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California is moving closer to effectively banning the fabrication of many popular engineered-quartz countertops, as state regulators confront a rapidly worsening epidemic of silicosis that has sickened nearly 600 countertop workers, led to dozens of deaths and forced scores of patients to undergo lung transplants.

The proposed regulation would prohibit workers in California from fabricating or manufacturing engineered-stone countertops and similar products containing more than 1 percent crystalline silica. That would encompass most traditional engineered quartz, which can contain more than 90 percent crystalline silica.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted unanimously in May to begin the process of establishing the prohibition, directing Cal/OSHA to pursue emergency rulemaking. Cal/OSHA has since moved the proposal forward, releasing a draft standard in September and soliciting public comments as regulators work toward a final rule.

The danger is not primarily to homeowners who have quartz countertops installed in their kitchens. Rather, the crisis involves workers who manufacture and fabricate the slabs, particularly those who cut, grind, drill and polish engineered stone. Those activities can release extremely fine particles of crystalline silica into the air, which workers can inhale deep into their lungs.

Repeated exposure can cause silicosis, a progressive and incurable disease in which scar tissue develops in the lungs, eventually making it increasingly difficult for patients to breathe. Severe cases can require lung transplantation and can be fatal.

The scale of California’s outbreak has risen dramatically. Researchers reported in August that California health officials had identified 592 cases of engineered-stone silicosis between January 2019 and June 2026. Of those workers, 65 had undergone lung transplants and 31 had died. Researchers cautioned that the actual number of cases is almost certainly higher because many workers have never been screened or have been misdiagnosed.

The disease has struck workers at unusually young ages. California officials have said that approximately 98 percent of workers diagnosed with industry-related silicosis in the state are Latino men and that the average age of workers who died was under 50.

Engineered stone has become enormously popular because it can offer the appearance of natural stone while being durable, consistent and available in a wide variety of designs. Unlike slabs of natural granite or marble, engineered quartz is generally produced by crushing quartz and combining it with resins and pigments.

That manufacturing process is at the heart of the health concern. Traditional engineered stone can contain extraordinarily high concentrations of crystalline silica, meaning that cutting and grinding it can generate large amounts of dangerous silica dust.

California has already tried imposing stricter workplace rules rather than eliminating the material. An emergency silica standard was adopted in late 2023, followed by permanent requirements in 2025 governing such practices as cutting, grinding, polishing, cleanup, respiratory protection and exposure monitoring.

But state officials concluded that those measures have not been enough. Cal/OSHA and Standards Board staff found that workers fabricating and installing artificial stone continued to face significant exposure risks and that the silicosis crisis was worsening despite existing protections.

California health officials have also warned that even commonly required safeguards, including wet-cutting methods designed to suppress dust, may not always reduce silica exposure sufficiently to prevent disease. The sophisticated equipment and controls needed to maintain extremely low exposure levels can also be difficult and expensive for smaller fabrication shops to implement consistently.

The proposed rule therefore represents a fundamental change in strategy: instead of attempting only to control the dust generated by high-silica engineered stone, California would largely remove the hazardous material itself from fabrication workplaces.

Importantly, the proposal is not a blanket prohibition on every product marketed as quartz or engineered stone. The key threshold is crystalline silica content. Under the draft approach, engineered-stone products containing more than 1 percent crystalline silica would be prohibited from fabrication, pushing manufacturers and contractors toward low- or no-crystalline-silica alternatives.

Manufacturers have already begun developing substitute products using materials such as amorphous silica, which carries a substantially lower silicosis risk than crystalline silica.

California would not be the first jurisdiction to take drastic action. Australia banned the manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered stone beginning in 2024 after its own surge in silicosis among countertop workers. California officials and researchers have repeatedly pointed to the Australian response while considering how to address the growing number of cases in the state.

The California epidemic was barely recognized several years ago. The state identified its first known countertop-fabrication silicosis case in 2019. That worker was diagnosed at just 32 years old and died of respiratory failure at 38. Investigators subsequently discovered additional cases among workers at the same company, helping reveal what has since become a statewide occupational-health crisis.

By November 2025, California had confirmed 432 cases, including at least 25 deaths and 48 lung transplants. By June 2026, those figures had climbed to 592 cases, 31 deaths and 65 transplants — illustrating how rapidly additional victims are being identified.

Enforcement has also intensified. Through its silica enforcement initiative, Cal/OSHA has issued more than 900 citations carrying approximately $1.9 million in proposed penalties and conducted hundreds of workplace consultations reaching more than 27,000 employees.

The proposed ban would directly affect California’s countertop-fabrication industry and could have broader implications for manufacturers, contractors, kitchen remodelers and consumers. High-silica engineered quartz has become one of the most widely used countertop materials in American homes, and California’s enormous construction and remodeling market means a prohibition could accelerate the industry’s shift toward alternative products nationwide.

For now, however, quartz countertops have not simply been “banned” in California. The state is still in the rulemaking process. The Standards Board authorized Cal/OSHA to pursue an emergency prohibition, and regulators released a draft in September targeting fabrication and manufacture of artificial stone containing more than 1 percent crystalline silica.

If the rule takes effect substantially as proposed, California would become the first U.S. state to impose such a sweeping restriction on high-silica engineered stone, transforming a product found in countless kitchens into the target of one of the nation’s most significant occupational-health crackdowns in years.

{Matzav.com}

A senior IDF official has acknowledged that young Military Police soldiers are effectively incapable of carrying out arrests of chareidi yeshiva bochurim when confronted by hundreds of protesters, following the dramatic collapse of an attempted arrest in Modi’in that ended with the bochur being released.

“We are dealing with enormous protest operations. Young soldiers in the Military Police have absolutely no chance against an event like this,” the senior military official said. “We need much more significant police assistance, with much larger forces.”

The admission followed the chaotic events in Modi’in, where Military Police arrived to arrest Yairi Lieberman, a student at Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim who is approximately 20 days away from his wedding.

When Military Police arrived at the building, the “Black Color” alert system was activated, rapidly bringing hundreds of protesters to the scene. Demonstrators arrived from Modi’in as well as Modi’in Illit, Yerushalayim and Beit Shemesh, eventually making their way all the way to the apartment on the 11th floor.

“Suddenly, at around midnight, I heard knocking at the door, and they told me, ‘Go in, go into the room — it’s the Military Police,’” Lieberman recalled. “While they gave me time to get ready, I managed to call ‘Black Color.’”

Within a short period, hundreds of people had converged on the building. The Military Police ultimately departed without taking Lieberman into custody.

The episode has now triggered a bitter dispute between Israel Police and the IDF, with each side presenting a sharply different account of how the arrest unraveled — and, in particular, who made the decision to release Lieberman.

An internal Israel Police review placed responsibility squarely on the Military Police, saying that a small military force had operated in direct violation of established procedures.

According to the police account, the Military Police arrived to arrest the draft evader but, instead of immediately removing him from the location once the arrest had been carried out, allowed him an extended and unreasonable amount of time to prepare to leave.

That delay gave protesters time to surround the building in large numbers, eventually leaving the military force itself in serious difficulty. Israel Police said its officers were then summoned on an emergency basis to rescue the Military Police personnel and restore order.

Police also emphatically rejected any suggestion that their officers had ordered Lieberman’s release.

“The decision to release the draft evader and provide him with an order to regulate his status was made by IDF officials and not by Israel Police,” police said.

The IDF, however, presented the opposite version of events, maintaining that the decision to release Lieberman was effectively made by Israel Police.

The failed arrest comes amid mounting pressure from the attorney general for authorities to significantly increase enforcement against chareidi draft evaders.

During a discussion on the issue Tuesday, it was revealed that 64 draft evaders had managed to leave Israel without being apprehended and were arrested only when they subsequently returned to the country.

A document presented during the proceedings stated that proactive enforcement operations have effectively been absent for some time and called for action by the Military Police and military prosecutors. IDF officials said proactive enforcement will resume during October, with operations coordinated between the Military Police and local Israel Police stations.

A senior official in one of the chareidi parties said the developing situation had vindicated the position taken for years by the Peleg Yerushalmi regarding the draft issue.

“The situation we find ourselves in now, and throughout the recent period, in which there is no draft law and there are efforts by the legal authorities to push the IDF and police to resume the arrests, which will clearly lead to riots and demonstrations, proves to us first and foremost that the ‘Peleg Yerushalmi’ was right throughout the years in all of its arguments regarding the draft issue.”

The Modi’in confrontation follows several other recent cases in which attempts to arrest yeshiva bochurim were disrupted by rapidly mobilized protesters.

On the night of Hoshana Rabbah, authorities attempted to arrest a yeshiva bochur at the Paz-Hayarkon gas station on Namir Road in Tel Aviv and transfer him to the Military Police.

Within minutes, hundreds of yeshiva bochurim arrived at the scene and succeeded in removing him from the area. The protesters subsequently blocked Namir Road, with hundreds dancing and singing in the roadway.

At the same time, two other bnei yeshivos were arrested in Eilat and transferred to the Military Police.

Yakir Ralbag, formerly a student at Yeshivas Chevron-Knesses Yisrael and currently learning at Rav Sosovsky’s yeshiva in Beit Meir, was arrested in Eilat and immediately handed over to the Military Police.

His arrest followed that of a Yerushalmi kollel yungerman who had reportedly been listed as absent from military service for more than 450 days. The avreich, who married only about three months ago, was apprehended while on a family vacation in Eilat.

{Matzav.com}

[COMMUNICATED]

by Rabbi Eliezer Sandler

The concept of the Yissachar-Zevulun Torah Learning Pact goes back well over 3,500 years, to the time of Yaakov Avinu and his sons. It is named for the Torah pact between two of his sons – Yissachar the scholar and Zevulun the merchant. Not only was it an equal pact but, Chazal explained, the deed of Zevulun/the Sponsor is considered even greater than that of Yissachar, because without the support of Zevulun, Yissachar would not have had the wherewithal to study Torah undisturbed.”

It is well-known that when it comes to learning Torah, people who sponsor the learning, often do so, not just as a donation. By financially supporting specific Torah scholars, they enter into a binding, written, signed and sealed learning partnership pact whereby the Sponsor (the Zevulun) is deemed by Halacha as if he personally studied the Torah completed by the Scholar (the Yissachar). (See below.) 

Thus, those who support the Talmidei Chachomim at Shas Yiden via a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact merit a portion in every daf of the entire Talmud Bavli and associated texts that they study, and complete the entire cycle in the space of ONE year. Some of the Sponsors opt to continue sponsoring repeat cycles of Shas which accrue to them.

Sar Hatorah, Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden, emphasized: The most mehudar Yissachar-Zevulun pact to support in our times is that offered by Shas Yiden – it comprises the entire Shas, Rashi and Tosfos – all in just one year!

Rav Chaim explained why this pact with Shas Yiden is the most mehudar. Chazal say that the highest level of learning is when one understands what he is learning b’iyun u’ve’amkus. However, even higher than that is when one remembers b’al peh all what he has learned. I have farhered the Shas Yiden avreichim geonim many times and can attest ZEI KENNEN SHAS (they know Shas)!

YES! YOU CAN MAKE
your OWN SIYUM on the ENTIRE
Shas, Rashi & Tosfos
IN JUST ONE YEAR!

 

The Yissachar-Zevulun Pact in Halacha

The Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh De’ah Chapter 246 regarding the efficacy of the Yissachar-Zevulun Sponsorship Pact for the Zevulun (the Sponsor) states clearly:  It is deemed as if he (the one sponsoring the learning) himself learned all the Torah studied under the pact. 

All the learning under the Shas Yiden Yissachar-Zevulun Pact is yours בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in both This World and the World to Come)! Concerning this, the Netziv of Volozhin comments that in Olam Habah, the Zevulun sponsor will sit together with the Gedolei Torah of the past and merit to participate in their discussions and pilpulim on all the Torah learned.

Achieve Almost 7 million Mitzvos in One Year

The Vilna Gaon in Shnos Eliyahu Pe’ah 41 states that one should hold precious every word of Torah that he learns because each word is considered a mitzvah of its own. 

Thus, since in Talmud Bavli, Rashi and Tosfos there are 6,608,891 words, that translates into almost 7 million mitzvos accruing through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden. 

Official Shtar from Shas Yiden

Each Yissachar-Zevulun pact is confirmed by an official contract (shtar) from Shas Yiden specifying the learning of the entire Shas, and is witnessed by talmidei chachomim.

All who wish to enter into a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact for the entire Shas during ONE year should contact Shas Yiden to make arrangements: 718-702-1528.

The opportunity to complete the entire Shas has been a cherished way to honor family members and others as a prized achievement. It has also proven to be a source of comfort for mourners to obtain such a zechus for their dear ones during the year of mourning – a siyum of the entire Shas can be completed on the yahrzeit!

Yissachar-Zevulun Pact – Beyond the Grave

The legendary visionary and “Father of Yeshivos”, Reb Chaim of Volozhin, was the founder of the famous yeshiva in the town of Volozhin and the beloved talmid of the Vilna Gaon. 

Reb Chaim had an ongoing Yissachar-Zevulun pact with a local shoemaker – a man who was not learned but who dearly valued Torah learning. They had a ‘deal’ whereby the shoemaker would pay the monthly financial support needed for Reb Chaim and his family. For this financial support, the shoemaker would have an equal share in all Reb Chaim’s daily Torah study – both in the mitzvah of Torah study בעוה”ז and that the knowledge of the Torah learned would continue to be his בעוה”ב (in the World to Come).

One day the shoemaker passed away suddenly. During the shiva period, Reb Chaim was facing a perplexing halachic question and researched high and low for a solution. That night the shoemaker appeared to him in a dream and gave him the full solution that he sought. Reb Chaim was amazed and commented, “Azoi gich, Azoi Gich – So quickly, so quickly has he acquired the zchus and knowledge of the Torah that I have studied!”

In the words of Gedolei Torah:

Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden:

“In just ONE year, through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden, you can be zoche to the entire Shas forever – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in olam hazeh and olam habah).

“Moreover, whoever supports Shas Yiden is zocheh to fulfill both Yissachar-Zevulun and support of aniyei (the poor of) Eretz Yisroel in the fullest sense of the word.

“Those who support Shas Yiden will be saved from chevlei (the travails of) Moshiach – spiritually and materially, and will be zoche to have ehrlicher bonim u’vanos yir’eishomayim ”

                                                   

 

Maran Hagaon Harav Dov Lando, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva, Slabodka:

“Who compares to the Shas Yiden? Incredible talmidei chachomim geonim who raised the bar in limud Hashas b’iyun u’v’amkus. Blessed are those who enter a Yissachar-Zevulun pact with them.”

                                                                                                                                                          

Hamashpia Hagadol Reb Meilech Biederman, shlit”a:

 “Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden – best possible deal, and in just 1 year! 100% partnership! 100% Shas x 5 times! 100% Shisha Sidrei Mishna – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב”

                                                  

Sanzer Rebbe, shlit”a:

“A first in 2000 years of Jewish history! Until Shas Yiden, never a Torah institution where ALL the avreichim metzuyonim v’geonim know the entire Shas by heart”

                       

Maran Hagaon Harav Yaakov Hillel, shlit”a:

“Therefore, the great mitzvah to support the efforts [of the Talmidei Chachomim] with generous donations in order that they should continue diligently with their studies to enhance the greatness of the Torah and its glory. 

ShasYiden.com

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has issued an unequivocal commitment that his party will neither join nor enable the formation of any future government unless legislation regulating the draft status of yeshiva bochurim is passed first.

Deri said the position was adopted on the instructions of Shas’s Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah and former Rishon LeTzion Rav Yitzchak Yosef, making passage of the legislation a prerequisite to any coalition negotiations following the election.

“As we have said, in the sense of ‘know what to answer’ — there is also a clear answer,” Deri said. “The Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah instructed us, and we announced it explicitly. Maran the Rishon LeTzion Rav Yitzchak Yosef also announced at the opening conference of Shas’s election campaign: Shas will not enter a government and will not allow a government to be formed without first passing the law regulating the status of those who learn Torah.”

Deri’s declaration means that, according to the party’s stated position, Shas will demand that the draft issue be resolved legislatively before discussing cabinet positions, budgets or other elements of a coalition agreement.

Shas officials said there would be no flexibility on the sequence of events.

“Deri left no room for maneuver,” party officials said. “We have made it clear to all potential partners — anyone who wants Shas in the government will have to understand that the issue at the heart of the chareidi community is not something to be bargained over. First they will pass the law and regulate the status of the yeshiva students, and only afterward will we talk about positions and budgets.”

The pledge comes as the confrontation over the draft has intensified, with the absence of legislation regulating the status of bnei yeshivos leaving thousands exposed to enforcement action for failing to report for military service.

The tensions erupted again earlier this week in Modi’in, where an attempt to arrest a yeshiva bochur led to a large protest and ultimately ended with his release. Police subsequently conducted a review of the incident that placed responsibility for what occurred on the Military Police.

At the same time, the attorney general has been pressing for the urgent resumption of arrests of draft evaders, while the IDF has announced that proactive enforcement operations will resume during October.

Two additional bnei yeshivos were arrested in Eilat in recent days — a student at Yeshivas Chevron and a married Yerushalmi kollel yungerman who wed approximately three months ago.

{Matzav.com}

Elkana Federman, who served as the security chief of the Nova music festival and was wounded while fighting terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre, has filed a 2.5 million shekel lawsuit against former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, accusing him of negligence in the hours before the Hamas invasion and alleging that intelligence in Bar’s possession could have led authorities to evacuate the festival hours before the attack.

The damages lawsuit, filed in Yerushalayim Magistrate’s Court, alleges that Bar failed to fully relay intelligence to officials who could have taken action before the Hamas assault began.

According to the lawsuit, the Shin Bet received several unusual indications during the night before the massacre. Among them was the activation of dozens or possibly hundreds of Israeli SIM cards that had allegedly been prepared for use by Hamas terrorists, unusual movements involving senior Hamas figures, and changes in the terror organization’s communications patterns.

The suit further alleges that a human intelligence source reported Hamas operatives gathering at mosques and other meeting points, and that this information ultimately reached Bar.

Federman claims that this particular piece of intelligence was not presented during a situation assessment held at Southern Command at approximately 3 a.m. The lawsuit describes the information as a potential “game changer” that could have caused officials to interpret the other warning signs very differently.

Federman also points to Bar’s decision to dispatch the Shin Bet’s elite Tequila unit to southern Israel during the night, arguing that the move itself demonstrates that the Shin Bet chief was preparing for the possibility of terrorists infiltrating Israeli territory.

According to the lawsuit, Bar “did not provide a complete report to Southern Command,” and Federman argues that had the full intelligence picture been conveyed, the IDF would have prepared differently and the Nova festival would have received different treatment from security officials.

The lawsuit further alleges that Bar should have directly warned the police responsible for securing the festival about the possibility of an infiltration or kidnapping attempt, but that “through his negligence, he did not lift a finger to protect the festival participants, including the plaintiff.”

The filing also recounts Federman’s actions as the Hamas attack unfolded on the morning of Oct. 7.

When the rocket barrage began, Federman and the security personnel under his command began helping thousands of festivalgoers evacuate the site. According to the lawsuit, the security team operated according to the principle that “we do not leave the event until the last participant has left.”

When Hamas terrorists reached the area near the festival exit and began shooting fleeing participants, Federman and several other security personnel drove ATVs toward the gunfire and began bringing wounded victims back toward the festival grounds.

At one point, a damaged tank arrived carrying two soldiers, including Ofir Testa, who was critically wounded and later died. According to the lawsuit, after Testa climbed out of the tank, Federman asked him for his weapon and then joined police officer Andrey Pushibay, who was later killed, in fighting the terrorists.

Federman continued firing at the attackers until his magazine was empty. After Pushibay was shot and killed, Federman took the officer’s handgun, which had six bullets remaining, and continued advancing toward the terrorists.

It was during that confrontation that Federman was shot.

Despite being wounded and still under fire, Federman managed to run several hundred meters toward the Gerar Stream area, where he concealed himself inside a bush for hours.

The lawsuit describes him lying there with “one hand pointing the handgun in his possession upward in case the murderers reached him, and the other hand on the wound trying to stop the bleeding.”

Federman was eventually discovered by other people who had escaped the festival together with soldiers. He was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center and later transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where he underwent two surgeries.

At the heart of Federman’s lawsuit is his contention that none of this would have happened to him had the intelligence warnings been properly communicated before the attack.

He argues that with an appropriate warning, “the party would have been stopped and the compound would have been evacuated hours before the rocket fire and the infiltration began,” thereby preventing him from being wounded.

{Matzav.com}

President Trump says the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is finally nearing completion, predicting that the iconic Washington landmark will be refilled with water this week following months of repairs, repeated drainage and controversy over what caused its new lining to fail.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump said work on the pool itself was essentially finished and that crews had also replaced aging pipes as part of the project.

“I think they’re going to fill it up this week,” Trump said.

“The Reflecting Pool is totally complete, and we changed the old pipes we wanted to get open for July 4,” he said, later adding that “I think it’s almost complete, from what I understand.”

Trump also said restoration work was nearly finished on the grounds between the Reflecting Pool and the National World War II Memorial, where new grass had previously been installed as part of his broader effort to renovate and beautify Washington’s monumental core.

That lawn was damaged in June when enormous numbers reading “86 47” appeared in the grass. The numbers were widely interpreted as an anti-Trump message — “47” referring to Trump as the 47th president — while the White House argued that “86 47” amounted to a threat of political violence against him.

Trump referred to that episode Tuesday while discussing the restoration work.

The new grass, he said, had been “destroyed with the letters, the famous letters.”

“And that’s been just about completed,” Trump added.

The president also continued to attribute at least some of the problems at the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, despite court filings and evidence that have raised serious questions about whether the most significant damage was instead caused by faulty installation during the rushed renovation.

“Well, we had vandalism there and we have it about as vandal-proof as you can get. But only sick people do that, and we have their pictures.”

The Reflecting Pool has become an unexpectedly contentious issue in Washington since Trump ordered a major renovation of the landmark earlier this year ahead of celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary.

The more than 2,000-foot-long pool, which stretches between the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, underwent an extensive makeover that included coating its bottom in a dark shade Trump called “American flag blue.” The work was performed under no-bid contracting arrangements that later became a focus of scrutiny.

The project was intended to dramatically improve the appearance of a landmark that had long suffered from algae, leaks and maintenance problems. The pool had previously undergone a major reconstruction costing approximately $34 million between 2010 and 2012.

But trouble emerged almost immediately after the newly renovated pool was filled. Algae proliferated in the water, turning portions of the pool green, while pieces of the newly installed coating began separating from the bottom and floating to the surface.

Trump and Interior Department officials initially blamed vandals for deliberately damaging the pool. The president said people had cut or pulled up sections of the new surface, and several individuals were investigated or arrested.

Trump continued making that allegation as recently as late August, when he predicted that the landmark would soon reopen.

The pool would “be opening in a few weeks. Will be a beauty. NO VANDALS PLEASE.”

At other points, however, Trump acknowledged that construction problems contributed to the damage. Earlier in August, he referred to “some contractor error” and described the resulting damage as “relatively inconsequential.”

The government’s own criminal case against former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn ultimately produced evidence sharply undermining the original vandalism explanation.

Hearn, who represented the United States in canoe slalom at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was arrested after being accused of pulling at a detached section of the Reflecting Pool liner. He was subsequently indicted on a felony charge of destruction of government property, exposing him to the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.

But documents obtained after the indictment showed that problems with the pool’s surface existed before Hearn’s encounter with it. Investigators ultimately found widespread defects, including damage in areas of the pool where prosecutors concluded a vandal would have been unlikely to reach or attempt to peel away the lining.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office eventually moved to dismiss the case after receiving additional information from the Interior Department showing that the damage resulted from problems with the installation and the rush to finish the project before the July 4 celebrations.

In the government’s own filing, prosecutors said the damage was caused by the contractor’s “botched” installation “and not vandalism as initially represented” by the Interior Department.

Pirro’s filing also stated that the Interior Department had provided “less than fulsome information at the outset of the case.”

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” Pirro wrote.

The filing further said that had “DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.”

The reversal was particularly notable because Pirro had previously described the prosecution as supported by “tremendous evidence.”

Last week, D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman went further, permanently dismissing the case with prejudice. The ruling prevents prosecutors from bringing the same charge against Hearn again.

“The Court respects the authority of the Office of the United States Attorney to decide which cases to prosecute and which to dismiss,” Edelman wrote. “However, in the exceptional circumstances posed by this case, the government has no right to retain the ability to compound the errors it has already made, or even to threaten to do so, at Mr. Hearn’s expense.”

The controversy is continuing even as repairs to the pool near completion. Hearn’s attorneys on Tuesday called on the inspectors general of both the Justice and Interior departments to investigate the renovation and the criminal case brought against him.

His lawyers contend that government officials rushed a defective renovation, failed to disclose evidence showing that the pool was already deteriorating, wrongly portrayed Hearn as a vandal and pursued a criminal prosecution despite evidence pointing toward construction problems.

They are asking for separate investigations into both the Interior Department’s management of the renovation and the Justice Department’s handling of Hearn’s prosecution.

The Interior Department has continued to maintain that Hearn interfered with the pool’s lining, while his attorneys dispute the government’s characterization of what he did.

The controversy surrounding Hearn is separate from the “86 47” markings cut into the nearby National Mall lawn. Those markings were real and were documented in photographs in June, although authorities did not initially identify who created them or precisely how they were made.

Trump has repeatedly linked both episodes to what he describes as vandalism targeting his effort to restore Washington’s monuments and public spaces. The evidence that emerged in Hearn’s case, however, indicates that the widespread failure of the Reflecting Pool’s new surface cannot be attributed to vandalism.

{Matzav.com}

Russia is offering to send specialists, laboratory equipment and medical resources to help the United States battle infectious diseases, an unusual proposal that comes as Moscow faces intense scrutiny over the mysterious death of a young scientist at a Siberian anti-plague laboratory and persistent, though still unconfirmed, reports that she contracted pneumonic plague.

Russia’s consumer health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, announced the offer Tuesday, pointing to measles outbreaks in several American states as well as recent U.S. cases of other infectious diseases.

“The Russian Federation is ready to assist the United States in combating outbreaks of infectious diseases,” Rospotrebnadzor said.

The agency cited outbreaks of measles, typhoid fever and legionellosis in the United States. It also made a pointed reference to an unrelated American plague death, saying, “The first fatal case of plague in 2026 was reported in New Mexico.”

That New Mexico case has no established connection to the unfolding situation in Siberia. Plague occurs naturally in parts of the western United States, including New Mexico, where the bacterium can circulate among rodents and fleas. More importantly, Russian authorities have yet to establish publicly that plague caused the death now at the center of the Irkutsk controversy.

The Russian offer comes as international attention remains focused on the death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Shipilova died Oct. 2 after developing severe pneumonia of unexplained origin.

The institute where Shipilova worked specializes in plague and other highly dangerous infectious diseases. Her employment there, coupled with the unusual precautions taken after she became ill, rapidly fueled fears that her death could have resulted from occupational exposure to a dangerous pathogen.

Russian officials maintain that there is no confirmed plague outbreak and say investigators have found no evidence tying Shipilova’s illness to the organisms she handled professionally. The World Health Organization has likewise said that, based on the information currently available, there are no confirmed plague cases in Irkutsk and that the risk to the broader population appears very low.

Rumors surrounding Shipilova’s death, however, have been widespread. One unverified account alleges that she accidentally dropped and shattered a test tube containing plague bacteria while working at the institute. Another suggests she may have been exposed during field work or travel in Buryatia, an area where plague can occur naturally among wild animals.

Neither scenario has been substantiated by Russian authorities, and there is currently no verified evidence supporting more dramatic speculation that Shipilova was exposed to an artificially enhanced or weaponized strain of plague.

What is confirmed is that Russian authorities mounted an extensive epidemiological response after Shipilova became ill. Nearly 200 people who had contact with her were initially placed under medical observation, and the hospital where she was treated imposed infection-control measures while officials conducted testing and contact tracing.

Rospotrebnadzor says testing of those contacts has produced no additional plague cases. Several people developed illnesses, but the agency said those infections were attributable to common respiratory viruses rather than plague.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed two Covid-19 and two rhinovirus infection cases,” the agency said.

Russian authorities have continued to describe Shipilova’s fatal illness as a “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” while rejecting reports that a dangerous pathogen escaped from the institute. Rospotrebnadzor insists that “no emergency or security breach occurred” at the laboratory.

The lack of a definitive public explanation for the 28-year-old scientist’s death has nevertheless fueled skepticism inside and outside Russia. Conflicting statements from regional officials and the disappearance or revision of some early reports about a possible plague infection have contributed to suspicions that Moscow has not disclosed the complete picture.

The precautions being taken elsewhere in Irkutsk have added to those questions. The Irkutsk City Perinatal Center began screening pregnant patients for possible plague exposure and instituted strict visitor restrictions following Shipilova’s death.

Patients arriving at the maternity facility were reportedly given a “Checklist for Suspected Plague” asking about symptoms, contact with ill people and recent travel. Staff also conducted temperature checks and required masks.

The center temporarily barred virtually everyone other than pregnant patients from entering, meaning husbands and other partners were unable to attend births. Staff reportedly attributed the measures to concerns surrounding an unidentified infection.

Russian officials have emphasized that such precautions do not establish that plague is circulating in the city. Health authorities say the measures were preventative and that the epidemiological situation remains stable.

The World Health Organization said Russian authorities had traced and tested Shipilova’s contacts and reported no confirmed additional plague infections. The WHO has requested further information concerning her death while assessing the international public-health risk as very low.

Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which naturally circulates among certain rodents and their fleas. Bubonic plague generally infects the lymphatic system, while pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can spread between people through respiratory droplets during close contact. Modern antibiotics are highly effective when treatment begins promptly.

Rospotrebnadzor, meanwhile, used its offer to Washington to emphasize Russia’s own expertise in dealing with dangerous infectious diseases.

“Russia has extensive practical and scientific experience in ensuring epidemiological well-being both at home and abroad,” the Rospotrebnadzor statement on Tuesday insisted.

“To help prevent and control outbreaks of infections, Russia is ready to provide the US side with specialists, laboratory equipment, and highly effective diagnostic and preventive tools,” the statement said, “which can help resume joint work between Russia and the United States in protecting public health from infectious threats.”

The offer followed comments from President Trump a day earlier saying that the United States was prepared to assist Russia if necessary as American officials monitor the Irkutsk situation.

“We are looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it,” Trump said.

Trump said the United States would be prepared to provide assistance to any country confronting a dangerous infectious-disease problem.

“Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” the president said.

“It’s a disease we used to be able to control,” Trump said. “Even with great advancement, the germs have really become relatively stronger than they were, and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work anymore … anyone that has that kind of problem, we will help.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also urged vigilance without suggesting that Americans should panic over the reports emerging from Siberia.

“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it,” Rubio said.

American officials have called on Moscow to provide timely and accurate information about the case, while several countries neighboring Russia have increased health precautions in response to the reports.

President Trump said Tuesday that he expects to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation, as U.S. intelligence and health officials continue trying to determine exactly what occurred in Irkutsk.

{Matzav.com}

THREE YEARS OF WAR: IDF Says 100,000 Targets Struck Across Middle East, 970 Soldiers Fallen Since Oct. 7
Three years after the Oct. 7 massacre triggered a multi-front war that transformed Israel’s security landscape, the IDF has released an extensive accounting of the fighting, reporting approximately 100,000 targets struck across the region, the elimination of much of Hamas’s senior command structure, tens of thousands of enemy projectiles fired at Israel, and 970 Israeli soldiers killed under operational circumstances.

The military also detailed sweeping changes implemented as a result of the failures exposed on Oct. 7, including a massive rebuilding of the Gaza border defenses and a dramatic increase in the number of Israeli Air Force personnel and aircraft maintained at immediate readiness for a surprise attack.

According to the IDF, the campaign against Hamas has eliminated four commanders who headed major branches of the terror organization, 17 brigade commanders, approximately 60 battalion commanders and roughly 300 company commanders. The operations were conducted through combined efforts by the Air Force, Military Intelligence Directorate and Operations Directorate.

Many of the Hamas terrorists who personally participated in the Oct. 7 massacre have also been located and eliminated during the three years of fighting.

One of the IDF’s most significant lessons from Oct. 7 has involved the defense of Israeli communities near Gaza. The military says it has fundamentally redesigned the security system protecting those communities following the catastrophic failure that allowed thousands of terrorists to penetrate the border and overrun communities and military positions.

Security infrastructure throughout the Gaza border region has been upgraded, including fences, security roads, fortified positions, gates, lighting, radar systems and surveillance equipment. Local civilian security teams and community security coordinators have also received additional weapons, protective equipment, communications systems and drones.

The IDF has additionally introduced the “Netz” application, designed to allow information to be shared and communications maintained among the different forces and security elements responsible for protecting the communities.

The border barrier itself has undergone a major reconstruction. After investigating how Hamas breached the previous system on Oct. 7, the IDF built a far more substantial physical obstacle incorporating advanced technological capabilities both above and below ground, intended to make another mass infiltration significantly more difficult.

Inside Gaza, improved intelligence and a far more detailed understanding of the terrain have enabled Israeli forces to locate and destroy hundreds of terrorist positions, rocket-launching sites, weapons depots and other Hamas infrastructure.

The military has also refined its systematic drilling method for locating underground terrorist infrastructure. Since the ceasefire last October, more than 4,000 such drillings have been carried out in the search for tunnels and subterranean facilities.

Extensive underground infrastructure has been destroyed along the Yellow Line, including tunnel systems in the Beit Hanoun area and other major subterranean routes discovered and mapped by Israeli forces.

The Air Force has likewise undergone significant changes following its examination of the failures of Oct. 7. The military says it has substantially increased its readiness for a large-scale surprise war on any front, with particular attention given to scenarios involving sudden attacks on Israel’s borders.

New operational orders have been drawn up, greater authority has been delegated to commanders in the field, intelligence-collection procedures have been modified, and the Air Force has changed the way it positions its defensive and offensive capabilities during routine periods.

The number of forces kept at a high level of readiness has increased by as much as four times compared with the eve of the war, according to the IDF. In certain Air Force units, the increase has reached sixfold.

The Air Force has also expanded its command-and-control posture and strengthened systems used to build a real-time operational picture, with the goal of allowing an immediate defensive and offensive response to an unexpected attack. Surprise-war readiness is now tested regularly through exercises involving both operational headquarters and forces in the field.

The scale of Israeli offensive operations over the past three years has been enormous. The IDF says approximately 100,000 targets have been attacked across the various theaters since the war began.

Gaza accounted for the overwhelming majority, with approximately 65,000 targets struck in the Strip. Another 28,000 targets were attacked in Lebanon and Syria, approximately 4,500 in Iran and roughly 80 in Yemen.

At the same time, Israel has faced an extraordinary volume of incoming fire from multiple fronts.

Approximately 10,200 projectiles have been launched toward Israel from Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the IDF. Around 20,000 were fired from Lebanon, making the northern front the source of the largest number of launches.

Iran has launched approximately 1,200 projectiles toward Israel, while around 90 have been fired from Yemen and approximately 50 from Syria.

The human toll on the IDF has been severe. The military says 970 soldiers have been killed under operational circumstances during the three years of war.

Thousands more have been wounded, although the IDF highlighted what it described as a significant rehabilitation achievement: more than 70% of soldiers wounded during the war have subsequently returned to military service.

The military also released extensive figures from its counterterrorism operations in Judea and Samaria. Israeli forces have located and confiscated more than 3,800 weapons during the war.

Approximately 45,000 wanted individuals have been arrested or detained for questioning. They include weapons dealers and illegal weapons holders, suspects believed to have been planning imminent terrorist attacks, operatives involved in terrorism, stone and firebomb throwers and individuals accused of assisting terrorist organizations.

Israeli forces have also seized more than 46 million shekels that authorities say had been designated to finance terrorism.

The release of the IDF figures coincided with commemorations across southern Israel marking three years since the Oct. 7 massacre. In the Eshkol Regional Council, residents gathered for the council’s central memorial ceremony honoring 259 people from the region who were murdered.

Residents from communities throughout Eshkol attended the ceremony, including people from communities whose residents have still not fully returned home. Bereaved families and former hostages were also among those present.

Three years after the devastation, reconstruction across the region remains unfinished. At the same time, the council pointed to one striking indication of renewed life: more than 750 babies have been born in Eshkol since Oct. 7.

Eshkol Regional Council head Michal Uziyahu said the region remains deeply scarred by the massacre even as its communities rebuild and grow.

“Three years later, all of our hostages have returned home and our communities continue on the road back, but there are no shortcuts. It seems that sometimes, דווקא now, the pain is greater, and only now are we beginning to process another layer of what happened to us. Two hundred fifty-nine of our loved ones were murdered, 119 were kidnapped, and young people from across the country were murdered while dancing here. But look at us three years later. The communities have returned and are undergoing significant growth — new homes are being built in Mivtahim, a neighborhood for young people was inaugurated in Nirim, Be’eri residents will return next year and, in the meantime, seventh-grade students have begun studying here. There isn’t an available home in Nir Oz, and even the first wedding since Oct. 7 was held there. There are 800 young people in Eshkol participating in service-year programs and pre-military academies, and families from across the country are joining our communities. The Eshkol Regional Council is a community. We will continue this journey together, demanding accountability and the establishment of a commission of inquiry, ensuring that we create a different reality with meaningful security and not merely a feeling of security. In memory of, and inspired by, those who were murdered and those who fell, we will do everything to be worthy of them.”

פעילות חיל היםצילום: דובר צה”ל

פעילות חיל היםצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות חיל היםצילום: דובר צה”ל

פעילות חיל היםצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות חיל האווירצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות חיל האווירצילום: דובר צה”ל

“לא התאים לי לגדל את הילדים בצפיפות כמו שאני גדלתי”

תוכן מקודם

06:03

טרגדיה בפתח תקווה: הרב יצחק לוי ז”ל נפטר, והוא רק בגיל 53

בשיתוף קופת העיר

02:13

כשהמלון הוא רק תירוץ, אבל אתם לוקחים ממנו את המהדרין

תוכן מקודם

16:03

פעילות חיל האווירצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”ל בסוריהצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”ל בסוריהצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”ל בסוריהצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל פעילות כוחות צה”לצילום: דובר צה”ל

The White House is pushing back forcefully against claims that President Trump suggested Iran should attack Los Angeles or San Diego, saying his controversial remarks at a Nebraska campaign rally were being stripped of their broader context and that Trump was actually arguing that the war had prevented a nuclear-armed Iran from gaining the ability to destroy an American city.

The controversy erupted after Trump addressed supporters Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska, while defending the ongoing war with Iran and acknowledging the economic pain Americans have experienced, particularly from higher fuel prices. The president argued that those costs were comparatively minor if the conflict prevents Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and threatening the United States.

“We want to see a tremendous victory. You want to see a tremendous victory because it verifies all the things we did. And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”

Trump then delivered the comments that quickly ignited a political firestorm.

“They can take out a city. Let them take — let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with, and they might keep going a little long,” he continued.

“You know, they always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it. Let me tell you, they need it. But it’s going to end very soon, and it’ll end one way or the other,” Trump added.

The wording immediately drew condemnation from California officials, who interpreted the remarks literally as Trump saying the destruction of Los Angeles or San Diego would constitute an acceptable price for the war.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused Trump of effectively inviting an enemy nation to attack two major American cities.

“After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego,” Newsom claimed. “He is deranged and dangerous.”

Newsom subsequently announced that he was “directing the State Threat Assessment Center to actively monitor the situation in the event that foreign actors interpret the President’s remarks as an invitation to target California,” while suggesting that Trump’s comments could potentially be “treasonous.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass similarly condemned the president, arguing that his language could have real-world security consequences.

“The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles. His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety.”

“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” she added. “In the face of irresponsible threats, as Angelenos, we know how to stand together and protect our city.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria also joined the criticism, declaring that his city could never be treated as expendable in a military conflict.

“San Diego is not collateral damage,” Gloria said. “We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay.’ Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.”

The White House, however, says that interpretation badly misrepresents Trump’s point. Administration officials said the president was discussing the potential consequences of allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and was arguing that the temporary economic costs associated with preventing that outcome are a small price compared with the destruction that a nuclear Iran could eventually inflict.

The White House’s Rapid Response account issued an unusually blunt response after a Los Angeles Times headline characterized Trump as suggesting that Iran be allowed to attack the California cities.

“No, he didn’t, you buffoons,” Rapid Response said.

“He was saying the U.S. is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance,” it continued.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung offered the same explanation, saying the uproar surrounding the remarks is “not rooted in reality”.

“He was clearly stating US cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” Cheung said. “America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money”.

A review of Trump’s broader comments during the Nebraska appearance shows that the remarks came during an extended discussion of the economic consequences of the Iran war, particularly gasoline prices, and his contention that Americans were paying a relatively modest price to eliminate a far greater potential threat.

Trump had made that argument more explicitly earlier, telling a Nebraska news outlet that the higher cost of fuel would subside once the conflict ended and directly linking the economic sacrifice to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“We’re going to get [the cost of fuel] down,” Trump said. “But it’s all going to come pouring down as soon as the war’s over, which will be very soon. And we will not have Iran having a nuclear weapon. And that’s going to be — and I say it and I say it proudly — a relatively small price to pay for keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of a lunatic nation.”

Trump has repeatedly argued that Iran’s nuclear ambitions ultimately posed a threat beyond Israel and the Middle East. In his February State of the Union address, shortly before the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran began, Trump warned that Tehran was “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

Iran, however, is not currently known to possess a nuclear weapon or an operational ballistic missile capable of striking the continental United States directly from Iranian territory. Its longest-range operational ballistic missiles fall far short of the distance required to reach California, although U.S. officials have long warned that technologies developed through Iran’s space-launch program could contribute to a future intercontinental ballistic missile capability.

That distinction has become part of the broader argument over Trump’s remarks. Critics contend that regardless of his intended point, a president should not use language that can be heard as suggesting an enemy could be permitted to destroy American cities. The White House counters that Trump’s meaning becomes apparent when the comments are viewed alongside his repeated warnings about what Iran could eventually do if permitted to acquire nuclear weapons and long-range delivery systems.

{Matzav.com}

New satellite imagery indicates that Iran has resumed substantial activity at Minzadayi, a secret nuclear weapons development compound northeast of Tehran that was heavily bombed by Israel in March, raising concerns that Tehran may be attempting to rebuild capabilities destroyed during Operation Roaring Lion.

High-resolution images taken by VANTOR Technologies during September and early October show renewed vehicle traffic throughout the compound, extensive cleanup work and fresh earthmoving at an area struck during the Israeli attack, according to an analysis released this week by the Institute for Science and International Security.

The institute warned that the activity could represent considerably more than an effort to clean up the damage left by Israeli airstrikes, saying the work may signal an attempt to restore the site’s previous capabilities.

“Given what is known about this compound, this activity may be indicative of an effort by Iran to reestablish a nuclear weapons development capability and to reconstitute what was lost in the attack on the compound,” the institute said.

Israel attacked Minzadayi on March 3, after identifying the heavily secured facility as a clandestine nuclear weapons development center. The strike destroyed several above-ground buildings and apparently damaged underground portions of the complex as well.

At the time of the attack, the IDF said the previously undisclosed compound was a secret “nuclear headquarters” where Iranian scientists had been working covertly on the development of a critical component for a nuclear weapon.

The site is situated off Sohanak Road northeast of Tehran in an area containing parkland and recreational facilities. Analysts who examined the location described a heavily protected compound surrounded by a high wall and guard towers, with two clusters of buildings above ground and additional structures built into the surrounding hillside.

Satellite photographs taken immediately after the March attack showed extensive destruction inside the compound. Multiple buildings had been demolished, while craters and other evidence suggested that Israel had also targeted areas believed to conceal underground facilities.

In the months that followed, Iran launched an extensive cleanup operation at Minzadayi. Rubble and other debris were hauled away, while damage to the hillside caused by the Israeli strikes was repaired.

The latest imagery, however, shows that activity has continued beyond the initial removal of debris. A substantial number of vehicles were visible across the facility during September and early October, suggesting that regular access to the compound has resumed.

Analysts also identified continuing earthmoving in an area that was directly struck in March. The work is taking place at what appears from above to be a courtyard, but side-view imagery indicates that the area contains an underground section. Numerous impact craters had been visible there following the Israeli attack.

The renewed work at Minzadayi is particularly significant because the compound has been linked to Iranian research involving nuclear warhead development rather than merely the civilian components of Tehran’s nuclear program.

The facility was among a series of sensitive nuclear and weapons-related locations attacked during Operation Roaring Lion as Israel sought to cripple Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon and destroy infrastructure that could allow Tehran to rebuild the program.

Minzadayi is not the only nuclear-related facility where Iran has recently undertaken significant reconstruction. Satellite imagery released in September showed Tehran rapidly rebuilding the Taleghan 2 facility at the Parchin military complex, approximately 20 miles southeast of Tehran.

Taleghan 2 has long been associated with research relevant to nuclear weapons. Western intelligence assessments have linked the site to experiments conducted more than two decades ago involving explosives and technologies that could be used in the development of a nuclear warhead.

Recent imagery showed heavy construction equipment at Taleghan 2, including bulldozers, dump trucks, cranes, concrete mixers and concrete pumping vehicles. Iran also erected a large tarp over the destroyed hardened structure, obstructing satellite and aerial observation of some of the reconstruction underneath.

Iran has additionally reinforced parts of Taleghan 2 with new concrete intended to provide greater protection against future aerial attacks. Repair work there began in June, including the placement of concrete caps over penetration holes created by bunker-busting weapons.

“What is clear is that Iran remains committed to rebuilding this facility, a deeply concerning development considering the long history of nuclear weapons research and development activities that occurred there,” the institute said in its assessment of the Taleghan 2 reconstruction.

Iran has also taken steps to protect other sensitive nuclear locations. At Natanz and the facility known as Pickaxe Mountain, satellite imagery has shown new measures intended to restrict or harden access to underground areas containing potentially valuable nuclear equipment or material.

President Trump has publicly warned Tehran that the United States is closely watching Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried facility that has drawn growing attention over concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities.

“We have eyes on it and Pickaxe mountain is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right in the front door…We’re watching Pickaxe Mountain very closely. We don’t see any activity there.”

Trump subsequently issued an even more explicit warning: “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ​ready.”

Iran has demonstrated a broader ability to repair military infrastructure damaged during the war faster than some Western analysts initially expected. By May, reports indicated that Iranian crews had already reopened 50 of 69 entrances to underground missile facilities that had been blocked during the fighting.

Satellite imagery from that period also showed reconstruction underway at ballistic missile production facilities, reinforcing concerns that Tehran was working rapidly to restore strategic capabilities degraded by the Israeli and American air campaign.

During Operation Roaring Lion, Israel carried out more than 10,800 strikes across Iran, dropping over 18,000 munitions. Approximately 4,000 targets and more than 6,700 individual components were struck during the campaign.

By the time the ceasefire took effect, the IDF assessed that nearly every facility identified before the campaign as a “vital and strategic” target had been rendered inoperable.

{Matzav.com}

Vice President JD Vance says the United States will not agree to end its seven-month war with Iran unless Tehran takes concrete action to significantly reduce its uranium-enrichment capabilities, insisting that Washington will accept neither promises nor vague commitments in place of actual nuclear concessions.

Vance laid out the administration’s position in an interview following a campaign trip to Alaska, where he said any agreement with Tehran would have to include a meaningful reduction in Iran’s ability to produce highly enriched uranium.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear ⁠weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity.”

The remarks provide one of the clearest indications yet of what the Trump administration would require from Iran as part of an agreement to halt the fighting. Vance, who has long expressed skepticism about prolonged American involvement in overseas wars, has emerged as a major figure in the administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Vance previously helped broker a provisional peace agreement in September, but the arrangement quickly collapsed. Washington and Tehran have continued exchanging proposals in recent weeks as mediators seek a formula that could end the war and normalize commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal, which included demands connected to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions relief, access to blocked ports and the release of frozen Iranian assets. Iranian officials subsequently said Tehran had received an official American response to its proposal, while Qatar and Pakistan have continued mediation efforts between the two sides.

Vance made clear that Washington remains prepared to negotiate, but said Tehran will have to demonstrate through its conduct that it is prepared to move away from the possibility of developing a nuclear weapon.

“We’re not going to trade words for actions,” Vance said.

The vice president’s comments come as the Trump administration continues to insist that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a central American objective, even as the conflict has expanded far beyond Iran’s nuclear facilities and caused major disruptions to global energy markets and shipping.

Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60% purity has long been a central concern for Washington and Israel. That level is far beyond what is ordinarily required for civilian nuclear power and represents a relatively short technical step from weapons-grade material, although Iran has repeatedly denied that it intends to build a nuclear weapon.

Another major obstacle facing American negotiators, Vance said, is uncertainty over who actually has the authority to make binding decisions inside Iran following the upheaval caused by the war.

Washington has been negotiating with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but Vance said American officials remain uncertain about how much authority the two men possess within Iran’s fractured wartime power structure.

“One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” Vance said.

The question has become particularly acute since joint U.S.-Israeli strikes at the beginning of the war killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leaving Washington attempting to determine where ultimate decision-making authority now rests inside the Islamic Republic.

Iran has pushed back against that characterization. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said American officials know precisely who their Iranian counterparts are and understand Tehran’s decision-making structure.

“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,” Baghaei said.

President Trump raised the same concern Tuesday during an appearance in Maryland, saying the uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership has become one of the biggest obstacles to resolving the conflict.

Trump said his “biggest problem” is that no one knows who is running Iran.

At the same event, Trump suggested that the war could be approaching its conclusion but warned that Tehran’s decisions will determine whether it ends through negotiations or through additional American military action.

“We’re doing extremely well in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Very well. The whole place is shot. They were the bully of the Middle East. They’re not so much the bully anymore. But we have to finish up, and it’s only a question of which way we want to do it: the nice way or the not-so-nice way. And pretty soon you’ll find out,” Trump said.

Vance, meanwhile, said he has personally spoken with American field commanders to obtain a direct assessment of battlefield conditions. He dismissed concerns that the United States is running dangerously short of critical munitions as a result of the prolonged conflict.

The vice president also said Iranian forces remain capable of periodically attacking commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz but have largely failed to prevent energy shipments from moving through the strategically vital waterway.

Oil exports through the strait have recovered significantly from earlier wartime disruptions, although shipping costs, insurance rates and damage to regional energy infrastructure have continued to keep pressure on global energy prices. The economic consequences of the conflict have increasingly become a domestic political issue in the United States ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The war is costing the United States approximately $3 billion per month, while higher fuel and energy costs have provided Democrats with an issue to use against Trump and Republican candidates in closely contested races that could determine control of Congress.

Vance has been campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates and has urged voters not to allow dissatisfaction over the war to drive them away from the GOP. His Alaska trip included a rally for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is facing a competitive reelection challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola.

Vance spent much of his appearance in Alaska discussing affordability and energy costs, particularly significant issues in a state where geographic isolation raises consumer prices and oil and gas production remain major components of the economy.

During the rally, Sullivan nearly introduced Vance as president rather than vice president, drawing cheers from the crowd. Vance is widely viewed as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2028, although he said he has made no decision about seeking the White House.

“I’m inherently a procrastinator,” he said. “I really haven’t thought about it much.”

Trump has separately argued that Iran is already close to capitulating under the combined pressure of American military operations, economic isolation and severe damage to its military capabilities.

Last week, Trump described Iran as “ready to fold up” and predicted that the United States could secure victory shortly after the November midterm elections — or potentially even before Election Day.

Speaking in Texas, Trump said, “We have a war going on with a country that will never have a nuclear weapon and is ready to fold up. We’ll win very easily right now. I believe right after the election we’ll win, but maybe before the election.”

Trump has repeatedly maintained that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon when hostilities began in late February, arguing that military action was necessary to prevent Tehran from crossing that threshold.

According to Trump, Iran was “three to four weeks away, maybe sooner” from obtaining a nuclear weapon when the war began.

“And if they have a nuclear weapon, the whole game is over..” he said.

The president has warned that Tehran now faces a stark choice as negotiations continue, saying the conflict will end “one way or the other…either they’ll do something very proper and smart or they won’t be around very long, which is, you know, frankly, I hate to see that, but they won’t be around very long.”

{Matzav.com}

Lt. Col. Aryeh Amidror, the Gaza Division’s intelligence officer at the time of the Oct. 7 massacre, is denying that he bears professional or command responsibility for the failure to warn of Hamas’s impending invasion, arguing in newly released court documents that providing strategic warning of war was not the responsibility of divisional intelligence.

Amidror’s defense comes amid a bitter battle over the IDF’s decision to end his military career following investigations into the catastrophic intelligence and command failures preceding Oct. 7. His identity was kept from the public for nearly three years before Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last week that his name could be published.

The newly disclosed documents stem from a petition Amidror filed in March 2026 challenging the process to terminate his career service. The proceedings initially remained confidential, and even after his arguments were rejected, the filings continued to be covered by a gag order. Their release now provides the fullest picture yet of Amidror’s effort to contest the conclusions reached by the military about his conduct.

Amidror, the son of Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, served as the Gaza Division intelligence officer during the period leading up to the Hamas invasion and on the morning of Oct. 7 itself. He had also previously served as head of the division’s targets branch, giving him years of experience with Gaza and its intelligence picture.

One of the central issues in the case concerns the warnings of a female noncommissioned officer in the IDF’s elite Unit 8200, identified publicly only as “Vav,” who studied Hamas training exercises in the months before the massacre and warned that they could reflect preparations for an actual invasion.

Amidror argues that far from ignoring the issue, it was he who directed that Hamas’s exercises be studied in the first place.

“Upon assuming my position as Gaza Division intelligence officer, I instructed a certain body within Unit 8200 to find Hamas training exercises in order to assess the enemy’s tactical capabilities,” the documents state. According to Amidror, “following an instruction given by the petitioner and at the direction of her commanders, the NCO found the exercise.”

The court papers include correspondence between Amidror and the NCO as their disagreement over the meaning of the Hamas exercises developed.

“To be clear, the purpose of my email was not to bring the assessment down but to raise it. In any event, I don’t think this is a point of ‘absolute and unequivocal disagreement,’ because clearly, as more material is distributed, the area of agreement will grow. We are at the beginning of the process.”

Amidror points to that correspondence as evidence that he did not simply dismiss the NCO’s work. He also says he initiated a discussion “with the aim of challenging the prevailing concept and examining the division’s underlying assumptions regarding the possibility that Hamas had the capability and intention to carry out a single or large-scale raid.”

According to Amidror, a summary of that discussion was circulated as high as the office of the IDF chief of staff, showing that he was actively attempting “to undermine and challenge the underlying assumptions.” He contends that those efforts were not properly considered when military leaders decided to remove him from service.

Other evidence presented in the investigations, however, has painted a sharply different picture of his handling of the warnings. Amidror has previously been reported to have dismissed the Hamas mass-invasion scenario contained in the so-called “Jericho Wall” plan as a “completely imaginary scenario,” despite warnings from Unit 8200 and Gaza border observers.

The Jericho Wall document described with remarkable detail a Hamas assault involving rocket fire, drones, the breaching of Israel’s border defenses and large numbers of terrorists pouring into Israeli communities and military bases — elements that would ultimately materialize on the morning of Oct. 7.

The newly released court material also exposes what the IDF views as significant weaknesses in Amidror’s argument that he meaningfully challenged the prevailing conception. The Unit 8200 NCO whose work was at the center of the issue was not invited to the discussion and was not given the opportunity to personally present her assessment.

The Gaza Division commander was also not immediately briefed about the intelligence developments, while the discussion on the issue was scheduled for after the holidays. Amidror himself acknowledges the timing in his petition, and the delay has become a key point in the dispute over whether his actions amounted to a meaningful real-time challenge to the prevailing assessment of Hamas’s intentions.

The most consequential argument in Amidror’s filing goes considerably further. He rejects the IDF’s contention that the failure to provide adequate warning falls within his professional responsibility at all.

“The petitioner denies the claim that he failed professionally or bears command or professional responsibility for the failure to provide a warning of war,” the filing states.

It then declares: “The mission of providing a warning of war is not the responsibility of division intelligence.”

The IDF emphatically rejects that interpretation of the job Amidror held.

In its response to his petition, the military describes the Gaza Division intelligence officer’s responsibilities in broad terms: “The Gaza Division intelligence officer leads all intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination efforts in the sector – management of the intelligence picture, warning, collection and research, and command advisory.”

The IDF’s assessment of Amidror’s performance is severe. Military investigators concluded that the failures were not limited to a single judgment made in the hours immediately before the massacre, but included his handling of intelligence during the period leading up to the attack.

The military states that it identified “a series of professional errors and failures in the petitioner’s conduct on the night preceding October 7, as well as beforehand, in assessing the security risk posed by the Hamas terrorist organization.”

The IDF further rejected Amidror’s attempt to separate his personal conduct from his command responsibility for the intelligence apparatus operating beneath him.

“The petitioner bears personal responsibility for the failures identified in his conduct – in the manner in which he exercised his judgment, the degree of oversight he maintained, and the level of professionalism he demonstrated in his position. Command responsibility means the commander’s responsibility for what occurs in the unit under his authority.”

The disciplinary process against Amidror followed a broader examination of the IDF’s internal Oct. 7 investigations by an expert team headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman. The review concluded, among other things, that the Gaza Division had failed to sufficiently engage with the Jericho Wall invasion plan from both an intelligence and operational standpoint.

On Nov. 23, 2025, the IDF chief of staff determined that a series of senior commanders bore command responsibility for failures connected to Oct. 7 and ordered command measures against several officers, including Amidror. A subsequent recommendation from the deputy chief of staff called for ending Amidror’s career-service commitment.

Amidror challenged that process in court, describing his treatment as discriminatory, selective and arbitrary. The administrative court ultimately rejected his petition and allowed the IDF process to proceed. In September, the military formally announced that his career service would be terminated.

The IDF also argued that Amidror’s legal theory could have ramifications far beyond his individual case. Military commanders, it said, must retain the ability to impose command consequences even when an officer’s actions do not necessarily amount to individual legal wrongdoing.

If courts were to restrict command sanctions solely to questions of individual legal liability, the IDF warned, it could severely constrain the chief of staff’s authority to hold commanders accountable for failures occurring under their leadership.

“This result must not be permitted,” the military wrote.

Amidror, meanwhile, maintains that he has been singled out to bear consequences for a failure that extended throughout Israel’s intelligence and military leadership.

“The petitioner is the only commander in the IDF who is paying a real price, in the form of the loss of his rights, for the failures of the military and the state concerning intelligence and warnings about the intentions of the Hamas terrorist organization,” he argued.

His filing points to senior figures who held key positions on Oct. 7, including commanders in Southern Command, the Operations Directorate, the Gaza Division and Unit 8200. Amidror argues that those officers were able to complete their service and leave the IDF while preserving their pension and other benefits, while the termination of his career service leaves him facing a different financial and professional outcome.

Amidror also fought to keep his identity from being made public, but that battle ended last week when the Supreme Court lifted the publication restriction. The court cited the absence of a security reason to continue concealing his name, the fact that his identity had already circulated publicly and the strong public interest in identifying a senior intelligence officer whom the IDF had held responsible for failures connected to Oct. 7.

With the gag order lifted, Amidror’s defense is now playing out publicly for the first time, exposing a fundamental clash over one of the central questions left by the Oct. 7 catastrophe: where responsibility for recognizing Hamas’s intentions and providing a warning ultimately rested — and who should personally pay the price for failing to do so.

{Matzav.com}

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The Omani co-pilot accused of launching a jihadist attack aboard an Israel-bound Flydubai flight received professional aviation training in Britain and New Zealand before beginning his commercial flying career, according to a new report revealing additional details about the background of the man who allegedly tried to bring down the passenger jet.

Hamam al-Hammami, 29, is being held in Abu Dhabi following the dramatic Sept. 30 attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Authorities say Hammami attacked the captain inside the cockpit with a crash axe in what has been described as an attempted terrorist hijacking.

Hammami has reportedly admitted that the attack was motivated by the war in Gaza and that he intended to die during the assault.

“I did it as revenge for Gaza. I wanted to die as a shahid,” al-Hammami told investigators.

New information about Hammami’s background indicates that years before the attack, he received flight training through L3 Airline Academy, then one of Britain’s largest professional pilot-training organizations. He reportedly trained with the academy between 2018 and 2019.

L3 operated several major aviation-training facilities in England, including centers in Southampton and Bournemouth and a simulator facility near Gatwick Airport. The company has since become part of Acron Aviation.

There has been no allegation that L3 Airline Academy, Acron Aviation or any related company had knowledge of extremist views on Hammami’s part or engaged in wrongdoing connected to the attack. Acron has said it is prepared to cooperate with authorities investigating the incident.

Hammami’s training was not limited to Britain. Authorities in New Zealand confirmed that he received a six-month student visa for aviation training there from November 2018 until May 2019 “for a UK-based company no longer operating in New Zealand”.

At the time, L3 operated an international pilot-training program that allowed cadets to divide their studies between Britain and New Zealand. Trainees could complete classroom and theoretical instruction in Southampton before traveling to Hamilton, New Zealand, for practical flight training and then returning to Britain for more advanced instruction.

Hammami subsequently worked for Oman Air, where he remained employed until February 2025. L3 also had ties to the Omani carrier, which had previously included the aviation school among five internationally recognized institutions whose graduates were eligible for consideration in its pilot recruitment program.

Acron Aviation has declined to say publicly whether Hammami was one of its students, citing its policy of not identifying present or past trainees.

“We were saddened to hear of this incident, and our thoughts are with everyone affected. As a matter of policy, we do not publicly comment on whether any individual is or has been a student with us.”

“We will, of course, assist the relevant authorities, if necessary, in any way we can as they investigate this incident.”

Hammami eventually joined Flydubai as a relatively new pilot before being assigned to the carrier’s route to Israel. Reports since the attack have raised questions about his behavior and views before the incident and whether any warning signs were missed before he was permitted to operate flights to Tel Aviv.

The attack unfolded after Flight FZ1073 departed Dubai for Tel Aviv with approximately 160 people aboard. Investigators believe Hammami waited until the aircraft was airborne before attacking the captain inside the cockpit with a crash axe.

Despite suffering serious injuries, the captain managed to resist Hammami and open the cockpit door, allowing others aboard the aircraft to intervene. Hammami was overpowered, and the damaged flight was diverted away from Israel before landing safely in Saudi Arabia.

The episode triggered an extraordinary security response in Israel. With authorities initially uncertain about what was occurring aboard the aircraft or whether the attack was part of a larger terrorist operation, Israeli defense officials prepared for the possibility that the plane itself could be used as a weapon.

Two Israeli officials subsequently said that Israel was prepared to shoot down the Flydubai aircraft if it continued toward Israeli airspace after Hammami attacked the captain. Fighter jets were prepared to intercept the aircraft if necessary as officials monitored its movements.

The United Arab Emirates also provided Israeli authorities with information about the flight crew as officials in both countries worked to establish what had happened and determine whether Hammami had acted alone.

The investigation has since expanded beyond the immediate circumstances aboard the aircraft. Israeli authorities are attempting to determine whether Hammami independently decided to carry out the attack because of the Gaza war or whether another individual, organization or foreign actor played a role in planning or encouraging it.

The Shin Bet is participating in the investigation, a fact that was cleared for publication this week by Israel’s military censor. Israeli investigators are examining Hammami’s background, contacts and activities in an effort to determine whether there was any connection to a terrorist organization or outside handler.

So far, no conclusive evidence has been publicly disclosed establishing that Hammami acted on instructions from another party. His reported statement to investigators points to Gaza as his stated motivation, but Israeli officials have not ruled out other possibilities as the investigation continues.

The attack has also prompted broader scrutiny of airline security procedures involving pilots and other crew members flying to Israel. Reports have revealed that approximately 1,200 crew members from countries whose citizens are generally barred from entering Israel had nevertheless entered the country as airline personnel, raising questions about the security screening applied to foreign flight crews.

Israeli authorities have been reviewing those procedures in the aftermath of the Flydubai attack, including the process by which pilots and crew members assigned to Israel-bound flights are vetted.

The six people credited with helping prevent the attack from ending in catastrophe are also set to receive recognition from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Their intervention, together with the wounded captain’s actions, prevented Hammami from gaining control of the aircraft and allowed the plane to land safely.

The revelation that Hammami received professional aviation training in Britain and New Zealand now adds another element to the international investigation into his background, as authorities seek to reconstruct the path that took him from flight schools in the West to the cockpit of an Israel-bound passenger jet — and ultimately to an alleged attempt to turn that aircraft into the instrument of a jihadist attack.

{Matzav.com}

President Trump has approved the execution by U.S. Army firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the radicalized Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, setting the stage for the first U.S. military execution in 65 years and the first Army firing-squad execution since World War II.

Hasan, now 56, is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3, 2026, at Fort Hood — the same Texas military installation where he carried out his deadly attack nearly 17 years ago — according to an email sent to families of the victims. The execution date was set after President Trump approved the death sentence and the method of execution following a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision, describing Hasan as a “convicted terrorist” and “the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009.”

“He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” Parnell said.

“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” he continued. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”

Hasan was an Army major and psychiatrist when, on Nov. 5, 2009, he entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, where military personnel were preparing for deployments overseas. Armed with a semiautomatic handgun equipped with laser sights, Hasan opened fire on the unarmed people inside.

Witnesses said Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” immediately before beginning his rampage. Over the course of approximately 10 minutes, he fired 146 rounds, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others. Twelve of those killed were soldiers, and one of the victims was pregnant.

Among the severely wounded was Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler, a two-time combat veteran who was shot four times and spent nearly a year recovering in hospitals.

“He looked me straight in the eyes as he pointed the gun at me, and a split second later, I’m on the floor with a hole in my head,” Zeigler later recalled.

The massacre ended when civilian police officers confronted Hasan. He was shot multiple times and left paralyzed from the waist down.

Investigators subsequently uncovered extensive evidence of Hasan’s radicalization before the attack. He had repeatedly expressed opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and exchanged communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Al Qaeda cleric and propagandist who was later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

Hasan had himself been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan later in November 2009. During subsequent court proceedings, he made clear that he viewed his attack through the prism of what he considered a war against Islam.

At one stage, Hasan sought permission to pursue a legal strategy arguing that he had acted in defense of others. When the military judge asked whom he claimed to have been defending, Hasan replied, “The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban.”

Hasan ultimately represented himself at his 2013 court-martial. He admitted that he was the gunman, mounted virtually no defense, called no witnesses and offered little resistance to the prosecution’s case. He told the court that he had come to believe he was fighting on the wrong side of a war and had “switched sides.”

A military jury convicted Hasan in August 2013 on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The panel unanimously sentenced him to death.

Hasan was then transferred to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he has remained on military death row as the case proceeded through the lengthy appeals process required in military capital cases.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and death sentence in 2020. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces subsequently affirmed the sentence, and in March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case, removing another major legal obstacle to carrying out the execution.

Hegseth announced in September 2025 that he was moving to obtain presidential authorization for Hasan’s execution. Because military death sentences cannot be carried out without presidential approval, the case remained pending until Trump gave his authorization.

The decision to use a firing squad adds an extraordinary historical dimension to the case. The United States military has not executed anyone since April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted of rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The last known U.S. military execution by firing squad occurred during World War II. Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot by an Army firing squad in France on Jan. 31, 1945, after being convicted of desertion. He was the only American soldier executed for desertion during World War II.

Under current Army regulations, a military execution requires approval from the president. Regulations were revised in 2019 to remove language specifying lethal injection as the required method, leaving greater flexibility over how a military death sentence can be carried out.

Even with Trump’s approval and a Dec. 3 execution date, Hasan could still seek to delay the sentence through litigation in the civilian federal courts, including a petition for habeas corpus. Military death sentences have historically generated years — and sometimes decades — of additional legal proceedings.

Hasan is one of only a handful of prisoners on U.S. military death row. Others include Hasan Akbar, convicted of murdering two fellow soldiers in Kuwait in 2003; Ronald Gray, convicted of multiple murders and rapes; and Timothy Hennis, convicted of murdering a woman and two of her children.

Hasan’s case, however, stands apart because of the scale of the Fort Hood massacre and his own statements concerning his motives. The attack was among the deadliest acts of violence ever carried out on a U.S. military installation.

If the execution proceeds as scheduled on Dec. 3, Hasan will be put to death at the military base where he carried out the massacre — ending a capital case that has stretched from the Fort Hood killings in 2009 through nearly 17 years of court proceedings and appeals.

{Matzav.com}

United Airlines has once again removed Capt. Ibrahim R. Mossallam from flying duties after renewed scrutiny revealed that the pilot, who defended the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre as “resistance by a brave people,” had returned to flying passengers following a brief suspension nearly three years ago.

The airline confirmed Tuesday that Mossallam is currently being kept out of the cockpit while another review is underway. “We have withheld this pilot from service pending an ongoing review,” United said.

The new action follows reports this week that Mossallam, a Newark-based United pilot who flies Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft, had continued operating passenger flights despite the controversy that erupted over comments he posted on Oct. 7, 2023, as the Hamas massacre was unfolding in southern Israel.

In the Facebook post that originally sparked outrage, Mossallam wrote, “For all my friends here in FB land with Questions / Thoughts / Assumptions / Critique about whats [sic] transpiring in Palestine currently in response to the Zionist occupation, please work on expanding your media literacy. Know that mass media here in America is heavily politicized and skewed to show a non-occupying narrative of Palestine. This is a resistance by a brave people who have endured decades of occupation, oppression, humiliation, apartheid, and straight up murder. This was not an unprovoked attack, but a response to this past years attacks by the Zionist regime. Don’t take my word, do your due diligence in acquiring your information.”

The comments drew widespread condemnation after they came to public attention in November 2023, with critics questioning how passengers — particularly Jewish and Israeli travelers — could feel comfortable knowing that a pilot entrusted with their safety had publicly characterized the Oct. 7 assault in those terms.

United responded at the time by removing Mossallam from active duty while investigating. “This pilot has been removed from service, with pay, while we look into this matter,” the airline said in November 2023.

What happened after that, however, remained largely out of public view. United did not announce the findings of its investigation or explain whether Mossallam had been cleared to return to the cockpit.

A federal court order issued in June 2025 later provided an important clue. The order, in an unrelated lawsuit filed against United and a union, recounted an allegation that Mossallam had been suspended with pay following his Oct. 7 comments but returned to flying approximately one month later. The court itself was not making a finding about Mossallam’s conduct or United’s investigation; it was recounting allegations in the litigation.

Additional reporting in 2025 indicated that Mossallam remained employed by United, while reports this year said that he was continuing to fly Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for the carrier. United does not operate those aircraft on its Israel routes.

Mossallam also serves as vice president of the board of CAIR-New York, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The controversy erupted anew this week when Israeli journalist Libby Blanca Alon reported that Mossallam was still actively flying for United and publicly pressed the airline to explain why he had been permitted to return to the cockpit.

Alon subsequently reported an even more striking allegation: two United pilots who were deadheading on a flight operated by Mossallam after his return to duty reportedly gave up their first-class seats and remained in the cockpit for the entire flight because they did not trust him and wanted to keep an eye on him.

That allegation is based on sources cited by Alon and has not been independently confirmed by United. The airline has not publicly addressed the claim involving the two pilots.

Alon also reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that United had wanted to terminate Mossallam but was prevented from doing so by the pilots’ union. That allegation likewise has not been publicly confirmed by United or the union.

The renewed scrutiny comes at an especially sensitive moment for airline security following the Sept. 30 attack aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, which was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when its co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain with a cockpit crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft. The wounded captain was able to open the cockpit door, and others aboard intervened before the aircraft ultimately landed safely in Saudi Arabia.

Authorities have characterized the flydubai incident as a terrorist act, and investigators have been examining reports that the co-pilot had previously raised concerns over extremist material and had allegedly planned his attack before joining an airline that operated flights to Israel.

There is no evidence that Mossallam was involved in the flydubai incident, and the two cases are entirely separate. There is also no public evidence that Mossallam has threatened passengers, attempted to interfere with an aircraft or planned any act of violence. The controversy surrounding him concerns his public statements about the Oct. 7 massacre and United’s handling of his employment and return to flying.

Still, the flydubai attack has intensified questions about how airlines evaluate warning signs involving flight crews and what standards should apply when a pilot makes public statements appearing to endorse or rationalize mass violence.

Nearly three years after Mossallam’s original suspension, United has never publicly disclosed what its first investigation determined, why he was returned to flying duties or what standards were used in reaching that decision.

Now, following the renewed attention, Mossallam is once again out of the cockpit — at least while United conducts its latest review. “We have withheld this pilot from service pending an ongoing review,” the airline said.

Wikipedia is facing renewed accusations of anti-Israel bias over the opening sentence of its main article on the Oct. 7 massacre, which describes the Hamas-led assault as “a series of coordinated armed incursions from the blockaded Gaza Strip” — language critics say inserts an implied justification for the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust before even describing what occurred.

The controversy is the latest flashpoint in a much broader battle over Wikipedia’s treatment of Israel, Zionism, Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jewish and pro-Israel organizations have repeatedly accused activist editors of manipulating articles to advance an anti-Israel narrative, an issue that has become increasingly significant as Wikipedia material is also used by search engines and artificial-intelligence systems.

“It’s yet another example of the Wikipedia editors’ anti-Israel bias,” Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said. “They modify entries to support a distorted narrative that erases Jewish history and the Jewish experience. This time they added the word ‘blockaded’ to try and justify Hamas’s barbaric Oct. 7 massacre.”

Lewin said the wording echoes rhetoric that has repeatedly surfaced among anti-Israel activists since the massacre, including claims that “resistance is justified” and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’s controversial statement that Oct. 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”

The disputed word did not appear in the article’s opening sentence from the beginning. “Blockaded” was added in February, setting off what initially was only limited opposition on the article’s Wikipedia “talk” page, where editors debate proposed changes and disagreements over content.

The dispute gained new life in August as additional editors challenged the wording. On Sept. 11, a formal discussion was launched to determine whether there was sufficient consensus among Wikipedia editors to retain “blockaded” in the article’s first sentence.

Under Wikipedia rules governing highly contentious Israel-Palestinian articles, participation in such discussions is restricted to established editors who have been active for at least 30 days and have made at least 500 edits.

“The edit ignores Hamas’s history of diverting humanitarian aid intended for Gaza’s civilian population,” Lewin said. “Indeed, Hamas used pre-Oct. 7 aid to build a massive terror tunnel network under homes, schools and mosques from which it launched its attacks, cynically exploiting civilians as a human shield and then crying ‘genocide’ when Israel defended itself.”

The argument over the word carries particular significance because of the enormous reach of Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia is among the world’s most heavily visited websites, and its material frequently surfaces prominently in internet searches and can influence the information used by artificial-intelligence systems.

Criticism of the phrase also comes against the backdrop of Guterres’s remarks shortly after the massacre. Speaking at the U.N. Security Council, the secretary-general said the attacks “did not happen in a vacuum” and that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

The remarks provoked an angry response from Israel. Gilad Erdan, then Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Guterres’s comments “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”

The Wikipedia editor who initiated the formal debate over retaining “blockaded” defended the terminology, writing that “Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is a defining feature of this topic and necessary context for a non-specialist reader.” The editor argued that high-quality sources supported describing Gaza that way in the article’s opening sentence and maintained that doing so was consistent with Wikipedia’s requirement for neutral language.

In making the case, the editor cited Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi, describing him as the “preeminent expert in modern Palestinian history.” Khalidi’s background has itself been the subject of controversy. Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has said that Khalidi served as a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization during a period when the PLO was designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Khalidi has denied that characterization.

The Wikipedia editor defending the wording went still further, comparing the inclusion of Gaza’s “blockaded” status to providing context about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against an oppressive regime.

“We must not create an exception to obfuscate through omission here,” the editor wrote.

Opponents of the wording argued that placing “blockaded” in the opening sentence does more than provide geographical or historical context. They said its placement before a description of the massacre risks suggesting a causal or moral explanation for Hamas’s actions.

A different Wikipedia editor wrote Tuesday that “blockaded” should be removed because “the word suggests justification.”

“To the unedified reader, it may well connote the most extreme version of what ‘blockade’ might mean, like the complete stoppage of all food and supply into a territory,” the editor wrote.

The debate remained unresolved, with editors continuing to argue over whether the word constitutes necessary context or injects a political interpretation into the opening description of the massacre.

The controversy is hardly the first involving Wikipedia’s coverage of Israel. Critics have accused groups of highly active editors of working together to reshape articles dealing with Israel, Zionism, Palestinian terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wikipedia’s own arbitration process has previously taken disciplinary action against several editors involved in the contentious subject area.

Outside investigations have also alleged coordinated editing campaigns aimed at changing the framing of Israel-related articles, including efforts to emphasize criticism of Israel while minimizing or removing material concerning Palestinian terrorism, antisemitism and violence. The accusations have intensified since Oct. 7, as battles over individual words, descriptions and sources have played out across numerous Wikipedia entries.

The consequences, critics argue, extend far beyond people who deliberately visit Wikipedia. Material from the encyclopedia is frequently reproduced or summarized elsewhere online, meaning editorial decisions made by a relatively small number of volunteer contributors can potentially influence how millions of people encounter information about Israel and the Middle East.

Max Abrahms, an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University who studies terrorism and the Middle East, said the problem is connected to a broader ideological imbalance in academia.

“The removal of pro-Israel scholars and even Israel-neutral ones” from academia has impacted “Wikipedia and many other forms of discourse influencing the public,” Abrahms said.

“Zionist-free higher education reduces balanced scholarship and contributes to Wikipedia’s bias,” he said. “The same is true of podcasts and social media, where almost no pro-Israel scholars can be found.”

Abrahms argued that those concerned about the trend should focus on strengthening intellectual diversity within universities rather than treating individual Wikipedia disputes in isolation.

“Philanthropists who care about Israel and intellectual pluralism must make targeted investments to ensure there are faculty to teach the younger generation, which will also have all sorts of additional benefits like objectively correct entries on Wikipedia,” he said.

Eliya Cohen, who survived 505 days in Hamas captivity after being abducted from the Nova music festival, delivered a simple and defiant message to his former captors and terrorists around the world Tuesday at the United Nations: “I won.”

Cohen spoke before roughly 400 people at U.N. headquarters in New York as Israel’s mission to the United Nations marked three years since the Oct. 7 massacre. The gathering brought together survivors, senior diplomats, government officials and community leaders to remember those murdered and abducted and to focus on the resilience of those who survived.

Television host and psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw moderated an emotional conversation with Cohen and his wife, Ziv Abud, both of whom survived the Hamas attack on the Nova festival on Oct. 7, 2023, before being separated for 505 days.

Abud recounted how she and others attempted to flee the festival by car as rockets filled the sky and the music abruptly stopped. They eventually took refuge in a roadside bomb shelter that became packed with 29 people.

Hamas terrorists attacked the shelter, repeatedly throwing grenades inside and opening fire before eventually entering. Abud was shot in the leg and lost consciousness. When she awoke, she found herself beneath a pile of bodies.

She had no idea what had happened to Cohen. He had been taken alive to Gaza, while Cohen, for his part, spent his captivity believing that Abud had been murdered in the shelter.

“I fought for them for 505 days without knowing anything,” Abud said, of those she lost. “It will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Cohen was ultimately freed in February 2025 after 505 days in Gaza, much of that time spent deep underground in Hamas tunnels. He has described enduring severe hunger, beatings, isolation and psychological torment during his captivity.

His reunion with Abud brought an extraordinary conclusion to their 505-day separation. The couple subsequently became engaged and married in Israel in August, surrounded by approximately 1,000 guests, while also remembering the friends and relatives they lost on Oct. 7.

“We are here, and we survive,” Abud told those gathered at the United Nations. “We need to live a normal life.”

Dr. Phil asked Cohen what emotion now defines him after everything he endured during his 505 days as a hostage. Cohen said he has made a conscious decision not to allow anger or bitterness to determine who he is, and he rejected the suggestion that his ordeal makes him fundamentally different from other Israelis.

“I don’t count myself as special or something,” he said.

Cohen noted that Israelis throughout the country continue to live under the threat of terrorism, making the trauma of Oct. 7 something that cannot simply be relegated to the past.

Dr. Phil made a similar point, telling the audience that the psychological impact of the massacre remains ongoing rather than being confined to a single traumatic event three years ago.

“This isn’t Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” he said. “This is something that is ongoing.”

Dr. Phil reflected on Abud’s experience of spending hours beneath the bodies of murdered victims, saying that the reality of what she endured is almost impossible to comprehend while sitting comfortably inside an air-conditioned room at the United Nations. The physical attack may end, he said, but its psychological consequences can remain long afterward.

During his remarks, Dr. Phil also described his own journey toward learning about Israel and the Jewish people. Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, he said, he had never met a Jew as a child and knew little about Israel.

As an adult, Dr. Phil has traveled to Israel and met with hostage families, released hostages, Holocaust survivors and rabbis, seeking to learn firsthand about Israel and its people. He said his faith has played an important role in that process.

“Faith, for me, is a foundation,” Dr. Phil said. “I think it’s the foundation for your family, and I think it’s a foundation and a moral compass of how you live your life.”

He said that reliance on faith becomes particularly important during periods of suffering and uncertainty.

Faith is “the one thing that never varies,” and a person can “lean on” it every day, he said.

Dr. Phil told the gathering that the Hamas attack created a permanent dividing line in the lives of Israelis and Jews around the world, with people increasingly viewing events through the prism of what happened before and after that day.

“Oct. 7 will never be just another date,” he said.

At the same time, Dr. Phil said his encounters with Israelis have left him struck by their determination to continue living despite the enormous suffering they have experienced.

“The one thing that struck me is their extraordinary ability to carry the memory of this immense loss, suffering and pain but at the same time live beautiful lives,” he told attendees.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also addressed the commemoration, telling the audience that Hamas failed in its attempt to destroy Israel’s spirit.

“Oct. 7, Hamas tried to break us. They did not,” the envoy said. “They changed us. They wounded us. They left a scar that will never fully heal, but they did not break us.”

Danon pointed to Cohen and Abud as living examples of that resilience. The two entered the Nova festival together, survived different horrors after the attack began, were torn apart for 505 days and ultimately found their way back to each other and married.

Abud also spoke about the people she lost at Nova and the challenge of returning to an ordinary life after surviving the massacre. She said she continues to struggle with “survivor’s guilt,” questioning why she was able to return home while so many others were murdered.

Among those killed was her nephew, Amit, who was inside the same shelter. During the attack, Amit repeatedly threw grenades back outside after Hamas terrorists hurled them into the shelter, an effort that helped save lives before he himself was murdered.

When Dr. Phil asked Cohen what message he wanted to give the Jews and Israelis who supported him throughout his captivity, Cohen answered with an appeal to Jewish pride.

“Stay proud to be Jewish,” he said. “Stay proud to be Israeli.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz also addressed the gathering, highlighting Cohen’s refusal to cooperate with Hamas propaganda efforts while he was a hostage.

Waltz said Hamas tried to force Cohen to record a propaganda video before his release in which he would claim that his captors had treated him well. Cohen refused to do it.

“He refused. He held firm,” Waltz said. “He said, ‘No.’”

Hamas again attempted to turn Cohen’s eventual release into a propaganda spectacle, Waltz said, but Cohen once more refused to play along.

“You are a proud, strong Jew. You’re undefeated,” Waltz told Cohen.

Waltz also praised Abud for surviving the Nova massacre and then enduring more than a year of uncertainty over whether Cohen was alive. He recalled the heroism of her nephew Amit, who repeatedly threw Hamas grenades back out of the shelter before he was killed.

The U.S. ambassador said the broader strategy pursued by Hamas and Iran to isolate Israel has also failed, pointing to the continued expansion of the Abraham Accords as evidence that the region is moving in another direction.

“Oct. 7 completely, and I think irreversibly, has backfired on Iran and all of their terrorist proxies,” he told attendees. “Peace is possible. America will stand with the Jewish people.”

“The terrorists are on their back foot,” he added.

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