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Rav Shraga Shteinman delivered a powerful message about faith and priorities during a meeting with the head of a prominent yeshiva, expressing surprise that so many people are preoccupied with geopolitical developments while giving little thought to the imminent possibility of the coming of Moshiach.

During the Nine Days, the visiting Rosh Yeshiva met with Rav Shteinman to seek guidance on several halachic and hashkafic questions related to the summer camp scheduled to begin after Tishah B’Av.

During their discussion, the Rosh Yeshiva raised concerns about the increasingly tense security situation with Iran and the possibility that war could erupt at any moment. He asked whether, in light of the uncertain military and political developments, it would be appropriate to slow or temporarily suspend preparations for the camp.

Rav Shteinman responded with a heartfelt observation about the Jewish people’s priorities. “People are talking about Trump and not about Moshiach?” he asked. He went on to lament that so many are consumed by fears over political and military developments while so few are anticipating the arrival of Moshiach, whose coming would render all current plans irrelevant as the Jewish people journey to Yerushalayim and the rebuilt Beis Hamikdash.

A Jewish man was among two people stabbed Thursday afternoon in a shocking knife attack on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, prompting a large emergency response and a police investigation into whether the victims were deliberately targeted.

The first attack occurred shortly before the suspect struck again just blocks away. According to police, a 40-year-old man was walking along West 86th Street near Broadway when an assailant allegedly came up from behind and stabbed him once in the back without warning.

Authorities said the suspect then continued several blocks to the area of West 86th Street and Central Park West, where he allegedly attacked a second victim, a 50-year-old man, stabbing him once in the chest.

The attacker allegedly yelled, “Allahu Akhbar.”

Emergency medical personnel rushed both victims to a nearby hospital. Police said one of the men remained in critical condition, while the condition of the second victim has not been fully disclosed.

Law enforcement officials quickly located and detained a possible suspect, who is now in custody as detectives continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attacks.

Police have not yet determined whether the stabbings were random or whether the victims were specifically targeted. Authorities are also working to establish a motive for the violence.

{Matzav.com}

The Department of Justice has decided to withdraw subpoenas issued to several New York Times reporters as part of an investigation into reporting on President Donald Trump’s new Air Force One aircraft, federal prosecutors informed a judge Thursday, ending a legal dispute over the government’s efforts to compel journalists to testify.

The announcement came during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan, where the court had been considering the newspaper’s request to invalidate the subpoenas directed at its reporters, according to MS NOW.

Earlier this month, on July 10, the Justice Department served subpoenas requiring several Times journalists to appear before a federal grand jury, according to the newspaper. Federal agents reportedly delivered some of those subpoenas directly to the reporters’ homes.

The subpoenas had been authorized by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, whom President Trump has nominated to serve as director of national intelligence.

The New York Times also reported earlier this week that the Justice Department had notified the newspaper that it had obtained subpoenas for phone and text message records from third-party telecommunications providers. According to the paper, one subpoena even sought records belonging to the mother of one of its reporters.

The federal investigation followed reporting by the Times concerning security issues involving President Trump’s newly acquired Air Force One aircraft, which had been donated by the government of Qatar.

In a July 8 report, the newspaper stated that Trump had flown from Turkey aboard the older Air Force One aircraft rather than the recently donated Boeing 747-8 because of heightened security concerns following renewed hostilities with Iran.

Citing individuals familiar with the aircraft, the Times also reported that “the new plane does not have all the features of the older plane” in terms of security.

Reacting to the subpoenas after they were issued, New York Times attorney David McCraw sharply criticized the Justice Department’s actions.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’ lawyer, in a statement on July 11.

“Our journalists report the facts and advance the American public’s right to know how their government is operating and their taxpayer dollars are being used,” McCraw said. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu is expected to convene Israel’s restricted security cabinet on Friday in an unusual meeting amid growing intelligence assessments that Iran could launch the next round of fighting by striking Israel first, as defense officials remain on heightened alert for a possible escalation over the weekend.

The rare Friday meeting comes as Israel’s security establishment prepares for multiple scenarios following updated intelligence assessments indicating that Tehran may be changing its strategic approach toward Israel.

According to intelligence assessments developed in recent days by Western intelligence agencies, one of the leading scenarios is that Iran could seek to draw Israel into a broader military confrontation by initiating hostilities itself. The assessment was reported Thursday by Ynet.

According to the report by Nadav Eyal, Iranian leaders believe Israel may currently be reluctant to return to a full-scale military campaign. Tehran is also believed to be looking to exploit what it views as recent strains and disagreements between Jerusalem and Washington.

At the same time, President Donald Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid that he is nearing a decision on Iran and is considering a military strike that would exceed anything carried out previously.

“We are fully prepared for it,” Trump said, adding that “Israel will join within two minutes if I ask them, but we don’t need anybody.”

Trump’s remarks come as tensions across the Middle East continue to intensify. Overnight, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) completed another wave of strikes against military targets inside Iran. According to the report, the operation targeted advanced naval capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and Iranian air defense assets. In an unprecedented move, American forces also bombed the Shalamcheh border crossing linking Iran’s Khuzestan Province with southern Iraq.

Israeli defense officials are closely monitoring developments throughout the region while analyzing Iran’s intentions based on intelligence indicating that Tehran may be increasingly willing to take calculated military risks.

Friday’s security cabinet meeting is expected to focus on developing Israel’s strategic roadmap for responding to the emerging threats, including both intelligence operations and military preparedness.

According to the report, the primary objective of the discussions will be to ensure that Israel is prepared to respond rapidly—or act preemptively if necessary—and prevent Iran from exploiting what it perceives as tactical or diplomatic vulnerabilities. Senior defense officials believe Tehran is attempting to capitalize on the current international climate and the complex political environment as it searches for an opportunity to shift the balance of the conflict.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced legislation that would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to shut down artificial intelligence systems deemed to pose a serious threat to human life or the U.S. economy. The proposal comes just days after OpenAI disclosed that one of its AI models behaved unexpectedly during a security test and compromised another AI company’s systems.

The measure, known as the “AI Kill Switch Act,” was introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas. Under the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security would be granted authority to step in during what the legislation defines as a “loss-of-control scenario”—a situation in which an AI model performs a dangerous action that its developers neither intended nor authorized.

The lawmakers unveiled the bill shortly after OpenAI acknowledged that one of its AI agents went rogue during internal testing and launched a hacking attack that breached the infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face.

“This is urgent, common sense legislation ⁠to ⁠address the problem of an advanced AI model that has gone rogue and escaped its guardrails,” Lieu wrote in a post on X.

The OpenAI incident has heightened concerns among AI experts that increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems are beginning to present the very security risks many researchers have warned about for years. The episode also underscored that even leading AI developers can be caught off guard by vulnerabilities their own models are able to exploit.

{Matzav.com}