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The will of the Chofetz Chaim zt”l, in which he sets forth the defining milestones of his life and his lifelong activities on behalf of the public, and instructions regarding the future of the Radin yeshiva and its leadership after he passes away. It is written in its entirety in his own handwriting with his full signature: “Here in Radin, the words of Yisrael Meir HaKohen, son of Rabbi Aryeh Zev HaKohen, author of the sefer Chofetz Chaim and Mishnah Brurah.”

In his will, the Chofetz Chaim, with his characteristic humility, composes an emotional summary of his life — an autobiography — and gives thanks to Hashem for the merit of his activities on behalf of the public. He begins by setting forth the idea that profoundly impacted his generation and continues to do so to this day — awakening people to the severity of the prohibition of speaking lashon hara.

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BREAKING: U.S. House passes government funding bill, sending it to the President

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sharply criticized Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid following his proposal to designate Qatar as an enemy state, dismissing the move as part of Israel’s internal political disputes and accusing Israel of direct aggression against Doha.

Speaking at the ministry’s weekly press briefing, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari addressed the bill introduced by Yair Lapid, without mentioning him by name. According to reports carried by Israeli media, al-Ansari said Qatar has become accustomed to being dragged into Israel’s domestic political battles.

“With regard to what was submitted by the leader of the opposition in Israel, we have honestly grown used to Qatar’s name being used within Israel’s internal conflict,” al-Ansari said. “It does not interest us at all.”

Al-Ansari went further, accusing Israel of acting as the aggressor, claiming that Israel had carried out a direct strike on Qatari territory. “Israel is the one that bombed the State of Qatar. It is the one that struck a residential compound in the city of Doha,” he said. “It is the aggressive party in this context.”

He added that any Israelis seeking to label Qatar an enemy should instead “return to the attack carried out by the Israeli prime minister, which constituted a blatant and direct assault on the State of Qatar.”

Separately, al-Ansari addressed the limited reopening of the Rafah Crossing, calling for it to be opened not only for people but also for humanitarian supplies. He expressed opposition to the use of the crossing as a political pressure tactic.

At present, the crossing is open only for the restricted movement of individuals, with no entry permitted for goods or aid shipments.

{Matzav.com}

Rep. Ilhan Omar: “If Kristi Noem does not resign, and the president does not fire her, Democrats are ready and willing to impeach her.”

Boro Park Hatzolah is urging property owners and building managers to ensure buildings have visible, illuminated address signs, clear apartment labels, and proper directional signage, after recent emergencies were delayed due to poor signage. In an emergency, every second counts, and this simple, low-cost step can make a life-saving difference.

REPORTER: Does Trump want to see Harvard officials arrested? LEAVITT: I know the president wants to see Harvard held responsible for the criminal behavior, the harassment and targeting of Jewish-American students.

NASA ran into exasperating fuel leaks during a make-or-break test of its new moon rocket Monday, calling into question how soon astronauts could take off for a trip around the moon. The leaks — reminiscent of the rocket’s delayed debut three years ago — sprang just a couple hours into the daylong fueling operation at […]

The agency overseeing construction of the $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that a federal funding freeze could bring one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects to a standstill.

The Gateway project is designed to create a new rail passage beneath the Hudson River for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. Officials say the work must be completed before repairs can begin on the existing tunnel, which is more than a century old and has suffered long-term damage from saltwater exposure. Project leaders warn that construction will be halted on Feb. 6 if federal funding is not released, and officials from both states have pressed the administration to allow the money to flow.

In a statement issued late Monday, the Gateway Development Commission said it has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims, though court records confirming the filing were not immediately available.

“Despite its contractual commitments to fund the project, the federal government has suspended the release of its contractually obligated funds since October 1, 2025,” the commission said in the statement. “The lawsuit makes clear that the shifting explanations the administration has provided for this breach are plainly unlawful.”

Representatives for the US Department of Transportation and the White House did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking comment.

The Trump administration is currently holding back roughly $18 billion allocated to public transportation projects in jurisdictions led by Democratic mayors or governors. Those projects include New York City’s Second Avenue subway extension into Harlem and planned transit upgrades in Chicago. In October, the Transportation Department said it was examining whether the projects comply with a new policy prohibiting race- and sex-based contracting requirements.

Transit agencies say they have already submitted documentation demonstrating that their projects meet the new standards, but the funding has still not been released. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City’s transit system, needs federal support to finalize an agreement within the next several months to renovate an existing tunnel along Second Avenue, according to Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA’s president of construction and development, who spoke Wednesday.

Completion of the new Hudson River tunnel, along with rehabilitation of the current one, is expected to significantly increase rail capacity, cut down on chronic delays, and allow more Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains to enter and exit Manhattan. Gateway officials describe the tunnel as a critical transportation artery, carrying 450 trains and tens of thousands of passengers through the corridor each day.

A shutdown of construction would mark another serious blow to a long-running effort to relieve congestion on the Northeast Corridor. In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie canceled an earlier tunnel proposal known as Access to the Region’s Core, or ARC, arguing at the time that the state could be left responsible for potential cost overruns.

{Matzav.com}

WH Press Sec. on President Trumps deal with India: “Prime Minister Modi committed to $500B of purchases of U.S. energy, transportation, agricultural products… This is a great deal, and a huge win for American workers, businesses, and consumers alike.”

Press Sec: “I didn’t hear Chuck Schumer or Democrats speaking that way of ICE agents under President Barack Obama, who deported hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens from our country.”

WH Press Sec: “CENTCOM did make the decision to shoot down that Iranian drone. It was unmanned, it was acting aggressively towards our USS Lincoln…As for the President, he remains committed to always pursuing diplomacy first—but in order for diplomacy to work, of course, it takes two to tango.”

Following the downing of an Iranian drone by a U.S. F-35 near the USS Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the carrier was transiting the Arabian Sea about 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast when an Iranian Shahed-139 drone maneuvered toward the ship and continued approaching despite de-escalatory measures by U.S. […]

After approximately three hours, the meeting between Steve Witkoff, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Defense Minister, the Chief of Staff, and the head of the Mossad has concluded.

U.S. homebuilders are circulating a plan that would call for the construction of nearly one million homes branded as “Trump Homes,” an initiative aimed at easing the country’s housing affordability crunch, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

Under the concept, builders would offer entry-level homes through a pathway-to-ownership structure, enabling private investors to provide tens of billions of dollars in capital to support the effort, according to Bloomberg News, which cited people familiar with the proposal.

News of the discussions boosted homebuilder stocks in early trading, with shares of Lennar, D.R. Horton, Pultegroup, Toll Brothers, Taylor Morrison Home, and KB Home rising between 5% and 7%.

Lennar declined to comment on the report, while the other builders mentioned and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

The proposal is being floated as many Americans continue to struggle with high housing costs amid persistent inflation, a combination that has weighed heavily on home sales nationwide.

If the plan were carried out at the scale being discussed—roughly one million homes—it could result in more than $250 billion in new housing supply, according to Bloomberg News estimates.

Despite the potential scope, a White House official told Bloomberg News that the administration is not actively weighing the proposal at this time.

The report also noted that implementing such a program would be complex and could face hurdles in securing sufficient backing to move forward.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting large institutional investors from competing with individual buyers, a move intended to improve housing affordability.

{Matzav.com}

The almost monthlong disappearance from public view of Bolivia’s towering socialist icon, ex-leader Evo Morales, shortly after the Jan. 3 U.S. seizure of his close ally former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, is alarming his supporters, roiling his enemies and galvanizing the internet. On Monday, he missed a ceremony that he typically attends welcoming students back from summer break. On […]

Iran has demanded last-minute changes to the venue and format of planned negotiations with the United States, a move that could derail talks scheduled for Friday and sharply raise the risk of military escalation at a moment when U.S. forces are already massed across the Gulf. Two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told […]

Graphic footage capturing the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a speech at a Utah college campus spread rapidly online, amassing millions of views within hours.

Now, lawyers representing the man accused of killing Kirk are asking a state judge to prevent those videos from being shown at a court hearing set for Tuesday. The defense is also requesting that television and still cameras be excluded from the courtroom, contending that coverage by what they describe as “highly biased” media outlets threatens the fairness of the proceedings.

Prosecutors, joined by attorneys for news organizations, have urged District Judge Tony Graf to keep the hearing open to the public. Legal scholars, however, say the defense’s concerns are not unfounded. Media exposure in widely followed cases like that of Tyler Robinson can have a measurable “biasing effect” on prospective jurors, according to Cornell Law School professor Valerie Hans.

“There were videos about the killing, and pictures and analysis (and) the entire saga of how this particular defendant came to turn himself in,” said Hans, who specializes in jury research. “When jurors come to a trial with this kind of background information from the media, it shapes how they see the evidence that is presented in the courtroom.”

Robinson, 22, faces an aggravated murder charge in connection with the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, and prosecutors have indicated they will pursue the death penalty.

Roughly 3,000 people were present at the outdoor rally where Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA known for energizing young voters to support President Donald Trump, was speaking when he was shot.

Under Utah law, prosecutors must prove the presence of aggravating factors to obtain a death sentence, including that the crime was particularly heinous or cruel. The graphic videos circulating online could become relevant to that determination.

Viewing such footage could lead people to conclude, “‘Yeah, this was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,’” Hans said.

The challenge of selecting an impartial jury is further complicated by the intense political discourse surrounding Kirk and the influence of his organization during Trump’s 2024 election campaign.

Even before Robinson was taken into custody, speculation spread about the identity of the shooter and his political beliefs, said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown.

“People are just projecting a lot of their own sense of what they think was going on, and that really creates concerns about whether they can be open to hearing the actual evidence that’s presented,” she said.

As the case has progressed, Robinson’s attorneys have increasingly alleged media bias, at one point accusing news outlets of attempting to read lips to determine what their client was saying privately to his lawyers during court appearances.

Those concerns intensified after a television camera operator zoomed in on Robinson’s face as he spoke with his attorneys during a Jan. 16 hearing. The move violated courtroom rules, leading the judge to halt filming of Robinson for the rest of that session.

“Rather than being a beacon for truth and openness, the News Media have simply become a financial investor in this case,” defense attorneys wrote in a motion seeking to seal portions of their claims regarding media conduct. Making those filings public, they argued, “will simply generate even more views of the offending coverage, and more revenue for the News Media.”

Prosecutors have acknowledged the extraordinary public attention on the case but maintain that it does not justify limiting public access to the courts. Transparency, they argued, must be preserved regardless of the circumstances.

“This case arose, and will remain, in the public eye. That reality favors greater transparency of case proceedings, not less,” Utah County prosecutors wrote in a filing.

The defense is also attempting to have local prosecutors removed from the case, asserting a conflict of interest because the daughter of a deputy county attorney involved in the prosecution attended the rally where Kirk was killed.

Prosecutors responded that they could introduce video evidence at Tuesday’s hearing to show that the daughter is not a critical witness, noting that many others captured the shooting on camera.

According to prosecutors, one of those recordings depicts the moment the bullet struck Kirk, followed by blood flowing from his neck and Kirk collapsing from his chair.

{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: The U.S. has shot down an Iranian drone approaching the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. The incident could potentially mark the start of a major escalation.