘Out of Business’
Late Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden’s administration of attempting to shut down conservative activist Charlie Kirk and his group, Turning Point USA, by using an expansive election investigation directed by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump’s remarks, posted on Truth Social, came after Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, disclosed that Kirk’s organization was among the Republican-affiliated entities swept into the FBI probe known as Arctic Frost, which originated from Smith’s case regarding Trump’s electors.
“Why was the wonderful Turning Point under INVESTIGATION by ‘Deranged’ Jack Smith and the Corrupt & Incompetent Biden Administration?” Trump wrote. “They tried to force Charlie, and many other people and movements, out of business. They Weaponized the Justice Department against Sleepy Joe Biden’s Political Opponents, including ME!”
Trump went on to allege that “they allowed the daughter of a Judge, on one of the corrupt trials against me, to become the biggest fund raiser for Biden and [former Vice President] Kamala [Harris], making many Millions of Dollars for herself and her family, but with her father, the Judge, not only refusing to RECUSE himself, but putting a gag order on me, not allowing ANY talk about their family corruption and unprecedented conflict of interest. Every leading legal analyst and pundit said this trial was wrong and should not have been allowed to go forward. But it did because of a Corrupt Judge who will hopefully pay a very big price for his illegal actions, someday!”
When Grassley opened Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight, he began by offering a prayer for Kirk and commending FBI Director Kash Patel for his leadership, while Patel faced questioning from lawmakers.
The Iowa senator then charged that the FBI had been “infected with politics” under Biden and argued that Arctic Frost went far beyond a routine election matter.
He asserted the operation had become “a vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
Trump has consistently argued that both Smith and the Biden administration used the Justice Department as a political weapon against him and those in his orbit.
Arctic Frost, launched in 2022 under FBI Director Christopher Wray, served as the foundation for Smith to file criminal charges against Trump.
“Some examples of the groups the Wray FBI sought to place under political investigation included the Republican National Committee, Republican Attorneys General Association, and Trump political groups,” Grassley said Tuesday. “On that political list was one of Charlie Kirk’s groups, Turning Point USA. In other words, Arctic Frost wasn’t just a case to politically investigate Trump.”
{Matzav.com}Experts Say Age Isn’t the Only Factor in Leaving Children Unsupervised After School
Annual Maamad Hashava By Neki Kapayim! Clean Hands for the Yemei Hadin!
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Join the thousands who have come clean and your Tefillos will soar this Yom Kippur.
As upstanding, committed Shomrei Torah Umitzvos, our life is all about observing the dictates of Torah and halacha to the utmost of our abilities. Obviously, we each have our shortcomings in different areas, and for this reason the Torah gives us the opportunity of Teshuva – to come clean and make good on our failings. There is one area though, for which the ordinary process of Teshuva, do not suffice to clear us of our misdeeds – that is the real of bein odom l’chaveiro – sins between man and fellow man. When it’s simply a question of a personal offense – one has to ask for forgiveness. If it’s a monetary obligation the debt must be paid up.
Click HERE to join the Neki Kapayim annual Maamad Hashava!But what happens when we don’t even know to whom we owe whom to pay?
This is indeed a dilemma!
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Perhaps, we don’t know who the owner is, but does that make it ours?
The thought is frightening!
Click HERE to join the Neki Kapayim annual Maamad Hashava!Can we stand before Hashem pleading for mercy; asking for brachos for ourselves and our loved ones, when our hands are sullied by money that’s not ours?
The Gemara (Beitza 29a, Bava Kamma 94b) discusses the issue of returning unknown debt. Click here for halachic overview
The solution developed by the dayanim of Keren Neki Kapayim is a new and innovative idea to achieve a complete and immediate return to the true owner of the money, whoever and wherever he might me
Click HERE to join the Neki Kapayim annual Maamad Hashava!Starmer Plans Official Recognition of Palestinian State This Weekend
Macron Set to Recognize Palestinian State at UN Assembly Monday
NYC Mayoral Candidate Andrew Cuomo Visits the Ohel Ahead Of Rosh Hashanah [PHOTOS]
Kristi Noem Rips Predecessor, Doesn’t Know ‘How He Slept At Night’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem harshly criticized her predecessor during a sit-down with “Pod Force One,” released Wednesday, accusing Alejandro Mayorkas of having left the southern border wide open to drug cartels and human traffickers.
“I don’t know how he slept at night,” Noem told The NY Post’s Miranda Devine, claiming that Mayorkas was following “direction” from the Biden White House, where Vice President Kamala Harris was designated as the “border czar.”
“I don’t know how he slept at night knowing the vulnerabilities he was creating for this country and the people he was letting in and allowing to undo us,” the 53-year-old added.
During President Joe Biden’s administration, border encounters reached historic highs, with more than 8 million migrants entering the country — among them criminals, gang members, and individuals flagged on terrorism watchlists.
“I think one of the biggest disservices they did to the country was not fulfill the mission of what the department was established for; it literally is to secure the homeland,” Noem said.
“And he opened the doors and said, ‘Come on in. If you are from an evil foreign government or a terrorist organization or a gang, you’re more than welcome, and we’re going to ignore our laws and treat you better than we do the American citizens.’”
In February 2024, House Republicans impeached Mayorkas, charging that he had willfully failed to uphold federal immigration laws and misled Congress when he described the border as “secure.”
“They didn’t even try to close the border,” Noem remarked on the podcast.
“That’s what I think. Knowing you were doing nothing and watching, if you watched, the inhumanity of what was happening at the border.”
The Democrat-majority Senate later declined to hold a trial, effectively acquitting Mayorkas and shielding Biden’s DHS chief from removal.
Since President Trump’s return to the White House, more than 300,000 illegal entrants have been deported, with most believed to have criminal histories.
Inside the country, authorities estimate another 2 million migrants with criminal records remain at large.
Meanwhile, under the Biden administration, more than 320,000 minors who crossed the border alone became unaccounted for after being transferred from government-funded housing organizations to private sponsors — some of whom were not vetted and were linked to crime and gangs.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, which coordinated with DHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, at least 7,300 cases of trafficked migrant children were never investigated.
“We knew children were going missing,” Noem said.
“We knew they were raping our girls at the border and trafficking our little boys. And they knew all that was going on and watched.”
“[They] watched the same child cross the border over and over again with a different group of adults and they just went to bed at night,” she continued.
“And as a mom and a grandma, that’s the stuff that I don’t know how they did that. I don’t know how they sat there and facilitated that.”
The Trump administration has since rescued 13,000 minors, while HHS continues to investigate thousands of cases tied to trafficking, fraudulent sponsorships, and other alleged exploitation.
In another part of the interview, Noem spoke about time she spent with Border Patrol agents who were “demonized” after Biden, Mayorkas, and Harris falsely accused them in 2021 of whipping migrants with their horses’ reins in Texas.
“I went down there and rode horse with them for a day, because, well, obviously I like to ride horses, but I went right away as soon as I was sworn in to go spend time with them, because they were so demonized,” she explained.
“And their leadership did that to them.”
Although Mayorkas had been briefed by an aide that there was no evidence agents had whipped Haitian migrants — even after a photographer present at the scene confirmed as much — he did not retract his claims, nor did Biden or Harris.
“Our nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are,” Mayorkas said at the time, while Harris claimed the episode reminded her of “times of slavery.”
Noem told “Pod Force One” she “just wanted them to know that their previous leadership had ridden over them, but I was going to ride with them, and I was going to be a part of helping them do their jobs again.”
{Matzav.com}
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